Tasmania is Australia's only island State. Long periods of isolation from the mainland meant that the Tasmanian Aborigines developed their own idiosyncracies, and Tasmania is full of remnants of their heritage. But those in pursuit of history will find gruesome details. When British colonisers sought a new penal colony, Tasmania's isolation rendered it favourite, triggering years of tragic violence against its Aborigines. Eeriness haunts the Victorian streets of Launceston and the penal colony, Port Arthur. Tasmania's preserved buildings are aesthetically wonderful and historically shocking.

Tasmania's relatively small size contradicts its ecological diversity. Being an island, it harbours distinct wildlife, many of which are endangered or extinct elsewhere: the infamous Tasmanian devil, the spotted-tail and the eastern quoll are the three biggest carnivorous marsupials on the planet. Additionally, its island status has indirectly shaped its history. Tasmanian Aborigines displayed more resistance to invasion than mainland Aborigines because they had less land to escape to. War between colonisers and indigenous inhabitants meant that by 1876, the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigine had died, severing a link that had run roughly 60,000 years.

Tasmania has since sought to heal its historical scars by championing some of the most forward-thinking policies in Australia: outspokenly supportive of humane treatment for asylum seekers and keenly environmental. Indeed, Tasmania's countryside owes its conservation to decades of struggle – thankfully, considering some of the most beautiful spots in Australia are to be found here, from enchanting forests with the world's tallest and rarest trees, to 20 national parks with one of the world's last temperate-climate rainforests, to beautiful falls and soaring peaks.