Saturday 3 March 2018

Australian State of the Month – Tasmania





Here is the next instalment of my monthly feature going through the States of Australia in alphabetical order to check out how they got named, what their flag is like and other things of interest. 


Location – Tasmania is different from other states – it is an island off the Southern Coast of mainland Australia.  The British settled it as a penal colony.

Origin of name – Tasmania was first called 'Van Diemen's Land' but in 1855 this was changed to Tasmania.  The name recognises the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who was the first European to sight the island.

Nicknames – Tassie, The Apple Isle


Flag


Capital – Hobart

Flower – Tasmanian Bluegum


Animal – Tasmanian Devil ( a small fierce looking marsupial)


Signature foods – Tasmanian Scallop Pie, Tasmanian Apple Cake, Farmed salmon, wild abalone, honey


Famous places to visit – Port Arthur (beautiful now but with a violent history as a penal colony and the site of a massacre in 1996), Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart (one of the oldest cities in Australia and is overlooked by Mt Wellington), Wineglass Bay (great name), Sunset at Strahan

Famous businesses/brands – Cascade Beer, Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race


Famous people from Tasmania – Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, Elizabeth Blackburn (first woman from Tasmania to get a Nobel Prize), David Foster (wood chopping world champion), Ricky Ponting (said to be a cricketer)

2 comments:

  1. I would like to visit Tasmania, and read about it in Douglas Gresham's memoir, "Lenten Lands". He is the stepson of C.S. Lewis and spent years in Tasmania working on sheep farms and as a radio DJ and he and his wife bought a small farm in Tasmania.

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  2. I like the sound of those signature foods, the history is great. I like your Australian series.

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