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First Settlement of Van Diemen's Land, 4000-7000 Native Population.
In 1803 and 1804 the settlements of Hobart Town and Port Dalrymple (later Launceston) were established in Van Diemen's Land, which became a separate colony in 1825. -
First Killings
Hundreds of Aboriginal Tasmanians were killed in 1803, when they attempted to stop soldiers and convicts building huts near the present site of Hobart. Over the next few years, gangs of escaped convicts raided Aboriginal camps, killing men and kidnapping women. There were killings and kidnappings by lawless kangaroo hunters, sealers and whalers. European diseases also took a heavy toll. Another problem for the first Tasmanians was that whites slaughtered the native animals that were their main s -
Average of 4 Deaths Per year between 1803-1831
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The Decieving Plan
. Between 1821 and the early 1840s survivors from many different language groups were moved to Flinders Island, where they were guarded and forced to wear European clothes and to attend sermons on Christianity. By 1847 most had died of disease and despair. Forty-seven survivors were resettled at Oyster Bay near Hobart but they continued to die. -
Decieving the Natives
From 1829 to 1834, George Augustus Robinson, a Methodist lay preacher, working on behalf of the government, travelled among the survivors. Robinson believed that they would be wiped out if they remained in Tasmania and he convinced some of them to agree to what they believed would be a temporary move to an island off the Tasmanian coast. They were deceived. -
Dwindling Native Population
But by 1832 there were just 203 survivors and by 1856, when Van Diemen's Land was renamed Tasmania, there were even fewer