History of Victoria

Last updated

The history of Victoria refers to the history of the Australian state of Victoria and the area's preceding Indigenous and British colonial societies.

Contents

Before British colonisation of Australia, many Aboriginal peoples lived in the area now known as Victoria. After the first Europeans settled there in October 1803, in September 1836 the area became part of the colony of New South Wales, known as the District of Port Phillip. In July 1851, the District of Port Phillip was established as its own colony, becoming the Colony of Victoria, with its own government within the British Empire. During the 1850s, gold was discovered in Clunes and Buninyong in Ballarat in 1851, which was the start of the Victorian Gold Rush. In 1901 it became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Aboriginal history

Map of Aboriginal peoples of Victoria language territories Map Victoria Aboriginal tribes (colourmap).jpg
Map of Aboriginal peoples of Victoria language territories

The state of Victoria was originally home to many Aboriginal nations that had occupied the land for tens of thousands of years. [1] According to Gary Presland, Aboriginal people have lived in Victoria for about 40,000 years, [2] living a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farming eels, as is evident in the Budj Bim heritage areas. [3]

At the Keilor Archaeological Site a human hearth excavated in 1971 was radiocarbon-dated to about 31,000 years BP, making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia. [4] A cranium found at the site has been dated at between 12,000 [5] and 14,700 years BP. [4]

Archaeological sites in Tasmania and on the Bass Strait Islands have been dated to between 20,000 – 35,000 years ago, when sea levels were 130 metres below present level allowing Aboriginal people to move across the region of southern Victoria and on to the land bridge of the Bassian plain to Tasmania by at least 35,000 years ago. [6] [7]

During the Ice Age about 20,000 years BP, the area now the bay of Port Phillip would have been dry land, and the Yarra and Werribee river would have joined to flow through the heads then south and south west through the Bassian plain before meeting the ocean to the west. Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands became separated from mainland Australia around 12,000 BP, when the sea level was approximately 50 metres (160 ft) below present levels. [8] Port Phillip was flooded by post-glacial rising sea levels between 8000 and 6000 years ago. [9]

Oral history and creation stories from the Wathaurong, Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung languages describe the flooding of the bay, which they call Narm-Narm; it was previously covered in scrubby tea-tree and was a kangaroo hunting ground. Aboriginal creation stories describe how Bunjil was responsible for the formation of the bay, [7] or the bay was flooded when the Yarra River was created. [10] Another story says that Balayang the bat created the oceans, rivers, and creeks.

Early European exploration

Coming from New Zealand in 1770, Lieutenant James Cook in HM Bark Endeavour sighted land at Point Hicks, about 70 km west of Gabo Island, before turning east and north to follow the coast of Australia.

Ships sailing from Great Britain to Sydney crossed the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean, sailing around Van Diemen's Land before turning north to their destination. Several captains viewed the expanse of water between Van Diemen's Land and the east coast of New South Wales and wondered whether it was a large bay or a strait. Survivors of Sydney Cove, wrecked in the Furneaux Group of islands, also thought it might be a strait.

To clear up the question, Governor John Hunter sent George Bass to explore thoroughly the coast in a whaleboat. After reaching Wilsons Promontory and Western Port in January 1798 bad weather and lack of provisions forced him to return to Sydney. Bass returned with Matthew Flinders in December 1798 in Norfolk and sailed through the strait, proving its existence.

In December 1800, Lieutenant James Grant in HMS Lady Nelson, on way from Cape Town to Sydney, sailed through Bass Strait from west to east. Governor King, disappointed at the vagueness of Grant's chart, sent him back to survey the strait more thoroughly. Bad weather prevented him from proceeding beyond Western Port, where he stayed for five weeks, planting wheat, Indian corn, peas, rice, coffee and potatoes on Churchill Island off Phillip Island. [11]

In 1801 Harbinger, under John Black, was the second vessel to sail through Bass Strait en route to Port Jackson. She reached the coast near Cape Otway on 1 January 1801, then veered sharply south-west to the north-western tip of Governor King's Island (now King Island), which Black named after the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King. She then sailed easterly towards Wilsons Promontory. Proceeding around the tip of the promontory, Black discovered the Hogan Group, which he named after the ship's owner Michael Hogan. Harbinger arrived in Port Jackson on 12 January 1801. [12]

In January 1802 Lieutenant John Murray in Lady Nelson visited Western Port and entered Port Phillip on 14 February. He named Arthur's Seat, explored Corio Bay and formally took possession of the bay (which he named Port King) for Britain. The bay was then known as Narm-Narm by the people of the Kulin Nation, and Murray called the bay Port King after the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King. On 4 September 1805, King formally renamed it Port Phillip, in honour of his predecessor Arthur Phillip. Murray chose to base the Lady Nelson off what is now known as Sorrento Beach.

