History of Maria Island?

Aborigines The first people to visit Maria Island were the Oyster Bay tribe of Aborigines. They used to travel across the water to collect colourful stones from the cliffs at Bloodstone Point. They used the colouring to put on their hair. They also used to collect the shellfish for food and the reeds on the island to make their canoes.

Convicts
In 1825 fifty convicts and some soldiers arrived at Darlington. These were not really bad convicts. Most of them were only there for small crimes. They started a settlement at Darlington. They built brick and stone buildings and set up sawmilling, blacksmithing, tanning, brick-making and cloth-making. There were never more than one hundred and sixty convicts during this time.

The settlement was closed in 1832 because Port Arthur was established and they didn't really need Maria Island as well. Between 1832 and 1842 there was still whaling, smuggling and farming taking place on the island.

In 1842 they used Maria Island again for convicts. This time it was for convicts on probation - ones that had nearly finished their sentence. Darlington was re-opened and the convicts were graded into three groups depending on their behaviour. There were over 600 convicts on the island by 1844. They built lots more buildings and grew crops. This convict era finished in 1850.

Industrial Era
In 1884 an Italian businessman called Diego Bernacchi was allowed to rent the island cheaply from the government as long as he started a wine and silk industry. He did, but by 1887 he also had farms, a cement works, a timber industry and a fishing industry.

He renovated the old convict buildings and built a resort style hotel and a coffee palace. There was a school on the island and lots of people living there. He even changed the name of Darlington to San Diego, after himself. He went broke in 1891 and left the island. After this the island was used mainly for farming. Most of the other people went with him. This is a photo of the Bernacchi family.

In 1924 Diego Bernacchi opened up a new cement works on Maria Island but within only a few months they were having financial problems and the future of the 500 people living on the island looked grim. In 1930 the company was closed down and lots of people left the island again.

The Robey, French, Howells, McCraig and McCulloch families ran sheep and cattle on the island for many years.

National Park
In 1965 Maria Island became an animal sanctuary and in 1972 it was taken over by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It has been used for wildlife rescue operations and a number of species were introduced to the island like Cape Barren geese, Forester kangaroos and emus.