James Goodwin

James Goodwin (c. 1800 – after 1835) was a convict escapee and explorer in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). Born in or near Northampton, he was convicted of thieving in 1821 and sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. Goodwin sailed to Hobart on the Lord Hungerford and worked for Thomas Scott, assistant to Surveyor General George Frankland, gaining knowledge about the Tasmanian interior. In March 1828, Goodwin and fellow convict Thomas Connolly escaped from Sarah Island prison and became the first white men to pass through the Lake St Clair region. Goodwin is believed to be the first white man to have traversed Tasmania from west to east.