During this voyage, Murray records in his journal his first encounter with local Aboriginal peoples in the eastern Melbourne region. This initially friendly encounter started with trading, eating, and gifting, and was suddenly interrupted by a violent ambush by another group of Aboriginal people. The crew in response shot at the Aboriginal people, and continued to shoot at them as they fled, inflicting likely mortal wounds on two of them. Murray then ordered the ship carronades to be fired at the fleeing Aboriginal people. [13]

"They were all clothed in opossum skins and in each basket a certain quantity of gum was found. ... if we may judge from the number of their fires and other marks this part of the country is not thin of inhabitants. Their spears are of various kinds and all of them more dangerous than any I have yet seen."

Three weeks later the French explorer Nicolas Baudin sailed through the strait from east to west and was the first to properly survey the coast to the west. In April 1802, a French expedition ship Le Naturaliste under Jacques Hamelin explored the area around French Island, as part of the Baudin expedition to Australia. It named the island Ile des Français, since Anglicised as French Island.

On 26 April 1802, Flinders, unaware of Murray's visit, entered Port Phillip in Investigator, climbed Arthur's Seat, rowed to Mornington and across to the Bellarine Peninsula and climbed the You Yangs.

In January 1803 Acting-Lieutenant Charles Robbins in the schooner HMS Cumberland sailed right around Port Phillip. With him were acting surveyor-general Charles Grimes, Mr James Meehan and gardener James Fleming. [14] At the head of the bay they found a river and followed it upstream where it soon divided. They followed the western branch and named it the Saltwater River (the present Maribyrnong) to what is now Braybrook, and then the eastern fresh-water branch (the Yarra) to Dights Falls. They had a friendly meeting with local Aboriginal people and returned to their ship via Corio Bay. They concluded that the best site for a settlement would be on the freshwater at the northern head of the bay, but were unenthusiastic about the soil and its agricultural potential.

1803 British settlement

With Britain involved in the French revolutionary wars, Governor King was concerned that Bass Strait could harbour enemy raiders, and that in peace time it could provide an important trade route and trading base. The appearance of Baudin's ships served to reinforce the concern that France was interested in the area. King was also looking for an alternative settlement for the increasing number of convicts in Sydney and to reduce the pressure on food resources. Port Phillip, with a favourable climate and rich fishing and sealing resources, seemed an ideal location for another settlement.

A full description of Murray's and Flinders' discoveries, together with King's thoughts on settlement, but not Grimes' report, reached England just as HMS Calcutta was being prepared to send a shipload of convicts to Sydney. In February 1803, Lord Hobart the Secretary of State changed the destination to Port Phillip. On 24 April 1803 HMS Calcutta, commanded by Captain Daniel Woodriff, with Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins as commander of the expedition, left England accompanied by the store-ship Ocean . The expedition consisted of 402 people: 5 Government officials, 9 officers of marines, 2 drummers, and 39 privates, 5 soldiers' wives, and a child, 307 convicts, 17 convicts' wives, and 7 children. [15] One of the children was the eleven-year-old John Pascoe Fawkner, later a founder of Melbourne, who accompanied his convicted father and mother.

Map of Sullivan Bay, Victoria Sullivanbig.png
Map of Sullivan Bay, Victoria

The party entered Port Phillip on 9 October 1803 and chose a site at Sullivan Bay near present-day Sorrento.

Collins was soon disappointed with the area. Reports from exploring parties led by Lieutenant James Tuckey and surveyor George Harris described strong currents, sandy soil, poor timber, swampy land and scarce fresh water. They also clashed with the Wathaurung people near Corio Bay, killing their leader – the first Aborigines known to have been killed by settlers in Victoria.

