Maria Island
Maria Island is a mountainous island located in the Tasman Sea, off the east coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is entirely occupied by the Maria Island National Park, which includes a marine area of off the island's northwest coast. The island is about in length from north to south and, at its widest, is about west to east. At its closest point, Point Lesueur, the island lies approximately off the east coast of Tasmania and is connected by ferry with Triabunna. Maria Island lies in the local government area of Glamorgan–Spring Bay in the South-east LGA Region of Tasmania.
The island has had a mixed history, including two convict eras, two industrial eras, a farming era and, finally, becoming the national park that it is today. Maria Island is popular with visitors, providing an array of interests for the daytripper or overnight visitor to the island.
Etymology
Tasmanians pronounce the name , as did the early British settlers but the original pronunciation was . The island was named in 1642 by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman after Maria van Diemen, wife of Anthony van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies in Batavia. The island was known as Maria's Isle in the early 19th century.Geography
Physical geography
Maria Island is a mountainous island located in the Tasman Sea, off the east coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is contained within the Maria Island National Park, which includes a marine area of off the island's northwest coast. The island measures in length from north to south and, at its widest, about west to east.The island takes the form of a figure-eight, with the northern section being significantly larger than the southern. Both parts of the island have quite rugged relief and they are joined by a tombolo about long known as McRaes Isthmus. The highest point, Mount Maria, is in the northern part of the island and stands above sea level. Maria Island has been separated from nearby mainland Tasmania for some 3 to 4 thousand years.
Human geography and economy
The strait between Maria Island and the east coast of mainland Tasmania is called the Mercury Passage and was named after HMS Mercury, commanded by John Henry Cox, who charted the area in 1789. There are two towns of size in this part of the east coast: Orford at the mouth of the Prosser River and Triabunna, some further north at the head of Spring Bay.The island's sole settlement is Darlington, near the northern tip of the island. Darlington has many old buildings and it has no permanent inhabitants other than a few park rangers. During the summer holiday period, up to several hundred tourists visit the island. Tourism is important to the local economy. In nearby Triabunna, other major industries include fishing, forestry and agriculture. Rock lobster, scalefish, scallops and abalone are taken near the island by both commercial and recreational fishermen, and mussels are farmed in Mercury Passage.
History
Aboriginal people
Before the colonial era, Aboriginal people of the Tyreddeme band of the Oyster Bay tribe journeyed regularly to the island and much evidence of their presence remains, particularly around the bays on either side of the island's isthmus. In 1802, the French expedition led by Nicolas Baudin encountered the Aboriginal people of Maria Island, as did the whalers and seal hunters of the early 19th century. René Maugé, the zoologist on Baudin's expedition, was buried on Point Maugé on south Maria Island.Convicts
For two periods during the first half of the 19th century, Maria Island hosted convict settlements. The island's first convict era was between 1825 and 1832 and its second – the probation station era – between 1842 and 1850. Among those held during the second era was the Irish nationalist leader William Smith O'Brien, exiled for his part in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. His cottage still exists in the nearby former penal colony Port Arthur to where he was deported after his time on Maria Island. He was later transferred to New Norfolk on the Derwent River upstream of Hobart.Three structures from the first convict era remain in the Darlington area: the Commissariat Store built in 1825 and presently used as the park's reception and visitor centre; the convict penitentiary, completed in 1828 and now used to accommodate visitors rather than detain them; and the convict-built dam on Bernacchis Creek, which still provides Darlington's water.
First convict era 1825–32
Lieutenant Governor Arthur established a penal settlement at Darlington in 1825 for convicts whose crimes were not of 'so flagrant a nature' that they should be sent to the notorious Macquarie Harbour settlement on Tasmania's west coast. A small party of soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Peter Murdoch, and fifty male prisoners, arrived at the island aboard the ship Prince Leopold in March 1825. Initially housing was log and bark huts or tents. After the arrival of a new Commandant, Major Thomas Lord, in August, more permanent buildings were erected using bricks made on the island and sandstone excavated from the sea cliffs. The commissariat store and the penitentiary can still be seen today and are the only surviving buildings from this era. Industries such as cloth, blanket and shoe-making, tanning, timber cutting, and pottery were fostered. Frequent escape attempts, complaints about relaxed discipline and the opening of Port Arthur in 1830 led to the decision to abandon the settlement in 1832.Second convict era 1842–50
The second convict era commenced in 1842. Under the probation system of the 1840s, convicts were withdrawn from private service and grouped together in government stations. Probation stations were established at Darlington and Point Lesueur. Agricultural work was a key activity for convicts, particularly as there were in excess of of crops to maintain. Officials and 600 male convicts in Darlington were housed in old and altered structures re-used from the first convict era, and new buildings were also erected. Overcrowding and ill-adapted buildings were constant problems.Industry and farming
was conducted on the island from at least 1805. Shore-based bay whaling was conducted in the 1830s and 1840s at four locations on the island: Darlington, Isle du Nord, Whalers Cove and Haunted Bay. In the 19th century, whaling ships sometimes anchored off shore and hunted for whales.From the 1880s, the Italian entrepreneur Diego Bernacchi set up island enterprises, including silk and wine production and a cement factory, quarrying limestone deposits at the Fossil Cliffs for the raw material. A substantial cement works was built at Darlington in the early 1920s, with a 2 ft gauge tramway linking the quarries to the cement works and a new jetty. At the height of its fortunes in the early 20th century, Darlington had hundreds of residents and several hotels. The design and layout of the company town established by Bernacchi reflected prevailing ideas of paternalism, though archaeological survey found that the workers cottages had been individualised by their inhabitants. By July 1930, all of those ventures had failed for a number of reasons, including the Great Depression, poor quality limestone, and competition from mainland producers who were not burdened with high costs of transport.