 Founded in 1804 as a British penal colony, Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney, New South Wales.Prior to British settlement, the Hobart area had been occupied for possibly as long as 35,000 years, by the semi-nomadic Mouheneener tribe, a sub-group of the Nuennone, or South-East tribe.The descendants of these Aboriginal Tasmanians often refer to themselves as 'Palawa'.