Collins reported his criticisms to Governor King, who supported him and recommended moving the settlement. On 18 December Calcutta departed for Port Jackson, and the party was prepared for evacuation. This was achieved in two voyages of Ocean in January and May 1804, assisted by HMS Lady Nelson which had been surveying Port Dalrymple on the north coast of Van Diemens Land. The party was transferred to the fledgling settlement of Hobart, founded by Lieutenant John Bowen as a penal colony at Risdon Cove in September 1803.

The brief settlement at Sorrento achieved little and left only a few relics for modern tourists to observe. Collins has been criticised for not investigating the bay thoroughly, in particular, the northern head with its fresh-water river, and for being too hasty in his condemnation of the bay. The site of the settlement is now a reserve incorporating four graves from the period. [16] [17]

When Collins departed, several convicts – who had escaped when they heard the colony was leaving for Van Diemen's Land – were left behind. They were presumed killed by Aboriginal people. However, William Buckley survived, meeting Wathaurong people on the Bellarine Peninsula and living with them for the next 32 years. (In 1835 he became aware of John Batman's Port Phillip Association camp and reintroduced himself to Europeans.) [18]

For the next thirty years a few sealers and whalers rested on the southern coast of New South Wales.

Interest grows in the north coast of Bass Strait

Following a number of exploratory expeditions south from the settled areas of New South Wales, the pastoralist Hamilton Hume and former sea-captain William Hovell set off to explore the country to the south in October 1824. They crossed the Murray River (which they named the Hume River) near the site of Albury and continued south. They crossed the Goulburn River (which they called the Hovell) above the site of Yea, and were forced to detour around mountains. They arrived on the shores of Corio Bay, mistakenly believing it to be Western Port, and returned to Sydney in January 1825, lavishly praising the quality of the country they had passed through.

In April 1826 the French explorer d'Urville visited one of the sealers' camps on Phillip Island. Worried by this renewed French interest in the area and encouraged by Hume and Hovell's reports, Governor Darling ordered a settlement to be established at Western Port. A small convict party arrived in November 1826 at Corinella under the command of Samuel Wright, to protect the approaches to the bay. Hovell, accompanying the party, soon realised that this was not where he had arrived two years before, and reported unfavourably on the swampy land around Western Port, although he referred to better land to the north. In spite of clearing the land for crops, and the construction of a fort and houses, the settlement was abandoned in April 1828.

The shortage of good pasture in Van Diemen's Land led to settlers there showing interest in the country across Bass Strait, following Hume and Hovell's reports and stories of visiting sealers. Pastoralist John Batman and surveyor John Wedge planned an expedition from Launceston in 1825 but permission was not granted. A number of settlers sought land over the next few years, but Governor Darling turned down all requests.

A sealer and whaler William Dutton built a hut on the shore of Portland Bay in 1829 where he resided for a time prior to the arrival of the Hentys.

The expedition down the Murray River by Charles Sturt in 1830 again aroused interest in settlement in the south. In April 1833 Edward Henty, returning to Van Diemen's Land from Spencer Gulf called in to Portland for a cargo of oil, and was much impressed. In November 1834 John Hart, another sailor, reported favourably in Launceston on Western Port. It was now inevitable that settlement would occur.

In June 1834 banker Charles Swanston advised his client George Mercer that land was scarce in Van Diemen's Land and he should invest across Bass Strait. Pastoralists John Aitken and George Russell suggested forming a partnership, and in August 1834 a group of eight Launceston capitalists formed what became the Port Phillip Association. On 19 November 1834 Edward Henty landed in Portland Bay and began the first permanent European settlement on the north coast of Bass Strait.

Permanent European settlement

Victoria's first successful British settlement was at Portland, on the west coast of what is now Victoria. Portland was settled on 19 November 1834 [19] by the Henty family, who were originally farmers from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). When Major Thomas Mitchell led an expedition to the region from Sydney in 1835, arriving at Portland in August 1836, he was surprised to find a small but prosperous community living off the fertile farmland.

In 1835, John Pascoe Fawkner and the Port Phillip Association (led by John Batman) started the Port Phillip settlement that later become known as Melbourne.

