Specific Highlights of Australia (february)

Tasmania

The island of Tasmania, an Australian state, is located 200 kilometres (125 mi) south of the eastern side of the continent, being separated from it by Bass Strait. Tasmania has a population of 484,700 (March 2005, ABS) and an area of 68,332 square kilometres (26,383 sq mi). Tasmania promotes itself as the Natural State and the "Island of Rejuvenation“ owing to its large, and relatively unspoiled natural environment. Formally, 36% of Tasmania is in reserves, National Parks and World Heritage Sites.

The capital and largest city is Hobart, which also encompasses the cities of Glenorchy and Clarence. Other major population centres include Launceston in the north, and Devonport and Burnie in the northwest.

The sub Antarctic Macquarie Island is also under the administration of the state.

Between 25,000 and 40,000 years ago it is likely that humans arrived in Tasmania. Tasmanian Aborigines lived farther southward than any other people at about 20,000 years ago. In caves in the south-western part of the island images have been dated at about 14,000 years. Bass Strait as a land bridge appears to have been closed off about 12,000 to 13,000 years ago by rising sea levels at the end of the last ice age.

The first reported sighting of Tasmania by a European was on November 24, 1642 by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, after his sponsor, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. The name was later shortened to Van Diemen's Land by the British.

The first penal settlement was established by the British in 1803 at what is now Hobart. The early settlers were mostly convicts and their military guards, with the task of developing agriculture and other industries. Numerous other convict-based settlements were made in Van Diemen's Land, including secondary prisons, such as the particularly harsh penal colonies at Port Arthur in the south-east and Macquarie Harbour on the West coast.

In the early 1800s, almost all of the Tasmanian Aborigines were wiped out by the European settlers in an event known as the Black War.

Van Diemen's Land was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales, with its own judicial establishment and Legislative Council in 1825. Van Diemen's Land was renamed Tasmania (after Abel Tasman) in 1856 in order to remove the unsavoury connotations with crime associated with its former name. The last penal settlement in Tasmania at Port Arthur was closed in 1877. In 19 01 Tasmania became a state in the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia.

Tasmanian Devil

The Tasmanian Devil is a carnivorous marsupial found exclusively on the island of Tasmania.

The size of a small dog but stocky and muscular, the Tasmanian Devil is characterised by its black fur with white patches. It has a loud and disturbing screech-like growl, possesses a vicious temperament and is predominantly a scavenger. The Devil survived European settlement and was considered widespread and common throughout Tasmania until recently.

Like a lot of the wildlife, fast vehicles on the roads are a problem for Tasmanian Devils, which are often killed while feeding on other road-killed animals such as wallabies.

As of 2005 the Tasmanian Devil population has been reduced by up to 80% in parts of Tasmania by the devil facial tumour disease, which is gradually spreading throughout the island. It is believed the majority have starved when the tumours have spread to their mouths and that the tumours are spread by fighting between devils over carcasses they feed on – typically, fighting devils will bite one another's faces. There is no known cure for the disease, and intensive research is underway to determine its cause. There is also a captive breeding program being undertaken by the Tasmanian government to establish a disease-free, genetically-diverse population of Tasmanian Devils outside Tasmania.

Christmas Island

The Territory of Christmas Island is a small, non self-governing territory of Australia located in the Indian Ocean, 2,360 km (1,466 miles) northwest of Perth in Western Australia and 500 km (310 miles) south of Jakarta, Indonesia.

It maintains about 1,600 residents who live in a number of "settlement areas" on the northern tip of the island: Flying Fish Cove (also known as "The Settlement"), Silver City, Kampong, Poon Saan, and Drumsite.

It has a unique natural topography and is of immense interest to scientists and naturalists due to the number of species of endemic flora and fauna which have evolved in isolation and undisturbed by human habitation.

While there has been mining activity on the island for many years, 65 percent of its 135 square kilometres (52.1 sq. mi) are now National Park and there are large areas of pristine and ancient rainforest.

Geography

Located at 10°30′S 105°40′E, the island is a quadrilateral with hollowed sides, about 19 km (12 miles) in greatest length and 14.5 km (9 miles) in extreme breadth. The total land area is 135 km² (52.1 square miles), with 138.9 km (86.3 miles) of coastline. The island is the flat summit of a submarine mountain more than 4,572 m (15,000 feet) high, the depth of the platform from which it rises being about 14,000 feet (4267 m) and its height above the sea being upwards of 305 m (1,000 feet).

The climate is tropical, with heat and humidity moderated by trade winds. Steep cliffs along much of the coast rise abruptly to a central plateau. Elevation ranges from sea level to 361 m (1,184 feet) at Murray Hill. The island is mainly tropical rainforest, of which 65% is National Park.

The narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime hazard.

Christmas Island is 500 km south of Indonesia and about 2600 km north west of Perth.