Tasmania history and heritage: convict island, wilderness, and reinvention

Tasmania's history carries a weight that the mainland states do not — the near-complete destruction of the Palawa people through the Black War of the 1820s-1830s, the convict transportation that sent 74,000 people to Van Diemen's Land (the largest single transportation in British penal history), and the wilderness preservation battles of the 1970s-1980s that created the environmental conscience that MONA has now complicated with its cultural counterweight.

Port Arthur Historic Site — the UNESCO World Heritage convict settlement at Port Arthur is the most significant heritage site in Australia. The 1830-1877 penal colony's surviving buildings (the Penitentiary, the church ruins, the Separate Prison), the Isle of the Dead cemetery, and the historic boat cruise create the most complete surviving account of the convict era available anywhere in Australia. The 1996 massacre memorial is also here.

Cascades Female Factory — the UNESCO World Heritage convict site in South Hobart held women convicts from 1828 to 1856 and is the most important site for understanding the experience of the 12,500 women transported to Van Diemen's Land. The interpretation programme is among the most sophisticated at any Australian heritage site.

TMAG — Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery — the free museum in central Hobart holds the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) specimens that are among the most emotionally charged heritage objects in Australia — the last known living thylacine died in Hobart Zoo in 1936 — alongside the colonial history galleries and the Aboriginal cultural material that document the Palawa heritage that survived the Black War.

Richmond and the Coal River Valley heritage — the heritage village of Richmond (25 minutes from Hobart) preserves the colonial streetscape more completely than almost any other Australian town, with the 1823 Richmond Bridge (oldest surviving road bridge in Australia), the 1825 gaol, and the Georgian stone buildings creating a heritage precinct of exceptional integrity.

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