The European settlement of Sydney had progressed for 15 years before it was considered necessary to extend the settlement beyond just the town and the remote outpost of Norfolk Island. In 1802, visiting French ships Geographe and Naturaliste provoked fears that Britain's arch colonial rival would annexe Van Diemens Land, and as a direct reaction to French presence in the area, the administration in Sydney acted quickly to confirm British possession of the island. Van Diemens Land became an administrative dependency of New South Wales.

As well as forestalling any French settlement, Governor King's decision to plant the flag in Van Diemens Land was supported by several other factors, including Bass and Flinders' favourable report of the site, and the island being a source of timber and other natural products that would be useful to the settlement. It was also thought that the island would be suitable for raising grain for the parent colony, and that it would sustain a seal fishery.

The settlement of Van Diemens Land was facilitated by the arrival of the Glatton in March 1803. The ship, which arrived in Sydney, carried convicts and two navy personnel who were to have been sent to Norfolk Island. Following an approach from Governor King, the two readily agreed to form part of an expedition to Van Diemens Land. Junior Lieutenant John Bowen was appointed as commandant and superintendent of the settlement which was to be formed on the Derwent River.

On the 12th September 1803, Bowen arrived in Van Diemens Land on the Lady Nelson. The site of Risdon Cove was chosen because of the availability of fresh water, and there the vessels - including Albion which had arrived 5 days earlier - were unloaded. There were 49 newcomers including Bowen, naval surgeon Jacob Mountgarrett, soldiers, settlers and convicts. Other than for its fresh water, the site proved to be a poor choice, and another site was soon chosen. Lieutenant-Governor David Collins arrived in Tasmania after having abandoned attempts to settle Port Phillip Bay across the Bass Strait, and he founded Hobart Town on 20th February, 1804.

There was never enough food produced to feed the population on the island, but that was only one of many problems encountered by the early settlers. Administration of the island was rendered more difficult as a result of the lack of legal powers, and the fact that no criminal court proceedings were possible in Van Diemens Land at that time.

The dispersion, treatment and labour of the convicts was the governor's first concern, and the atmosphere of a raw penal colony on the edge of civilisation and on the border of starvation characterised the colony in its early days. Poverty was common among the free settlers, and debt more so.

Taxes were onerous, and counterfeit money became a problem in the colony. Many settlers who could not pay their bills found themselves imprisoned and treated as badly as the transported convicts. As well as the economic hardship, settlers were also in constant danger from the marauding gangs of escaped convicts who had become bushrangers.

Problems for the colony continued. On the orders of the Colonial Office in London, Governor King had despatched another group of settlers to Port Dalrymple on the northern coast of the island. London had wanted to build a settlement which stood guard over Bass Strait, but the quality of land was so poor that by 1808 the colony was forced to move up the river to the site of Launceston, now the second largest city in Tasmania.

As the population increased, bushranging became a more severe problem. Escaped convicts thought little of murder, arson and robbery; as a result many settlers left their land and returned to town to avoid being killed.

An inadequate military force was in no position to keep the problem under control, and food shortages exacerbated the problem.

Convicts were unpractised and unwilling agriculturalists, and droughts and floods in Sydney put an end to food shipments from the north. Were it not for the ready supply of kangaroo and other 'wild' meat, the new colonists would have starved.

Eventually, however, a sense of stability came about the new colony. Although times were still hard and lawlessness was still an issue, there were signs that better times were ahead.

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