Tasmania
Where is it?
Upon hearing "Tasmania", many people think of the Tasmanian Devil (both the cartoon and the animal, though I think the first thought is mostly the cartoon.) Second thought is "Where is that?" and that's usually one of the first questions I answer. Now, I am not a Tasmanian, but my fiance is, so I've taken it upon myself to study this country/state that I plan to move to. Tasmania is an Australian state, 150 miles south of the eastern side of the main continent, separated from it by the Bass Strait. It has an area of 26,410 square miles, and an estimated population of 494,520 (as of March 2008). In comparison, the island would fit over slightly half of the Central Valley here in California, with a population close to that of the Modesto metropolitan area. The state capital and largest city is Hobart. Other major population centres include Devonport and Burnie in the northwest, and Launceston (my future home) in the north. (To learn more about Launceston, go here.)
Tasmania's mountains are lower than the Rockies or Sierra Nevada, yet are equally rugged, untracked, and unspoilt. Tasmania is also isolated: East of it 2000 miles lies New Zealand, and beyond that, the whole of the Pacific Ocean, with only S America projecting further south. West of Tasmania lies the whole of the Indian and Southern Oceans, with winds blowing nonstop all around the Southern Hemisphere, so that Cape Grim on Tas's far NW Coast has a sampling station with the cleanest air on Earth.
South of Tasmania is one distant small island, Macquarie, and south of that, nothing until the continent of Antarctica itself. This isolation and separation, in the middle of the Roaring Forties
, means Tasmania has a milder, moister climate than mainland Australia, similar to Northern California and Southern Oregon, with less extreme temperatures but also less rainfall.
What Makes it Unique?
In other words, why would I want to live there? There are many advantages as far as living costs, schooling, benefits, cheap power and water. Aside from living and education though, there is much beauty to the land, and animals not found elsewhere. Tasmania is promoted as the Natural State and the Island of Inspiration
; almost 37% of Tasmania is in reserves, National Parks and World Heritage Sites. It is home to animals such as the echidna and playtpus (monotremes, mammals which lay eggs and feed their young on milk) and kangaroos and wallabies (marsupials, mammals which rear their young in pouches on their bellies).
It has only five small cities: even the Capital, Hobart, on the side of a large estuary, is only 180,000 people. Tasmania is broadly comparable to Newfoundland, Canada, in its remoteness from the mainland, and its mainly wild and mountainous regions. California has 125% the population of the whole of Australia, which is roughly the size of the USA, with only 8 large cities.
The major population centres aside from small country towns are Hobart c.180,000, Launceston 85,000, Devonport 40,000, Burnie and Ulverstone 30,000, plus communities between them. The Hobart area includes the cities of Glenorchy and Clarence, which are all part of the same stringy conurbation. They are all ports, railheads and have regional airports capable of airbus and 737 size aircraft, and all are modern western cities with the same industries, services and support these cities would have in California. Hobart and Launceston have large Government university campuses.
It has one of the country's leading medical schools, at the forefront of SIDS and genetic research, as well as its most advanced Maritime College, and an ecologically unspoilt, 'clean, green' image and relaxed lifestyle envied by the rest of the country.