United Tasmania Group
political group in Tasmania, Australia
The United Tasmania Group (UTG) was an Australian political party based in the state of Tasmania, which is generally acknowledged as the world's first green party to contest elections. The party was formed on 23 March 1972, during a meeting of the Lake Pedder Action Committee (LPAC) at the Hobart Town Hall in order to field political candidates in the April 1972 state election.
1970s
UTG contested ten state and federal elections between 1972 and 1977, with 46 candidates overall, with the highest vote of 9.9% in the Legislative Council election with Rod Broadby in 1975 (see Appendix 4, UTG Journal Issue No. 6, 2021). At its peak, sometime in 1976-1977 UTG had over 500 members, 17 branches across Tasmania, and 14 Policy Development Committees (see Appendices 1 & 2 in The UTG Journal No. 6, Special 50th anniversary edition).
The United Tasmania Group's first President was Dr Richard Jones and it lasted for five years, but the UTG name was used for the purpose of contesting the 1990 federal election (none of the six candidates were members of UTG). One of the 1970s candidates Bob Brown, went on to form the Tasmanian Greens and then ultimately, at the national level, the Australian Greens.
2010s
On 2 April 2016 following a meeting, former members of the party re-started the group.
The United Tasmania Group launched The UTG Journal in 2018.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “United Tasmania Group” is political group in Tasmania, Australia. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through United, Tasmania and Group, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “political group in Tasmania, Australia” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q485914. VIAF identifies the subject as 308253962. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1972, 1977, 1975 and 2021.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “United Tasmania Group”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow United Tasmania Group primary sources, United Tasmania Group archive and United research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “United Tasmania Group”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “United Tasmania Group” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.