Map - Robbins Island (Tasmania) (Robbins Island)

Robbins Island  (Robbins Island)
Robbins Island is a 9900 ha island located in Bass Strait, lying off the northwest coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island, separated from the Tasmanian mainland by a highly tidal area known as Robbins Passage, lies south to the adjacent Walker Island.

Robbins Island is the seventh largest island of Tasmania and is the largest freehold island in Tasmania. Over the years Robbins Island has changed ownership and to this day remains privately owned.

The island was part of the territory of the indigenous North West tribe spanning from Table Cape to the western side of Macquarie Harbour, where in particular, the Parperloihener band resided on Robbins Island prior to European colonisation. On 23 November 1802, Charles Robbins, first mate of HMS Buffalo (1797) was sent in HMS Cumberland (1803), by Governor King to dissuade the French commodore Nicholas Baudin, with his two ships Géographe and Naturaliste from colonising Van Diemen's Land.

Baudin had revealed French plans to colonise Van Diemen's Land when drunk in a farewell party organised by the Governor, after sailing into Port Jackson where his crew were treated back to health from scurvy. Governor King would not accept French occupation of Van Diemen's Land and chartered the schooner HMS Cumberland (1803) from which, on 13 December 1802, Robbins successfully persuaded Baudin to abandon French settlement of Van Diemen's Land. The schooner was chartered as larger ships were away and used for other maritime activities. From there along with Charles Grimes, Robbins sailed to Port Phillip, and actively explored the Yarra River in 1803 before returning to Port Jackson. It was during a subsequent trip to retrieve two Spanish ships which had been captured by a NSW trader's privateering expedition and hidden off the coast of Deal Island that in 1804 Robbins sighted Robbins island, which is named after him.

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 250000 acre 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.

David Howie began leasing part of the island for farming purposes in 1850.

 
Map - Robbins Island  (Robbins Island)
Country - Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7617930 km2, Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
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