Editing Tasmania (section)

===Aboriginal people===
{{Main|Aboriginal Tasmanians}}
[[File:Terre de Diemen, navigation, vue de la cote orientale de l'Ile Schouten.jpg|thumb|1807 engraving by French explorer [[Charles Alexandre Lesueur]] shows seafaring Aboriginal people and a large canoe on the eastern shore of [[Schouten Island]].]]
Evidence indicates the presence of [[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal people]] in Tasmania about 42,000&nbsp;years ago. [[Sea level rise|Rising sea levels]] cut Tasmania off from mainland Australia about 10,000&nbsp;years ago and by the time of European contact, the Aboriginal people in Tasmania had nine major nations or ethnic groups.<ref name="ryan1">{{Citation | last=Ryan | first = Lyndall | title = Tasmanian Aborigines | publisher = Allen & Unwin | year = 2012 | pages= 3–6|location = Sydney | isbn = 978-1-74237-068-2}}</ref> At the time of the British occupation and colonisation in 1803, the indigenous population was estimated at between 3,000 and 10,000.

Historian [[Lyndall Ryan|Lyndall Ryan's]] analysis of population studies led her to conclude that there were about 7,000 spread throughout the island's nine nations;<ref name="lyndall">{{Citation | last=Ryan | first = Lyndall | title = Tasmanian Aborigines  | publisher = Allen & Unwin | year = 2012 | pages= 4, 43|location = Sydney | isbn = 978-1-74237-068-2}}</ref> Nicholas Clements, citing research by [[Brian Plomley|N.J.B. Plomley]] and [[Rhys Jones (archaeologist)|Rhys Jones]], settled on a figure of 3,000 to 4,000.<ref>{{Citation|last= Clements|first= Nicholas|title= Frontier Conflict in Van Diemen's Land (PhD thesis)|year= 2013|publisher= University of Tasmania|pages= 324, 325|url= http://eprints.utas.edu.au/17070/2/Whole-Clements-thesis.pdf|access-date= 23 April 2015|archive-date= 18 May 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150518103925/http://eprints.utas.edu.au/17070/2/Whole-Clements-thesis.pdf|url-status= live}}</ref> They engaged in [[fire-stick farming]], hunted game including [[kangaroo]] and [[wallaby|wallabies]], caught seals, mutton-birds, shellfish and fish and lived as nine separate "nations" on the island, which they knew as "Trouwunna".