Tasmania is the size of Sri Lanka, yet its entire western half is almost empty. The reason goes back 183 million years, to a time when the island was still attached to Antarctica.

Dolerite, glaciers, a flooded land bridge and the Roaring Forties made the west one of the hardest places in Australia to live, and every attempt to tame it failed.

Chapters:
0:00 Half an island, almost empty
0:42 Built from Antarctic magma
2:04 The last piece to let go
2:40 Ice and a drowned land bridge
3:44 Why devils survived only here
4:18 The Roaring Forties
5:47 Trying to live in the west
6:22 Sarah Island
7:10 Queenstown's moonscape
7:48 The Franklin Dam fight
8:28 Leaving it wild
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Sources: Geology of Tasmania; National Museum of Australia; Bureau of Meteorology rainfall data; Australian Geographic; CSIRO Cape Grim station; UNESCO World Heritage; Australian Government 2025 Population Statement.
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Footage credits:
Aerial views of St Andrews Beach, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia by DronieUp - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Aerial views of the Great Ocean Road and nearby coastline in Victoria, Australia by JSery Films - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Bicheno coastline, Tasmania (46113230991) by Mike Friederich - CC-BY
-- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Bob Hawke 1980 (3265973800) by State Library of South Australia - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Câmpia Bassiană 14.000 BP by Thomas R. Schwarz - CC-BY-SA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Cape Raoul Columnar Dolerites by AYT - CC-BY-SA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Franklin meets Gordon River Tasmania 1 by Robyn Jay - CC-BY-SA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Greenland-ice sheet hg by Hannes Grobe - CC-BY-SA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
How-Does-a-Carnivore-Guild-Utilise-a-Substantial-but-Unpredictable-Anthropogenic-Food-Source-pone.0097937.s002 by Forsyth D, Woodford L, Moloney P, Hampton J, Woolnough A, Tucker M - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Lascar VIDEO - Ferocious Tasmanian Devil (4552479578) by Jorge Láscar - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Leaves with water droplets in Ibb, Yemen (Video) by Fuad Al-Qrize - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Leibhéal Bassian 14000 BP by Tirin (Takver), derivative work: Tceditwiki - CC-BY-SA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Marguerite Bay, Antarctica by Blagoj Klincharski - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Opening of eastern Indian Ocean 40 Ma by Fama Clamosa - CC-BY-SA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Paleogeographic Reconstruction of WARS and TAM by Paul Fitzgerald - CC-BY-SA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Penitentiary on Sarah Island by Scott Davis - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Sailing ship Götheborg visited Helsinki on 8-15 June 2008. 4K by Kauko Helavuo - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Tectonic plate model 1Ga by Andrew Merdith - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Australia Western Australia relief location map by Betterkeks - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Basalt Columns - geograph.org.uk - 270819 by Rob Farrow - CC-BY-SA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Glacier Point - Yosemite National Park by flickr.com/photos/44534236@N00 - CC-BY - https://archive.org/details/Flickr-80...
Lamsu village, Kargil during Summers by Sajjadzairi - CC-BY-SA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Modelling last glacial cycle ice dynamics in the Alps by Julien Seguinot, Copernicus Publications - CC-BY - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Muguthang Valley by RaiNJL - CC-BY-SA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Maps: The Empty Continent.

#Tasmania #Australia #Geography