Tassie Challenge II Overview                                         BOOK NOW

Our Spirit's Tassie Challenge II takes you on an arduous journey encompassing 5 days of hiking, kayaking and cycling through 230km of remote, world heritage listed areas of Tasmania.  It's a great opportunity to follow in the footsteps of our famous Australian Pioneers such as Tasman, Cook, Bass and Flinders.

Tassie History

The first reported sighting of Tasmania by a European was on November 24, 1642 by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, after his sponsor, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies Anthony van Diemen. The name was later shortened to Van Diemen's Land by the British. Captain James Cook also sighted the island in 1777, and numerous other European seafarers made landfalls, adding a colourful array to the names of topographical features.

The first settlement was by the British at Risdon Cove on the eastern bank of the Derwent estuary in 1803, by a small party sent from Sydney, under Lt. John Bowen for the purpose of preventing the French from claiming the island. An alternative settlement was established by Captain David Collins 5 km to the south in 1804 in Sullivan's Cove on the western side of the Derwent, where fresh water was more plentiful. The latter settlement became known as Hobart Town or Hobarton, later shortened to Hobart, after the British Colonial Secretary of the time, Lord Hobart. The settlement at Risdon was later abandoned.

The early settlers were mostly convicts and their military guards, with the task of developing agriculture and other industries. Numerous other convict-based settlements were made in Van Diemen's Land, including secondary prisons, such as the particularly harsh penal colonies at Port Arthur in the southeast and Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast. More form Wikipedia...