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In the first episode of  season 3 of 80 Days: an exploration podcast,  we’ll be talking about Tasmania, the island state of Australia, known to early European explorers as Van Dieman's Land. This verdant island is roughly the size of Ireland but with only 8% of the population. Tasmania or ‘Tassie’ lies 240 km or 150 miles south of the Australian mainland, and the state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. Just over half a million people live in Tasmania, 40% of whom reside in the island largest city, Hobart, which is lies on the banks of the Derwent River on the south side of the island.

Up until the early 1800s, the island was inhabited exclusively by Aboriginal Tasmanians, but was soon after claimed by the British and converted into a penal colony. For the next 50 years, around 75,000 convicts were sent to the island, which was viewed as a kind of ‘prison without walls.’ In 1854 its name was changed to Tasmania, and in 1901 it became a state in the newly-created federation of Australia.  

Your hosts, as always, are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Hong Kong, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in the UK, and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Switzerland . (Theme music by Thomas O’Boyle) <8bygzvf4