European Impact

It was Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who first sighted Tasmania and named it Van Diemen’s Land after the Dutch East Indies’ governor. At this point in time, Aborigines lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in ‘bands’ across the island.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, European explorers visited Tasmania including Captain William Bligh who named Table Mountain in 1792, now Mount Wellington, and was responsible for planting Tasmania’s first apple tree. During this time, French explorer Bruny d’Entrecasteaux surveyed the Derwent River, naming it Riviere due Nord, before John Hayes of the British East India Company later renamed the Derwent.  Despite this, d’Entrecasteaux left his mark on much of the southeast coastline with many landmarks still reflecting the French names he chose.

In 1798, explorers George Bass and Matthew Flinders circumnavigated Tasmania, thus proving it an island. By 1803, Lieutenant John Bowen of the British Royal Navy selected Risdon Cove as the first site for European settlement, which was moved to the present location of Hobart one year later. Through the proceeding years, there was friendly contact with the indigenous Tasmanians, however, conflict heightened as European farming practices began to impinge on local hunting areas and sacred sites.

Aboriginal society came under threat from two separate groups of Europeans; sealers and settlers. European sealers began working in Bass Strait and soon began to trade with the tribes of the north coast. Seal and kangaroo skins and women were exchanged for flour, tobacco, tea and dogs. Some gangs simply raided the tribes for women and killed the men who protected them. Through the loss of women and many deaths, the once 500-strong north-eastern tribe numbered only 72 men and six women by 1830.

First contacts between the settlers of Hobart Town and the Aboriginal people were often friendly; however, the two parties had very different expectations. The Aboriginal people may have thought this new small group could be accommodated if they were willing to trade. The colonists fully expected the Aboriginal people to 'move over'. They felt the Tasmanians had very little right to the land because they did not really occupy it 'effectively', which, in European terms, would be by practicing agriculture. Settlers, ex-convicts, runaways and bushrangers moved into Aboriginal land, abducting children for forced labour, raping women and shooting whole parties of Aboriginal people.

The Black Line, a military campaign undertaken in 1830, was intended to ‘flush out’ Aboriginals by way of more than 2000 soldiers and settlers forming a united chain. The plan failed miserably, as did George Augustus Robinson’s plan to protect Aboriginals by taking them to Flinders Island.

Download the European impact and Wybalenna and Oyster Cove story panel.

In 1834, 135 Tasmanian Aborigines from mainland Tasmania were settled on Flinders Island, where they were to be 'civilised and christianised'. The settlement was called Wybalenna, which means 'black men's houses'. They were forbidden to practise the old ways and were homesick for their lost country. Many died of respiratory disease, poor food and despair.

In October 1847, the 47 survivors of this group were transferred to Oyster Cove, near Hobart. It was springtime, but even the warmer weather did not hide the fact that the former convict station was built in a cold, damp and depressing place. Their houses were little better than slab huts, and in poor repair.

For some, this move was a return to land familiar to them from childhood. Truganini was of the Nuenonne tribe whose country had been Bruny Island and the Channel area of the mainland. Truganini could have stayed in the straits and lived with Lucy Beadon on Badger Island but she chose to return to her country and stay with her companions from Wybalenna. Oyster Cove was the last home of that last known group of 'tribal' Tasmanians.