What is the name of the body of water between Tasmania and mainland Australia?

Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the Australian mainland, specifically the state of Victoria.

Some authorities consider the strait to be part of the Pacific Ocean as in the never-approved 2002 IHO (International Hydrographic Organization) Limits of Oceans and Seas draft.

The Australian Hydrographic Service does not consider it to be part of the Southern Ocean, using the expanded Australian definition, and states that it lies with the Tasman Sea.

Aboriginal Tasmanians came to Tasmania approximately 40,000 years, ago across a land bridge called the Bassian Plain during the last glacial period. Sea levels rose to form Bass Strait 8,000 years ago leaving them isolated from the rest of Australia.