What happens
The Pacific Story presents a documentary look at Tasmania, the island off the southeast corner of Australia once used as a penal colony. The program traces its discovery by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, who named it Van Diemen's Land, and follows its later development. It describes Hobart and Launceston, the apple orchards, the mining centers and hydroelectric plants, the forests and sawmills, and the island's growing tourist trade. It also describes the prison escape and the tense standoff at Eagle Hawk Neck, and the island's prosperity and post-war challenges.
Tasmania, an island off the southeast corner of Australia, in the Pacific Ocean
Characters: Abel Tasman, Jacobson, William Paterson, David Collins
Listen for: Tasman's crewman Jacobson swimming ashore with the Dutch flag, and the account of the prison escape at Eagle Hawk Neck
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.