Borders

The District of Port Phillip was formally established as an administrative division within the Colony of New South Wales in September 1836, though with ill-defined borders. In 1839, the District was defined as consisting of all the lands within New South Wales south of 36°S latitude, and between 141°E (that is, the border with the future Colony of South Australia) and 146°E longitude. [20] Coinciding with the introduction of a fixed-price land sale scheme in January 1840, the District was expanded north to follow the course of the Murrumbidgee River from its source to the Pacific coast at Moruya. [21] However, the border was retracted south to the Murray River after extensive opposition in Sydney, including from the Legislative Council, [21] [22] all of whom were appointed by the Sovereign or the Governor of the Colony. [23] When the Legislative Council was expanded and restructured to include 12 appointed members and 24 members elected by eligible landowners, taking effect from the 1843 colonial elections, the newly created electoral districts included Port Phillip (to be represented by 5 members) and the Town of Melbourne. [24] On 1 July 1843, a proclamation formalised the border as running from Cape Howe, to the nearest source of the Murray River, and then along the course of the Murray to the border with South Australia. [20]

Borders of the District of Port Phillip within the Colony of New South Wales
Port Phillip District location map 1839.svg
formalised in 1839
Port Phillip District location map 1840.svg
January 1840
Australia Victoria location map blank.svg
1 July 1843 – 1 July 1851

Elected representatives for Port Phillip and Melbourne needed to be in Sydney to serve in the Legislative Council, placing them at a great distance from the areas they represented, and they were consequently considered ineffective and out-of-touch by locals. [25] [26] :23–27 In protest and in support of a campaign for independence, [27] [28] the 1848 election scheduled for 27 July [29] was disrupted by not nominating candidates for Port Phillip [30] and putting forward for the Town of Melbourne the incumbent Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in the British Cabinet, Earl Grey. Grey received nearly 75% of the vote [31] despite Grey having never visited the Colony and being ineligible as a current member of the British Parliament. [32] [33] A second writ was issued to elect five representatives for Port Phillip in October 1848. [34] Following the strategy involving Earl Grey, the nominees included the Duke of Wellington, Lord Palmerston, Lord Brougham, Lord John Russell, and Sir Robert Peel but local representatives were elected. [35] Grey never attempted to take up his seat and it was declared vacant in 1850 [25] [32] [33] and a replacement elected. [36] The independence campaign continued and led Grey to introduce the Australian Colonies Government Act 1850 into the British Parliament, separating the District of Port Phillip from New South Wales to become the Colony of Victoria from 2 July 1851. [25] [32] The separation occurred along the 1843 borders and still apply to the modern State of Victoria. The same Act created bicameral legislatures and instituted self-government for each colony. [25]

Conflict over resources

With the dispossession of Aboriginal peoples from their lands with the establishment of sheep runs by squatters, conflict over resources and land use inevitably occurred. One highly notable incident called the Convincing Ground massacre occurred in Portland Bay in 1833 or 1834 in a possible dispute about a beached whale between whalers and the Kilcarer gundidj clan of the Gunditjmara people. [37]

Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, also from Van Diemen's Land and quickly grew into a thriving community, although at great human cost to the original inhabitants. Its foundation was the result of an invasion of wealthy squatters, land speculators and their indentured servants (including ex-convicts) who arrived from 1835, in a race with one another to seize an 'empty' country. The British Crown and colonial governments did not recognise prior Aboriginal ownership of their lands, waters and property, in spite of claiming that Aborigines fell within the protection of the law as British subjects.

Early in 1836, Mr Franks, one of the first immigrants to the region, and his shepherd were found dead as a result of steel hatchet wounds to the head. His station was near Cotterill's Mount, called the Sugarloaf, near the river Exe, now Werribee. Upon discovering the scene, and a nearby food store which appeared to have been ransacked, George Smith travelled to Point Gellibrand and formed an exploratory band. The party was sent out led by tour of the Melbourne tribe, [38] and encountered a camp from the Indigenous Wathaurong tribe, whereupon an unclear incident occurred. Port Philip Police Magistrate Captain William Lonsdale advised the Colonel Secretary that no harm was inflicted on the Aboriginal people, however Wathaurong histories report that 35 of their people were murdered in retaliatory violence. [39] The Traralgon Record newspaper reported in 1915 that the party "took vengeance on the murderes" (referring to the untried Wathaurong people), [38] while The Cornwall Chronicle of Tasmania reported with approval in 1836 that the band had scouted the Wathaurong camp overnight, and in the morning launched an attack with the intent of "annihilating them". [40] The incident is today remembered as "The Mount Cottrell massacre".

