Tasmania

My home state.

As mentioned in the DigIT section of this website, the students participating in this program are from Victoria & Tasmania. Both of these states are located in Australia, for those who didn't know. I'm from Tasmania, its the little island located on the other side of the bass straight. It's the state most people forget about as its not actually connected to the Mainland. It was discovered by Dutch exlporer Abel Tasman in 1642, who named it after his sponser, Anthony van Diemen. Later on in 1856, the state was officially renamed as Tasmania in honour of Abel and his discovery. Tasmania does have some very dark history. The Aboriginal people, the natives and original custodians of Australia, were all but wiped out due to the settlers claim on the land. The British tried to eradicate the entire state of the Indigenous people, and it is now one of the largest cases of genocide in the world. Not just that, but Australia's largest mass shooting occured at Port Arthur, a historic convict settlement, in Tasmania. 28th of April 1996, perpetrator Martin Bryant targeted the popular tourist attraction. 35 people dies and a further 23 were wounded. Eventuallt the Special Operations Group were abale to take him down. Martin is now currently serving 35 life sentences plus 1,035 years without parole in the psychiatric wing of Risdon prision in Hobart, Tasmania. Although this was a very traumatic event in Austraia's history, some good came out of it. The killing spree led to a national restriction on high capacity semi-automatic shotguns and rifles. Which is why our gun laws are so much better compared to America.