The first European to visit the area was the French explorer Nicholas Baudin who sailed into Spring Bay in La Geographe in 1802.

"Triabunna" is an Aboriginal Tasmanian word for the endemic Tasmanian native-hen. Many of these birds – which can reach speeds of up to 50 kilometres/31 miles an hour - can be seen foraging near streams and pastureland in the area.

The town was founded in 1830 as a station of the 63rd regiment. With the establishment of a penal colony on Maria Island some of the officers decided to settle on the mainland. One of the earliest European settlers was Major Thomas Lord who was the Commandant of Darlington Penal Settlement on Maria Island from 1825-32. He called his property Okehampton and had a signal station set up so he could communicate with his officers on the island.

Maria Island National Park covers an entire island just a short ferry ride from Tasmania’s east coast town of Triabunna yet a world away from the 21st century.

From Aboriginal contact to whaling and sealing post, from penal settlement to Italianate rural utopia and health resort, Maria Island inspired both intense sorrow and huge dreams in its long history of human habitation.

Today it is a wildlife refuge - home to the threatened Cape Barren goose, Forester kangaroo and Flinders Island wombat, which never lived here naturally but have been introduced from mainland Tasmania and thrive amongst the few remaining buildings.

Triabunna has a permanent population of over 700 people. Its main industries are fishing and a major wood chip mill at Point Home and is in close proximity of beautiful beaches, churches and other buildings of historic interest. The weather on Tasmania's east coast is some of the best experienced in the state.

This allows the visitor and local residents to enjoy a myriad of leisure activities such as fishing, sailing, surfing, diving, tennis, bowls or golf.

The town of Triabunna is just over an hours’ drive (88 kilometres) north-east from Hobart and has many facilities including a School, Skill Centre, Service Station, Police Station, Post Office, Supermarket, Butchers, Hardware Store, Chemist, Hairdresser, Medical Centre, Laundry, Real Estate Office, Bakery, Surf Shop, Opportunity Shop, Takeaway, RSL, two hotels, Service Tasmanian Shop, Giraween Gardens, and a Marina.

Triabunna averages a mild maximum temperature of 22.5 degrees Celsius in summer and 10-15 degrees Celsius in winter.