Area: 68,401 sq. km

Population: 519,100

Capital: Hobart

Overview

Tasmania is an island state of the Commonwealth of Australia. It is located 240 km to the south of the Australian mainland, separated by Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. Over forty percent of its popoulation resides in the Greater Hobart precinct, which forms the metropolitan area of the state capital and largest city, Hobart.

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 state was created in 1803 as a penal settlement of the British Empire to prevent claims to the land by the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. The island was initially part of the Colony of New South Wales, but became a separate, self-governing colony under the name Van Diemen's Land in 1825. In 1854 the present Constitution of Tasmania was passed and the following year the state received permission to change its name to Tasmania. In 1901 it became a state through the process of the Federation of Australia.

Economy

Traditionally, Tasmania's main industries have been mining (including copper, zinc, tin, and iron), agriculture, forestry, and tourism. In the 1940s and 1950s, a hydro-industrialisation initiative was embodied in the state by Hydro Tasmania. These all have had varying fortunes over the last century and more, involved in ebbs and flows of population moving in and away dependent upon the specific requirements of the dominant industries of the time. The state also has a large number of food exporting sectors, including but not limited to seafood (such as Atlantic salmon, abalone and crayfish).

Sister Relationship

On 25 January 1980, the State Council approved the establishment of sister province/state relationship between Fujian and Tasmania. A Fujian delegation visited Tasmania in March 1981, and signed the document for Fujian-Tasmaina sisiter province/state relationship.

Link

http://www.tas.gov.au/