Van Diemen's Land
Encyclopedia
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans for the island of Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, now part of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
explorer Abel Tasman
Abel Tasman
Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the VOC . His was the first known European expedition to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand and to sight the Fiji islands...
was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania. Landing at Blackman's Bay and later having the Dutch flag flown at North Bay, Tasman named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt in honour of Anthony van Diemen
Anthony van Diemen
Anthony van Diemen , Dutch colonial governor, was born in Culemborg in the Netherlands, the son of Meeus Anthonisz van Diemen and Christina Hoevenaar. In 1616 he moved to Amsterdam, in hope of improving his fortune as a merchant; in this he failed and was declared bankrupt...
, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
who had sent Tasman on his voyage of discovery in 1642. Between 1772 and 1798 only the South East of the island was visited. Tasmania was not known to be an island until Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
and George Bass
George Bass
George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.-Early years:He was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George Bass, and a local beauty named Sarah Nee Newman. His father died in 1777 when Bass was 6...
circumnavigated it in the Norfolk
Norfolk (sloop)
The Colonial sloop Norfolk: “The necessity of a vessel to keep up a more frequent intercourse with Norfolk Island, …having been much felt by the want of various stores …occasioned Captain Townson, the Commanding officer, to construct a small decked boat, sloop rigged, in which he sent His letters...
in 1798-99.
In 1803, the island was colonised by the British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
as a penal colony
Penal colony
A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
with the name Van Diemen's Land, and became part of the British colony of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
. In 1824, Van Diemen's Land became a colony in its own right.
The demonym
Demonym
A demonym , also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality. A demonym is usually – though not always – derived from the name of the locality; thus, the demonym for the people of England is English, and the demonym for the people of Italy is Italian, yet, in english, the one...
for Van Diemen's Land was 'Van Diemonian', though contemporaries used Vandemonian, possibly as a play on words relating to the colony's penal origins.
In 1856 the colony was granted responsible self-government
Responsible government
Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability which is the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy...
with its own representative parliament, and the name of the island and colony was changed to Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
.
Penal colony
- Main articles: Port Arthur, TasmaniaPort Arthur, TasmaniaPort Arthur is a small town and former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia. Port Arthur is one of Australia's most significant heritage areas and the open air museum is officially Tasmania's top tourist attraction. It is located approximately 60 km south east of...
, Convicts on the West Coast of TasmaniaConvicts on the West Coast of TasmaniaThe West Coast of Tasmania has a significant convict heritage. The use of the West Coast as an outpost to house convicts in isolated penal settlements occurred in the era 1822-1833, and 1846-1847....
From the 1800s to the 1853 abolition of penal transportation
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
(known simply as "transportation"), Van Diemen's Land was the primary penal colony in Australia. Following the suspension of transportation to New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, all transported convicts were sent to Van Diemen's Land. In total, some 75,000 convicts were transported to Van Diemen's Land, or about 40% of all convicts sent to Australia.
Male convicts served their sentences as assigned labour to free settlers or in gangs assigned to public works. Only the most difficult convicts (mostly re-offenders) were sent to the Tasman Peninsula
Tasman Peninsula
Tasman Peninsula is located around by road south-east of Hobart, at the south east corner of Tasmania, Australia.-Description:The Tasman Peninsula lies south and west of Forestier Peninsula, to which it is connected by an isthmus called Eaglehawk Neck...
prison known as Port Arthur
Port Arthur, Tasmania
Port Arthur is a small town and former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia. Port Arthur is one of Australia's most significant heritage areas and the open air museum is officially Tasmania's top tourist attraction. It is located approximately 60 km south east of...
. Female convicts were assigned as servants in free settler households or sent to a female factory
Female Factory
Female factories were prison workhouses for women convicts transported to Australia during the time when some states were a penal colony.Most female prisoners transported to Australia were assigned to households as servants...
(women's workhouse prison). There were five female factories in Van Diemen's Land.
Convicts completing their sentences or earning their ticket-of-leave often promptly left Van Diemen's Land. Many settled in the new free colony of Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, to the dismay of the free settlers in towns such as Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.
Tensions sometimes ran high between the settlers and the "Vandemonians" as they were termed, particularly during the Victorian gold rush
Victorian gold rush
The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...
when a flood of settlers from Van Diemen's Land rushed to the Victorian gold fields.
Complaints from Victorians about recently released convicts from Van Diemen's Land re-offending in Victoria was one of the contributing reasons for the eventual abolition of transportation to Van Diemen's Land in 1853.
