Aboriginal people have been living in Tasmania
for at least 35 000 years. They continue living on the island
today, descendants of the original occupants, with art
and culture connected to their predecessors as well as having
The oldest Aboriginal occupation site, Warreen, has
been dated as 35 000 years old. Other signs of early
occupation are the rock art (petroglyphs) at various
places, particularly around the north west coast.
are the main engraved symbol, together with spirals
and rows of dots. Figurative elements (animal tracks,
emus) are less common.
The rock engravings at Preminghana (formerly called
Mount Cameron West), shown above right, are the best known
engravings and are estimated to have a minimum age of
There are also rock shelters and caves decorated with red ochre
hand stencils. Ochre was apparently widely used by the wallaby
hunters from at least 35 000 years ago until the end of the
last Ice Age around 12 000 years ago.
The Aboriginal people of Tasmania became separated
from the mainland around 10 000 years ago when the sea level
rose with the ending of the Ice Age, flooding the Bassian Plains
between Tasmania and Victoria. The result was isolation from
other people and a society with unique cultural practices, traditions
Life before Invasion
Changes in the social, cultural and territorial structures
of the Tasmanian people over time are largely unknown. However,
there is evidence that around 3500 years ago scale fish were
dropped from from the people's diet and they increased their
consumption of land animals such as kangaroos and wallabies.
The women collected abalones, oysters, mussels and other shellfish
and the remains of these form enormous middens around Tasmania's
At about this time they also stopped using bone tools, and
refined their making of stone tool implements. Canoes were used
during the last 2000 years to travel to islands to harvest mutton birds
and seals during summer and autumn.
As a mainly nomadic people, Tasmanian people followed the seasonal
changes in food supply, such as shellfish, seabirds, wallaby
and a variety of vegetable foods. They camped in family groups,
several of which formed a band, the land-holding group in Tasmanian
society. Six to fifteen bands spoke the same language and there
were nine language groups or tribes in Tasmania at the time
of European contact.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the population of Tasmania
had been expanding, at least territorially, from 4000 to 3000
years ago until the 18th century. The use of fire to open up
forested areas may have played a major role in this expansion.
At the start of the 1800s the population is thought to have
been in the range 4000 to 10000. They had a social and political
organisation comparable to hunter/gatherer communities on mainland
Australia and they had a clear understanding of 'country'.
European explorers visited Tasmania during the 17th and 18th
centuries and the British settled in the south of the island
in 1803. This was the start of the history of destructive interaction
of Aboriginal Tasmanians with Europeans.
British Occupation of Tasmania
Between 1803 and 1823, there were two phases of conflict between
the Aborigines and the British colonists. The first took place
between 1803 and 1808 over the need for common food sources
such as kangaroos, and the second between 1808 and 1823, when
the small number of white females among the farmers, sealers
and whalers, led to the abduction of Aboriginal women as sexual
partners and Aboriginal children as labourers.
These practices also increased conflict over women among Aboriginal
tribes. This in turn led to a decline in the Aboriginal population.
European disease, however, does not appear to have become a
serious factor until after 1829.
Rapid pastoral expansion and an increase in the colony's population
triggered Aboriginal resistance from 1824 onwards. Whereas settlers
and stock keepers had previously provided rations to the Aborigines
during their seasonal movements across the settled districts,
and recognised this practice as some form of payment for trespass,
the new settlers and stock keepers were unwilling to maintain
So the Aborigines began to raid settlers' huts for food. This
resistance first took shape in 1824 when it has been estimated
by Lyndall Ryan that 1000 Aborigines remained in the settled
Between 1826 and 1831 a pattern of guerrilla warfare by the
Aborigines was identified by the colonists, some of whom acknowledged
the Aborigines as fighting for their country. The colonial government
responded with a series of measures to limit the conflict, culminating
in the declaration of martial law in 1828.
The Black War of 1828-32 and the Black Line of 1830 were turning
points in the relationship with European settlers. Even though
the tribes managed to avoid capture during these events, they
were shaken by the size of the campaigns against them.
Removal to Flinders Island
The colonial government decided to change its strategy from
a military one to one of "pacification" and employed
a builder and lay preacher from London, George Augustus Robinson,
to seek better relations with the remaining Aboriginal people.
Robinson set out from Hobart in 1830 on an eight month trek
through the wilds of Tasmania with a group of convict servants,
two Aboriginal chefs, and a group of four male and three women
Aborigines searching for the last surviving tribal groups.
Robinson saw himself as a Conciliator who would liberate the
remaining Aborigines who were left hiding and bring them into
a haven safe from white persecution. Robinson undertook five
more similar expeditions, eventually making contact with every
tribe and group of Aborigines left in Tasmania.
Stylized representation of George Augustus
Robinson with Tasmanian Aborigines
"The Conciliation" - painting by Benjamin Duterrau,
By 1835 Robinson had managed to persuade the remaining people
to move to a new settlement on Flinders Island, called Wybalenna,
where he promised a modern and comfortable environment, and
that they would be relocated to the Tasmanian mainland as soon
An important guide and interpreter for Robinson was an Aboriginal
woman called Truganini. In 1829 Truganini became the partner
of Woorraddy and with him accompanied Robinson on his missions
to the Aboriginal tribes between 1830-1834.
She worked with Woorraddy to help Robinson move Aboriginal
people from the mainland to settle on Flinders Island.
She arrived at the Aboriginal settlement on Flinders
Island (Wybalenna) in 1835 disillusioned with Robinson
and his mission, realising that the resettlement program
would further erode the chances of the remaining Aboriginal
population leading their preferred way of life.
In 1839 Truganini went to Port Phillip (now known as
Melbourne, Victoria) but returned to Wybalenna in 1842.
Woorraddy died on the way, a further blow to Truganini.
She then moved with her people to Oyster Cove on the mainland.
Truganini in 1866
(photograph by Charles Wooley)
The Oyster Cove settlement was not successful and most of the
people died. At the end of her life Truganini lived in Hobart
and was very well known. She died in 1876.
Aboriginal People in Tasmania Today
Truganini became known as the last Tasmanian Aborigine but
this is not correct. Despite the loss of Aboriginal lives on
the colonial frontier, Tasmanian Aborigines did not cease to
exist in 1876 - Tasmanian people and Tasmanian
art and culture have continued through the descendants of
the Wybalenna people and others.
Up until the mid 1970s, it was widely believed in white Australia
that the "Last Tasmanian" (Truganini) died in 1876.
However, the appearance of vocal campaigners for the Aboriginal
cause have changed this view dramatically, to the point where
it is now widely accepted within the Tasmanian community that
some 10000 people have Aboriginal heritage.
Further reading: "The Aboriginal Tasmanians"
by Lyndall Ryan, University of Queensland Press