Tasmania, which is about the size of Ireland, is separated from the mainland by the 240-kilometer-wide Bass Strait. The natives of the former island of Van Diemen's Land, discovered by Abel Tasman in 1642, who lived approx. They inhabited their homeland for 20,000 years, and in the middle of the 19th century, the white settlers completely wiped it out in half a century - not a single messenger remained, so their culture remained mostly unknown. However, part of the Tasmanian wilderness that once covered the entire island has been saved for posterity with international help: the four national parks of Western Tasmania are world heritage sites, preserving the last patches and wildlife of the temperate rainforests that have largely been eradicated. The national parks are dominated by large expanses of evergreen beech and rare eucalyptus forests. The last remnants of the vegetation from the ancient continent can also be found here. The vast expanse of wilderness provides safe haven for the only marsupial predator, the Tasmanian devil.