Why was Tasmania settled?

The first European settlement in Tasmania occurred primarily because of the failure of the first Victorian settlement on the southern coast of the Australian mainland.

The British Government instructed Lieutenant-Governor David Collins to establish a settlement at Sullivan Bay in Port Phillip (now in Victoria) in 1803. The settlement failed due to poor soil and inadequate water supply. Hearing of better land and timber in Van Diemen's Land, Collins moved most of the settlement across Bass Strait, and established Hobart. The city began as a penal colony at Risdon Cove on the Derwent River in late 1803 to offset British concerns over the presence of French explorers. These fears were not unfounded: the first Europeans to land on the island were members of the expedition of the French explorer Marion du Fresne.

The settlement became "official" on 16 February 1804. Collins originally named the settlement 'Sullivan Cove' after John Sullivan, Permanent Under-Secretary for the Colonies. The name Hobart Town was adopted by the settlement in June 1804, after Lord Hobart the Colonial Secretary. The colony of Van Diemen's Land was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales, with its own judicial establishment and Legislative Council, in December 1825. Hobart Town was proclaimed a city on 21 August 1842, and was renamed as Hobart in 1875.