Van Diemen's Land is the name originally used by the British for Tasmania, an island state of Australia. It was named Anthoonij van Diemenslandt in honor of Anthony van Diemen, Governor General of India for the Dutch East India Company, who sent Abel Tasman out on his voyage of discovery in 1642. It was changed in 1856 to honour Tasman himself, the first European to discover the island, and possibly also to remove the association with the severe penal colony that the original name evoked.