The name
Anthony TrollopeAnthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
used the term Vandemonian : -
They are (the Vandemonians) united in their declaration that the cessation of the coming of convicts has been their ruin
Eventually, in order to remove the unsavoury connotations with crime associated with its name (and its homophonic connection to "demon
Demon
call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
"), in 1856 Van Diemen's Land was renamed Tasmania in honour of Abel Tasman. The last penal settlement in Tasmania at Port Arthur
Port Arthur, Tasmania
Port Arthur is a small town and former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia. Port Arthur is one of Australia's most significant heritage areas and the open air museum is officially Tasmania's top tourist attraction. It is located approximately 60 km south east of...
finally closed in 1877.
The term is not used much, but in a review of a new book of the era the Australian newspaper chose the title of the review as Vandemonian vanity
Film
- The critically acclaimed award winning The Last Confession of Alexander PearceThe Last Confession of Alexander PearceThe Last Confession of Alexander Pearce is a 2008 Australian film directed by Michael James Rowland starring Irish actors Adrian Dunbar as Philip Conolly and Ciaran McMenamin as Alexander Pearce...
tells the true story of Alexander PearceAlexander PearceAlexander Pearce was an Irish convict who was transported to Van Diemen's Land for theft. He escaped from prison several times, but eventually was captured and was hanged and dissected in Hobart for murder....
through his final confession to fellow Irishman and colonial priest Philip Conolly. The film was nominated for a Rose d'Or, an Irish Film and Television Award, an Australian Film Institute Award and won an IF Award in 2009. - The feature film Van Diemen's Land focuses on the true story of convict Alexander PearceAlexander PearceAlexander Pearce was an Irish convict who was transported to Van Diemen's Land for theft. He escaped from prison several times, but eventually was captured and was hanged and dissected in Hobart for murder....
and his infamous escape from Macquarie HarbourMacquarie HarbourMacquarie Harbour is a large, shallow, but navigable by shallow draft vessels inlet on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.-History:James Kelly wrote in his narrative "First Discovery of Port Davey and Macquarie Harbour" how he sailed from Hobart in a small open five-oared whaleboat to discover...
in 1822.
Music
- "Van Diemen's Land", also known as "The Gallant Poachers", is a traditional Irish folk song
- "Van Diemen's Land" is the title of the second track from the rock band U2U2U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
's album Rattle and HumRattle and HumRattle and Hum is the sixth studio album by rock band U2 and companion rockumentary directed by Phil Joanou, both released in 1988. The film and the album feature live recordings, covers, and new songs...
. The lyrics were written and sung by The EdgeThe EdgeDavid Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
. The song is dedicated to a Fenian poet named John Boyle O'ReillyJohn Boyle O'ReillyJohn Boyle O'Reilly was an Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer. As a youth in Ireland, he was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenians, for which he was transported to Western Australia...
, who was deported to Australia because of his poetry. - Van Diemen's Land is referenced in the song "The Helm of Ned Kelly" by the group Blackbird Raum on their third album titled "Under the Starling Host"
- Van Diemen's Land is mentioned in the IrishMusic of IrelandIrish Music is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalizing cultural forces...
and Australian folk song "The Wild Colonial Boy". - Van Diemen's Land is often mentioned in the works of Flogging MollyFlogging MollyFlogging Molly is a seven-piece Irish-descendant band from Los Angeles, California, that is currently signed to their own record label, Borstal Beat Records.-Early years:...
, such as in the song "Every Dog Has Its Day." - Among the Irish folk songs that mention Van Diemen's Land are "The Black Velvet BandThe Black Velvet Band"The Black Velvet Band" is a traditional English and Irish folk song describing transportation to Australia, a common punishment in 19th century Britain and Ireland. The song tells the story of a tradesman who meets a young woman who has stolen an item and passed it on to him...
", "Back Home in Derry", and "Van Diemen's Land". - Van Diemen's Land is the subject of the Irish song, "Back Home in Derry". The music was written to the tune of "The Wreck of the Edmund FitzgeraldThe Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song written, composed and performed by Canadian Gordon Lightfoot to commemorate the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. It was inspired by the Newsweek article on the event, "The Cruelest Month", which...
" by Gordon LightfootGordon LightfootGordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
and the lyrics by the famous Irish Republican Bobby SandsBobby SandsRobert Gerard "Bobby" Sands was an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and member of the United Kingdom Parliament who died on hunger strike while imprisoned in HM Prison Maze....
. It is most famously sung by the Irish bard Christy MooreChristy MooreChristopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is a popular Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts...
. - Steeleye SpanSteeleye SpanSteeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
does a rendition of the traditional folk song on their album They Called Her BabylonThey Called Her BabylonThey Called Her Babylon is an album by the electric folk band Steeleye Span.The album, the band's 18th studio album, was released in 2004. The album is perhaps most noteworthy for the return of Maddy Prior, the band's most central member, who had departed the band in 1996... - The chorus to the English folk song "Maggie MayMaggie May (traditional song)"Maggie May" is a traditional Liverpool folk song about a prostitute who robbed a sailor. It has been the informal anthem of the city of Liverpool for about 180 years....
