The Aboriginal Tasmanians by Lyndall Ryan (1981, revised 1996) — The definitive scholarly account of the Palawa people: their culture before European settlement, the violence of the colonial period, and the survival and resurgence of Aboriginal identity in Tasmania. Essential reading before visiting Tiagarra or anywhere on the northwest coast. Ryan's research overturned the long-held myth that the Tasmanian Aboriginals had been entirely wiped out.
Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan (2001) — A wild, formally adventurous novel set in the convict settlement of Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania's remote west coast. Flanagan is Tasmania's most celebrated novelist, and this book captures the strange, violent, and beautiful quality of the island's early colonial history. Not easy reading, but unforgettable.
The Roving Party by Rohan Wilson (2011) — A spare, powerful novel set during the Black War of the 1820s and 1830s, following John Batman's roving party as it hunted Aboriginal Tasmanians across the midlands. Wilson tells the story from multiple perspectives without flinching. Devastating and important.
In Tasmania by Nicholas Shakespeare (2004) — Shakespeare moved to Tasmania and wrote this part-history, part-memoir as he investigated the island's past — including his own family's colonial connections. An accessible and thoughtful introduction to the character of Tasmania, covering convict history, the fate of the Aboriginal population, and what makes the island feel unlike the rest of Australia.