subs. (obsolete Australian).—Rowdyism: i.e., pertaining to Van Diemen’s Land, the old name of Tasmania when a convict settlement, with a glance at ‘demon.’ Also VANDEMONIAN, adj.
1852. G. C. MUNDY, Our Antipodes (1855), 533. The VAN DIEMONIANS, as they unpleasingly call themselves or permit themselves to be called, are justly proud of their horse-flesh.
1853. S. SIDNEY, The Three Colonies of Australia (2nd ed.), 171. One of the first acts of the Legislative Assemblies created by the Australian Reform Bill of 1850 was to pass … acts levelled against VAN DIEMONIAN expirees.
1855. W. HOWITT, Two Years in Victoria, i. 367. Unquestionably some of the VAN DIEMENIAN convicts.
1863. Victorian Hansard, 22 April, ix. 701. Mr. Houston looked upon the conduct of hon. gentlemen opposite as ranging from the extreme of VANDEMONIANISM to the extreme of nambypambyism.
1867. Cassell’s Magazine, 440. ‘I never wanted to leave England,’ I have heard an old VANDEMONIAN observe boastfully. ‘I wasn’t like one of these “Jemmy Grants” (cant term for ‘emigrants’); I could always earn a good living; it was the Government as took and sent me out.’
