History of Tasmania
Tasmania was inhabited by an indigenous population, the Tasmanian Aborigines, and evidence indicates their presence in the territory, later to become an island, at least 35,000 years ago. At the time of the British occupation and colonisation in 1803 the indigenous population was estimated at between 3000 and 10,000. Historian Lyndall Ryan's analysis of population studies led her to conclude that there were about 7000 spread throughout the island's nine nations; Nicholas Clements, citing research by N.J.B. Plomley and Rhys Jones, settled on a figure of 3000 to 4000. The combination of the so-called Black War, internecine conflict and, from the late 1820s, the spread of infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, reduced the population to about 300 by 1833. Almost all of the indigenous population was relocated to Flinders Island by George Augustus Robinson. Until the 1970s, most people thought that the last surviving Tasmanian Aborigine was Trugernanner, who died in 1876. However this "extinction" was a myth, as documented by Lyndall Ryan in 1991.
Robbins Island (Tasmania)
In 1826, following the English occupation of Tasmania, the Van Diemen's Land Company was set up at Stanley. This company was formed in England by London-based businessmen, who wanted to utilise land in Tasmania to create a wool industry to supply the British textile industry, which intention was facilitated by William Sorell's account to the Colonial Office that the Tasmanian colony was desperate for capital. The Van Diemen's Land Company Act was passed transferring possession of of Crown land to freehold status or private ownership and included Robbins Island. A series of disputes during the period of 1820 to 1840, between European settlers and the North West tribe, in which Van Diemen's Land Company chief agent Edward Curr authorised the use of force if 'required', escalated into battles which became violent and bloody, notably including the infamous Cape Grim massacre. This culminated in the attempted genocide of what is now known as the Black War. In 1835 under George Robinson, almost all Indigenous people from the Tasmanian mainland, including the "Parperloihener" band from Robbins Island, were removed and transported to a reserve on Flinders Island.