The History of Tasmania

A history of Tasmania by an English-born minister who fought to end its status as a penal colony.

English-born minister John West (1809–1873) moved to Tasmania in 1838 and became a critic of convict transportation. A supporter commissioned him to write this history, and the two volumes were published in 1852. Volume 1 describes the European settlement of the island.John West (1809–1873) was an English-born minister who received a Colonial Missionary Society post in Tasmania in 1838. West became an outspoken opponent of the ongoing government policy of transporting convicts from Britain to Tasmania. Around 1847 a wealthy supporter approached West to write the colony's history, although it had been a British territory only since 1803. West accepted the task and, amid his campaigning and other responsibilities, completed this two-volume work which was published in 1852. It is divided between a straightforward narrative of events and thematic issues such as the treatment of the Aboriginal peoples and the issue of the convict transport system. Volume 1 covers the development of the colony, starting with the arrival of the Dutch in the seventeenth century, who named the island Van Diemen's Land, through to British control and its subsequent settlement as the colony of Tasmania.