Where does the speaker come from?

I was born in Tasmania. It was named after its discoverer, A. J. Tasman. Tasmania is an island off the south coast of Australia. It’ s the smallest state of Australia, about the size of Ireland. And the weather there is much like the north coast of Spain, neither very cold nor very hot.
   It used to be a prison for the British Empire. It was a good prison because it’ s an island. The sea off Tasmania is full of sharks. Anyone who tried to escape got eaten by sharks. So there was no escape. But things have improved since the eighteenth century and Tasmania is famous for better reasons. Really, it’s a very beautiful place, with a wonderful natural environment. So tourism is a major industry, with farming and also food production following closely behind.
   The scenery is very beautiful. And it’ s got rare animals and unique plants. There are only half a million people, so it’ s a large island with a small population. There are long beaches, mostly empty, no people at all. You can have a whole beach to yourself. On the west coast it’ s very mountainous. About a third of the state is National Park and complete wilderness. In many places it’ s possible to walk for maybe ten days without seeing a road or another human-being.