People / group

Aboriginal Tasmanians

Also known as Palawa

Aboriginal Tasmanians are the Indigenous people of Tasmania, isolated from the mainland when rising seas formed Bass Strait about 10,000 years ago. Numbering several thousand at British settlement in 1803, they were devastated by violence, disease and dispossession, especially in the Black War of the 1820s, and the survivors were removed to Flinders Island. Their descendants, many from the Bass Strait islands, form today's Tasmanian Aboriginal community.

Aboriginal Tasmanians
Image: Benjamin Duterrau (1768–1851) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Colony of Tasmania

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Aboriginal Tasmanians. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/aboriginal-tasmanians
MLA
“Aboriginal Tasmanians.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/aboriginal-tasmanians. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Aboriginal Tasmanians.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/aboriginal-tasmanians.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Aboriginal Tasmanians’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/aboriginal-tasmanians (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