Tasmanian
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Lieutenant Bowen, in charge of an expedition dispatched from Sydney, took possession of the island on the 12th September, 1803, and formed a settlement on the east bank of the Derwent River, at Risdon; but the actual commencement of colonisation dates from February, 1804,when Lieutenant-Colonel Collins established himself at Sulivan's Cove, and laid the foundations of the present city of Hobart.

The Government was administered from Sydney until the year 1825, when, in the month of December, Van Deimen's Land was duly constituted an independent province.

In May, 1853, it was officially announced that transportation had ceased, and in the following year the name of the colony was changed from Van Deimen's Land to Tasmania.

The Royal assent to the existing Constitution Act was proclaimed on the 24th October, 1855, and the first representative Parliament was opened on the 2nd December, 1856.

Tasmania, formerly known as Van Deimen's Land, was colonised from New South Wales and was intended to serve the purpose of a subsidiary penal settlement.