Fanny Cochrane's mother Tanganutura and a man named Nicremeric or Nicermenic, sometimes reported as her father, were two of the Tasmanian Aboriginals settled on Flinders Island in the 1830s by George Augustus Robinson; according to Tindale her father was Cottrel Cochrane, of European descent, and Nicremeric was her stepfather. She was born at Settlement Point (or Wybalenna, meaning Black Man's House) on Flinders Island. No indigenous name is known; Robinson gave European names to all the Indigenous Tasmanians who arrived at the Island as part of his attempt to suppress their culture.