Tasmania (2015) Timetable

Briefly, for our overseas followers -

Tasmania (abbreviated as Tas and known colloquially as "Tassie");  is an island state, part of the Commonwealth of Australia, located 240 kilometres (150 mi) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated by Bass Strait. The state is named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642.

The state includes the island of Tasmania, the 26th largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of 507,626 (about one tenth of the pop of the island of Sicily), almost half of which resides in the Greater Hobart precinct, which forms the metropolitan area of the state capital and largest city Hobart.

Tasmania's area is 68,401 square kilometres (about 3 times the size of the island of Sicily), of which the main island covers 64,519 square kilometres . Tasmania is promoted as a natural state; almost 45% of Tasmania lies in reserves, national parks and World Heritage Sites and the state was the founding place of the first environmental party in the world. The modern state was founded as Van Diemen's Land by the British Empire, though it was inhabited by Tasmanian Aborigines for up to 40,000 years before. In 1856 it become a self-governing colony and renamed to Tasmania, and in 1901 it became part of the Federation of Australia.

Clicking on the buttons in the  Travelogue/Pictures column will tell of our experiences when we have visited the particular places.