Tasmania: Homosexual Eden

Tasmania: Homosexual Eden

Abel Tasman discovered Tasmania and Matthew Flinders circumnavigated it, naming the strait between the island and the landmass to the north Bass Strait, after his lover George Bass. Flinders then circumnavigated the continent, sending letters to the Admiralty in London with the suggestion that it be called Australia. For his part, Bass discovered a bay and the river entrance to today’s Hobart, amidst mountains and prairies, streams and creeks, in what only can be called Eden, then as now. Converted into a penal colony, the vilest in the history of English colonization, the convicts survived by forming indestructible friendships, the mate, that has been the cement of Tasmanian and Australian comradery to our own time, a companion for whom even the most homophobic redneck would lay down his life. The evolution of that love is the strangest story in the world: it originated in Britain, where homosexuals were hanged; it continued with Tasmanian legislators who sought to expulse homosexuals from the island, crying out ‘’Hang them, hang them!’’; and ended as the first state to admit homosexual marriages. Tasmania, the home of everything that is unique, from mammals that lay eggs to an obstreperous devil marsupial, from homosexual penal colonies to the strapping lads in Pride Parades: this is its story.Cicero stated that he could make no claim to originality, but that his life’s purpose was to popularize the genius of others. This is exactly my aim in writing this homosexual history of Tasmania, and in order to gain a young audience, I’ve priced it at the lowest cost allowed by the publisher. CAUTION: Parts of this book also appear in my book Australian Homosexuality; the reader may not wish to possess both.