Long ago Tasmania was attached to the landmass now known as the Australian mainland. Over the ages the great landmass slowly shifted and split and the section we now know as Tasmania detached. As the last Ice Age ended the sea level increased, forming the stretch of water now called Bass Strait.
We also know that aboriginal people have inhabited Tasmania for at least 20,000 years. The first known Europeans to visit the island included the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who called the Island "Van Dieman's Land" in honour of his patron. On that same voyage Tasman also made landfall in New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji. In 1770 explorer James Cook claimed “the great south land” for Britain and three years later the French explorer du Fresne and his crew encountered aboriginals on the lasmanian coast in a skirmish several aboriginals were shot. In 1802 the British established a small penal and whaling colony on the Derwent River at Risdon Cove.
There were two major reasons for the British to establish a base in Tasmania. They intended to use the island as a place to dump convicts, six months voyage away from the British Isles. They also wanted to protect their claim to the land»especially against their longterm enemy, the French, and to exclude other countries from the rich whaling and sealing ground around the islands.
How long did it take the exiled convicts to get to Tasmania from the British Isles by sea?