MARIA ISLAND

island in the Tasman Sea, 4 mi (6 1/2 km) off the east coast of Tasmania, Australia. Extending 12 mi northsouth and up to 8 mi eastwest, it comprises two sections, linked by a narrow sandy isthmus, and has an area of 23,906 ac (9,672 ha). It rises to 3,002 ft (915 m) near the rugged northeast coast. It was sighted in 1642 by Abel Tasman, the Dutch navigator, who named it after the wife of the governor general of the Dutch East Indies, Anthony van Diemen. A sealing and whaling centre early in the 19th century, the island was the site from 1825 to 1832 of the Darlington penal settlement. During the late 19th century wine and silk enterprises were established, and cement was manufactured in the 1920s from local limestone. In 1972 the island was made a national park.