In 1802 Martha Hayes was transported from England to what was then called Van Diemen’s Land, accompanying her convict mother. The teenager was the first white female to set foot in the new colony and, having become pregnant on the voyage, she gave birth to the first white child – a baby girl – on the island we now call Lutruwita/Tasmania.
While that child had a convict grandmother, her father was Lt John Bowen, a colonial administrator who led the first white settlement at Risdon Cove.
