What did they do to the island of Tasmania?

Answer 1

Originally named Van Diemen's Land, Tasmania was initially settled as a penal colony. Convicts were sent the directly from England, while the worst convicts in Sydney were also transferred there, to locations like Port Arthur, Sarah Island or Maria Island. These colonies were working penal colonies, taking advantage of the need for logging, but the harshness of the conditions, and the fact that more murderers were sent there, led to them developing a reputation for cruelty.

During the course of early European settlement, other terrible things were done to the island. The entire race of full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigines was wiped out, as they were relocated to offshore stands where they were not given the care they were promised. This was to enable to white settlers to move in, without the threat of conflict with the Aborigines. There had already been one major conflict between Europeans and Aborigines, at the "battle of Risdon Cove", where the indigenous people were massacred.

Not content with removing all the indigenous people, the white settlers then turned to exterminating two unique species: the Thylacine, often known as the Tasmanian tiger, and the Tasmanian devil. Both animals were hunted down as livestock killers, but during the 1900s, protective measures were put in place, and the Tasmanian devil was brought back from the brink of extinction. protection came too late for the Thylacine, however, and the last known specimen died in 1936.