Tasmania, formerly Van Diemen’s Land, island state of Australia. It lies about 150 miles (240 km) south of the state of Victoria, from which it is separated by the relatively shallow Bass Strait. Structurally, Tasmania constitutes a southern extension of the Great Dividing Range. The state comprises a main island called Tasmania;Bruny Island, nestling close to the southeastern coast of the main island; King andFlinders islands in Bass Strait; numerous smaller islands off the coast of the main island; and subantarctic Macquarie Island, about 900 miles (1,450 km) to the southeast. The main island is roughly heart-shaped, with a maximum length and width of about 200 miles (320 km), and its latitude and climate are broadly comparable to those of northern California and northwestern Spain. With an area slightly larger than that of Sri Lanka, Tasmania is the smallest of Australia’s states.Hobart is the state capital.
Tasmania is essentially a mountainous island. In the west, where the highest peak on the island, Mount Ossa, reaches 5,305 feet (1,617 metres), the landscape comprises several parallel northwest-southeast ridges and valleys. Eastward lies a series of plateaus at various elevations; the highest point is Ben Lomond in the northeast, which rises to 5,161 feet (1,573 metres) at Legges Tor. But the dominant feature ofTasmanian geography is the glaciated, lake-studded Central Plateau, bounded on the north and east by a 2,000-foot (610-metre) fault scarp and sloping gently southeastward from 3,500 to 2,000 feet (1,070 to 610 metres). Much of the east is made up of a low, dissected plateau averaging about 1,200 feet (370 metres). Extensive plains are confined to the far northwest, the lower South Esk River valley, and the northeast. The Bass Strait islands represent outliers of the northern coastal platforms. Fossil-laden cliffs on the northern shore of Tasmania and on Maria Islandoff the eastern coast indicate areas that once lay beneath the sea. Conversely, postglacial submergence in the southeast has produced one of the finest examples of a