" says "They've sent you to Van Diemen's cruel shore." - Shirley CollinsShirley CollinsShirley Elizabeth Collins MBE is a British folksinger who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s...
and the Albion Country Band record a version of "Van Diemen's Land" in No RosesNo RosesNo Roses is an album by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band. It was recorded at Sound Techniques, and Air Studios in London, in the summer of 1971. It was produced by Sandy Roberton and Ashley Hutchings...
(1971) - Carla BruniCarla BruniCarla Bruni-Sarkozy is an Italian-French songwriter, singer, actress, and former model...
sings the poem 'If You Were Coming In The Fall', by Emily DickinsonEmily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
on her album No Promises. The song includes a reference to Van Diemen's land "subtracting till my fingers dropped; into Van Diemen's Land". - "Van Diemen's island" is mentioned in the song "Highland" by The Elders on their album Pass it on Down
- "Van Diemen's island" is the title of a song by Steve BinettiSteve BinettiSteve Binetti is a German composer and musician. A well-recognized member of the Berlin underground music scene, Binetti has performed with numerous rock and roll and blues groups and has recorded both solo and collaborative music recordings.- Life :Since 1984, Binetti has played in the bands...
- The chorus of "Emigrants" by Scots traditional music group Canterach includes the line: "Sent to the new worlds of America, Australia, and Van Diemen's Land".
- Van Diemen's Land is referred to extensively in "Henry's Downfall" by folk singer Jim MorayJim MorayJim Moray is an English folk singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.-Recording artist:While studying classical composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Moray released the home-recorded I Am Jim Moray EP. During 2002 he appeared at the Glastonbury festival and the Cambridge Folk...
- Van Diemen's Land is mentioned in the song 1788 by Australian band The Go SetThe Go Set*A Journey for a Nation *Rising EPs*Fallen Fortunes Live album*Another Round in Melbourne Town -External links:...
- Van Diemen's Land is a song by Barbara Dickson and is the first track on the album Parcel of Rogues
- The Scottish traditional song "The Braemar Poacher" is about a poacher that was caught and sent to Van Diemen's Land. A version of this song can be found on the album "Turas" of the Irish/Scottish trad band Shantalla.
Literature
- Van Diemen's Land is the setting of Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve FishGould's Book of FishGould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish is a 2001 novel by Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan. Gould's Book of Fish was Flanagan's third novel.-Plot summary:...
by Richard FlanaganRichard FlanaganRichard Flanagan is a novelist from Tasmania, Australia.-Early life:Flanagan was born in Longford, Tasmania, in 1961, the fifth of six children. He is descended from Irish convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 1840s. His father is a survivor of the Burma Death Railway. One of his three...
(published 2002), which tells the story of a man who is transported to the island, and runs afoul of the local (and rather insane) authorities. - Brendan WhitingBrendan WhitingBrendan Whiting was an Australian author and researcher, who wrote non-fiction books.Whiting was born in Australia, and lost his father during the Second World War when he was 6 years old. His first book, Ship of Courage, researched the Australian cruiser , on which his father died...
's book Victims of Tyranny, gives an account of the lives of the Irish rebels, the Fitzgerald convict brothers who were sent to help open up the north of Van Diemen's Land in 1805, under the leadership of the explorer Colonel William PatersonWilliam Paterson (explorer)Colonel William Paterson, FRS was a Scottish soldier, explorer, Lieutenant governor and botanist best known for leading early settlement in Tasmania. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Paterson when citing a botanical name.-Early years:A native of Montrose, Scotland, Paterson was...
. - In Cormac McCarthyCormac McCarthyCormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and modernist genres. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for The Road...
's novel Blood Meridian, one of the characters in the Glanton Gang of scalpers in 1850s MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
is a "Vandiemenlander" named Bathcat. Born in WalesWalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
he later went to Australia to hunt aborigines, and eventually came to Mexico, where he used those skills on the ApacheApacheApache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
s. - Van Diemen's Land is mentioned in Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
's book Narrative of A. Gordon PymThe Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of NantucketThe Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus...
. The main character stops at this island on his way to the South Pole. - Van Diemen's Land is mentioned in Umberto EcoUmberto EcoUmberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
's novel "The Island of the Day BeforeThe Island of the Day BeforeThe Island of the Day Before is a 1994 novel by Umberto Eco.It is the story of a 17th century Italian nobleman who is the only survivor of a shipwreck during a fierce storm. He finds himself washed up on an abandoned ship in a harbour through which, he convinces himself, runs the International...
" ("L'isola del giorno prima", 1994), a story about a 17th century Italian nobleman trapped at an island at the International Date LineInternational Date LineThe International Date Line is a generally north-south imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, passing through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that designates the place where each calendar day begins...
