What is Tasmania known for?

Tasmania is known for its wilderness, national parks, cool temperate climate, convict heritage, distinctive food and wine, and isolation from the mainland. It is the only Australian state that is an island, separated from Victoria by the Bass Strait, and the smallest state by both land area and population.

About 42 per cent of Tasmania is protected as national park, World Heritage area, or reserve, the highest proportion of any Australian state. The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area covers nearly 1.6 million hectares of the central and western parts of the state and meets seven of UNESCO's ten World Heritage criteria, the most of any natural property in the world. Iconic places include Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair, the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers, the Walls of Jerusalem, Freycinet, and the Bay of Fires.

Tasmania has a deep convict history, with about 75,000 convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land between 1803 and 1853. The ruins of the Port Arthur penal settlement on the Tasman Peninsula are a UNESCO World Heritage site alongside ten other Australian convict sites. Hobart, founded in 1804, is Australia's second-oldest capital city and houses the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), opened in 2011 and now an internationally recognised art museum.

The state's economy combines tourism, agriculture (apples, cherries, blueberries, salmon, dairy, and wine), Antarctic and marine science based at Hobart, and renewable energy. Tasmania generates almost all its electricity from hydroelectric and wind sources, and the proposed Marinus Link undersea cable to Victoria will let it export surplus power to the mainland. The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race finishes in Hobart each year, and the state promotes its produce as some of the cleanest and most premium in Australia.