Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land is the name originally used by the British for
Tasmania, an island state of
Australia. It was named Anthoonij van Diemenslandt in honor of
Anthony van Diemen, Governor General of India for the
Dutch East India Company, who sent
Abel Tasman out on his voyage of discovery in
1642. It was changed in
1856 to honour Tasman himself, the first
European to discover the island, and possibly also to remove the association with the severe
penal colony that the original name evoked.
