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The first settlement was by the British at Risdon Cove on the eastern bank of the Derwent estuary in 1803, by a small party sent from Sydney, under Lt. John Bowen. An alternative settlement was established by Capt. David Collins 5 km to the south in 1804 in Sullivans Cove on the western side of the Derwent, where fresh water was more plentiful.
It is unclear what happened to Robert Hobart May as documented records of him after 1806 appear to be absent. However, in 1829 a Tasmanian Aboriginal man simply named "Robert", who is described as being raised and baptised as a child by the colonists, became part of George Augustus Robinson's "friendly mission" to acquiesce, round-up and exile the surviving Indigenous Tasmanians.
Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The island, inhabited by Aborigines, was first encountered by the Dutch ship captained by Abel Tasman in 1642, working under the sponsorship of Anthony van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.
Rear-Admiral John Bowen (baptised 14 February 1780 – 20 October 1827) was an English Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator, who led the first settlement of Tasmania at Risdon Cove. Early life and career
The British colonisation of Tasmania took place between 1803 and 1830. Known as Van Diemen's Land , the name changed to Tasmania , when the British government granted self-governance in 1856. [ 1 ] It was a colony from 1856 until 1901, at which time it joined five other colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia .
It was the site of the first British settlement in Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, the island state of Australia. The cove was named by John Hayes , [ 1 ] who mapped the river in the ship Duke of Clarence in 1794, after his second officer William Bellamy Risdon.
The settlement is significant because it was the first attempt to settle Europeans permanently in what is now Victoria and was a key link in the expansion of the colony of New South Wales into Tasmania and Victoria, and the control of Bass Strait as a trade route.
The modern history of the Australian city of Hobart (formerly 'Hobart Town', or 'Hobarton') in Tasmania dates to its foundation as a British colony in 1804. Prior to British settlement, the area had been occupied definitively by the semi-nomadic Mouheneener tribe, a sub-group of the Nuenonne, or South-East tribe. [1]