Risdon Cove

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Risdon Cove was the site of the first European settlement in Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, the smallest Australian state.

In 1803 Lieutenant John Bowen was sent to establish a settlement in Van Diemen's Land. The Lady Nelson anchored at Risdon on Wednesday September 8 1803, five days before the whaler Albion arrived with Lt. Bowen on board.

In 1804 Lieutenant Colonel David Collins arrived in the Derwent from Port Phillip. Within a few days he rejected Risdon Cove as a suitable settlement site and moved his party across the river to Sullivan's Cove. The military and convicts disembarked from the Ocean near Hunter Island on the 20-21 February 1804 and thus beginning what is now Hobart. The free settlers were landed from the Lady Nelson at New Town Bay on 22 February.

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