. - Van Diemen's Land is mentioned in Emily DickinsonEmily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
's "If You Were Coming in the Fall" - From "The Potato Factory" by Bryce CourtenayBryce CourtenayArthur Bryce Courtenay AM is a South-African-born naturalized Australian novelist and one of Australia's most commercially successful authors.-Background and early years:...
(1995): "... subtracting till my fingers dropped; into Van Diemen's Land." This is a quote from Emily Dickinson's Poem "If You Were Coming In The Fall". - In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726), the country of Lilliput is described as being “to the north-west of Van Dieman's Land” [sic].
- In the novel The Convicts by Iain Lawrence, young Tom Tin is sent to Van Diemen's Land on charges of murder
- Van Diemen's Land is mentioned in James De MilleJames De MilleJames De Mille was a professor at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, and an early Canadian popular writer who published numerous works of popular fiction from the late 1860s through the 1870s....
's A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper CylinderA Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper CylinderA Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is the most popular book by James De Mille. It was serialized posthumously and anonymously in Harper's Weekly,...
. The manuscript spoken of in the title has been written by British sailor who lost his way after conveying convicts to Van Dieman's Land. - In the novel The Terror by Dan SimmonsDan SimmonsDan Simmons is an American author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction series, known as the Hyperion Cantos, and for his Locus-winning Ilium/Olympos cycle....
(2007). In this novel about the ill fated exploration by HMS ErebusHMS Erebus (1826)HMS Erebus was a Hecla-class bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in Pembroke dockyard, Wales in 1826. The vessel was named after the dark region in Hades of Greek mythology called Erebus...
and HMS TerrorHMS Terror (1813)HMS Terror was a bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in the Davy shipyard in Topsham, Devon. The ship, variously listed as being of either 326 or 340 tons, carried two mortars, one and one .-War service:...
to discover the Northwest PassageNorthwest PassageThe Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
. The ships left England in May 1846 and were never heard from again, although since then much has been discovered about the fate of the 129 officers and crew. References are made to Van Diemen's Land during the chapters devoted to Francis CrozierFrancis CrozierFrancis Rawdon Moira Crozier was born in Ireland at Banbridge, County Down and was a British naval officer who participated in six exploratory expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic...
. - Van Diemen's Land is mentioned in Peter Carey's book, True History of the Kelly GangTrue History of the Kelly GangTrue History of the Kelly Gang is an historical novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was first published in Brisbane by the University of Queensland Press in 2000. It won the 2001 Man Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the same year. Despite its title, the book is fiction and...
, as a place the Kelly parents suffered on their way to the Colony of Victoria. - Van Diemen's Land is the setting of the novel English PassengersEnglish PassengersEnglish Passengers is a 2000 historical novel written by Matthew Kneale, which won that year's Whitbread Book Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Miles Franklin Award...
by Matthew KnealeMatthew KnealeMatthew Kneale is a British writer, best known for his 2000 novel English Passengers, which won the prestigious Whitbread Book Award and was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He went to school at Latymer Upper School and then studied Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, and afterwards...
(2000), which tells the story of three eccentric Englishmen who in 1857 set sail for the island in search of the Garden of Eden. The story runs parallel with the narrative of a young Tasmanian who tells the struggle of the indigenous population and the desperate battle against the invading British colonists. - Christopher Koch's novel : "Out of Ireland" describes life as a convict in Van Diemen's Land.
- Richard Butler's novel "The Men That God Forgot" (1977) is based on the historical events of 10 convicts who escape from Van Diemen's Land to ValdiviaValdivia, ChileValdivia is a city and commune in southern Chile administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia and Cau-Cau Rivers, approximately east of the coastal towns of Corral and Niebla...
, ChileChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
in 1833. - Marcus Clarke used historical events as the basis for his fictional For the Term of His Natural LifeFor the Term of his Natural LifeFor the Term of His Natural Life, written by Marcus Clarke, was published in the Australian Journal between 1870 and 1872 , appearing as a novel in 1874. It is the best known novelisation of life as a convict in early Australian history...
(1870) , the story of a gentleman, falsely convicted of murder, who is transported to Van Diemen's Land. - Julian StockwinJulian StockwinJulian Stockwin is an author of historical action-adventure fiction.-Biography:Born in 1944, Stockwin soon developed a love for the sea...
's nautical fiction series, the The Kydd Series, includes the book Command (2006) in which Thomas Kydd takes a ship to Van Diemen's Land, at the behest of then governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley KingPhilip Gidley KingCaptain Philip Gidley King RN was a British naval officer and colonial administrator. He is best known as the official founder of the first European settlement on Norfolk Island and as the third Governor of New South Wales.-Early years and establishment of Norfolk Island settlement:King was born...
, for the purpose of preventing French explorers from establishing a French settlement on the island.