== European Colonisation Colonization ==
Tasmania was first discovered by French explorers attempting to locate a safer passage from the Cape of Good Hope to China and Japan. It wasn't claimed until Captain James Cook of Great Britain explored the coast of Australia and found Tasmania to the south. It was settled as Australia's second penal colony under Tasmania's first Governor, Captain B Newton.
The colony of Tasmania declined further shipments of convicts after gold was found west of Hobart in 1835. The discovery of gold caused a rush of immigrants from the mainland and overseas. At one time, there were 10 times as many males as females in the colony- a situation which Governor L Patterson attempted to correct by paying females to immigrate to the new colony. Unfortunately, the payment of females was not a complete success with cases of immigrants providing false passports and accempting accepting payments under false claims.
== Modern Era ==
Tasmania joined the Australian federation in 1900, a move that was not supported by a significant minority of the voting population. In 2004, a referendum to succeed from leave the federation was only just defeated (it required a majority in both houses as well as with by voters and failed to gain a majority in the upper house).