Vansittart Island (Vansittart Island)
Vansittart Island, also known as Gun Carriage Island, is a granite island with an area of 800 hectare. The island is part of Tasmania's Vansittart Island Group, lying in eastern Bass Strait between Flinders and Cape Barren Islands in the Furneaux Group.
It is partly private property and partly leasehold land and is currently used for grazing Wiltshire Horn sheep. The island is part of the Franklin Sound Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because it holds over 1% of the world populations of six bird species.
* 1) Former Bass Strait sealers were living on the island by the 1820s. In 1831 George Robinson came to evict the sealers and their families as he wanted to establish an Aboriginal settlement (see Section 5 below) on the island. When the Aboriginal establishment proved unsuccessful the sealers and their families returned to the island. Their community had grown to 28 people by the time Bishop Nixon came to visit in 1854.
* 2) In 1842 the island was formally charted by HMS Beagle and renamed from Gun Carriage Island to Vansittart Island. "Vansittart" is a significant maritime name within private and naval vessels, linked to the East India Company where Henry Vansittart was Governor of Bengal from 1759 to 1764.
* 3) In that year 1842 HMS Beagle returned to Van Diemens Land following a reverse circumference of Australia, via Timor and Swan River, Western Australia; Lt John Lort Stokes was affirmed as captain following the departure of then Cpt Wickham at Brisbane for reasons of sickness. Beagle was destined to join the Van Diemens Land government's cutter the Vansittart (seconded from the Van Diemens Land Government as tender to HMS Beagle) for the NE charting of Tasmania and the Bass Strait. Following which in the Bass Strait - Flinders Group of islands, "Gun Carriage Island" (named by sealers) was officially named "Vansittart Island".
* 4) Originally the vessel Vansittart was a private sloop with two cannon arriving from London and Cowes into Hobart Town, Van Diemens Land with eight souls aboard on 30 January 1836. Following arrival, within days Vansittart was sharing the harbour with HMS Beagle when Captain Robert Fitzroy and Charles Darwin with Lt Wickham berthed on 5 February 1836 on their reverse circumference of the globe, establishing the Theory of Evolution. This was the first of two considerably notable meetings between the two vessels. Vansittart traded between Hobart Town, Sydney, Kangaroo Island and Launceston prior to purchase by the colonial government of Van Diemens Land (renamed Tasmania 1856) on 22 February 1837 for "search and rescue".
* 5) Vansittart frequently visited Port Arthur and progressed to be a government revenue cutter and is purported to have transported the last Aboriginals from the main island of Van Diemens Land to the Flinders Group for a failed resettlement. Vansittart was lost at sea when sailing from Sydney to California as a private vessel under Master Gill 1849, the California Gold Rush had started in 1848.
It is partly private property and partly leasehold land and is currently used for grazing Wiltshire Horn sheep. The island is part of the Franklin Sound Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because it holds over 1% of the world populations of six bird species.
* 1) Former Bass Strait sealers were living on the island by the 1820s. In 1831 George Robinson came to evict the sealers and their families as he wanted to establish an Aboriginal settlement (see Section 5 below) on the island. When the Aboriginal establishment proved unsuccessful the sealers and their families returned to the island. Their community had grown to 28 people by the time Bishop Nixon came to visit in 1854.
* 2) In 1842 the island was formally charted by HMS Beagle and renamed from Gun Carriage Island to Vansittart Island. "Vansittart" is a significant maritime name within private and naval vessels, linked to the East India Company where Henry Vansittart was Governor of Bengal from 1759 to 1764.
* 3) In that year 1842 HMS Beagle returned to Van Diemens Land following a reverse circumference of Australia, via Timor and Swan River, Western Australia; Lt John Lort Stokes was affirmed as captain following the departure of then Cpt Wickham at Brisbane for reasons of sickness. Beagle was destined to join the Van Diemens Land government's cutter the Vansittart (seconded from the Van Diemens Land Government as tender to HMS Beagle) for the NE charting of Tasmania and the Bass Strait. Following which in the Bass Strait - Flinders Group of islands, "Gun Carriage Island" (named by sealers) was officially named "Vansittart Island".
* 4) Originally the vessel Vansittart was a private sloop with two cannon arriving from London and Cowes into Hobart Town, Van Diemens Land with eight souls aboard on 30 January 1836. Following arrival, within days Vansittart was sharing the harbour with HMS Beagle when Captain Robert Fitzroy and Charles Darwin with Lt Wickham berthed on 5 February 1836 on their reverse circumference of the globe, establishing the Theory of Evolution. This was the first of two considerably notable meetings between the two vessels. Vansittart traded between Hobart Town, Sydney, Kangaroo Island and Launceston prior to purchase by the colonial government of Van Diemens Land (renamed Tasmania 1856) on 22 February 1837 for "search and rescue".
* 5) Vansittart frequently visited Port Arthur and progressed to be a government revenue cutter and is purported to have transported the last Aboriginals from the main island of Van Diemens Land to the Flinders Group for a failed resettlement. Vansittart was lost at sea when sailing from Sydney to California as a private vessel under Master Gill 1849, the California Gold Rush had started in 1848.
Map - Vansittart Island (Vansittart Island)
Map
Country - Australia
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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.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUD | Australian dollar | $ | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
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| EN | English language |