Between 1836 and 1842, Victorian Aboriginal groups were largely dispossessed of territory bigger than England. [41] Although the British Colonial Office appointed 5 "Aboriginal Protectors" for the entire Aboriginal population of Victoria, arriving in Melbourne in 1839, they worked "...within a land policy that nullified their work, and there was no political will to change this." [42] "It was government policy to encourage squatters to take possession of whatever [Aboriginal] land they chose,....that largely explains why almost all the original inhabitants of Port Phillip's vast grasslands were dead so soon after 1835". [43] By 1845, fewer than 240 wealthy Europeans held all the pastoral licences then issued in Victoria and became the patriarchs "...that were to wield so much political and economic power in Victoria for generations to come." [44]

Regarding the infamous Trial of R vs Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener, "Tragically two of these (Aboriginal) men, Tunnerminnerwait (known as Jack) and Maulboyheenner (known as Bob, or sometimes called Timmy or Jimmy), became the first people executed in the Port Phillip District. This took place in 1842, a mere seven years after John Batman's treaties with the Kuhn people, when the two Tasmanian Aboriginal men were publicly hanged for murder." [45] The Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner public marker exists at the place of execution near the site of the Old Melbourne Gaol, with artwork by Brook Andrew and Trent Walter. [46]

A severe financial crisis took place in 1842–3, mainly due to the Government demanding from the banks the large rate of 7% for all moneys deposited with them, the result of land sales. The banks had to charge their customers from 10 to 12% for loans, very often on questionable securities. It was then accelerated by Lord John Russell's instructions that all lands out of town boundaries to be sold at only £1 per acre. Sheep that had been bought at from 30s to 40s per head are now sold at less than 2s. The Insolvent Court was rushed by all classes of the community.[ citation needed ]

Separation from New South Wales

The first petition for the separation of the Port Phillip District (or 'Australia Felix') from New South Wales was drafted in 1840 by Henry Fyshe Gisborne and presented by him to Governor Gipps. Gipps, who had previously been in favour of separation, rejected the petition.

Agitation of the Port Phillip settlers continued and led to the establishment of Port Phillip District as a separate colony on 1 July 1851. The British Act of Parliament separating Port Phillip District from New South Wales, and naming the new colony "Victoria" (after Queen Victoria) and providing it with a Constitution, was signed by Queen Victoria on 5 August 1850. Enabling legislation was passed by the New South Wales Legislative Council to take effect on 1 July 1851. This was formally the founding moment of the Colony of Victoria, with separation from New South Wales established by section 1 of the 1851 Act. [47] La Trobe became the new colony's first Lieutenant-Governor.

In 1851, the white population of the new colony was still only 77,000, and only 23,000 people lived in Melbourne. Melbourne had already become a centre of Australia's wool export trade.

1850s gold rush

In 1851 gold was first discovered in Clunes and Buninyong near Ballarat, [48] and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at many sites across Victoria. This triggered one of the largest gold rushes the world has ever seen. The colony grew rapidly in both population and economic power. In ten years the population of Victoria increased sevenfold from 76,000 to 540,000. All sorts of gold records were produced including the "richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world" and the largest gold nugget. Victoria produced in the decade 1851–1860, twenty million ounces of gold, one third of the world's output.

Immigrants arrived from all over the world to search for gold, principally from the British Isles and particularly from Ireland. Many Chinese miners worked in Victoria, and their legacy is particularly strong in Bendigo and its environs. Although there was some racism directed at them, there was not the level of anti-Chinese violence that was seen at the Lambing Flat riots in New South Wales. However, there was a riot at Buckland Valley near Bright in 1857. Conditions on the gold fields were cramped and unsanitary – an outbreak of typhoid at Buckland Valley in 1854 killed over 1,000 miners.

In 1854 there was an armed rebellion against the government of Victoria by miners protesting against mining taxes (the "Eureka Stockade"). This was crushed by British troops, but some of the leaders of the rebellion subsequently became members of the Victoria Parliament, and the rebellion is regarded as a pivotal moment in the development of Australian democracy.

Colonial politics

In 1857, reflecting the growing presence of Irish immigrants, in Victoria the British Empire had its first Catholic government leaders: John O'Shanassy as Premier, and the former Young Irelander, Charles Gavan Duffy his deputy. Melbourne's Protestant establishment was ill-prepared "to countenance so startling a novelty". [49] In 1858–59, Melbourne Punch cartoons linked Duffy and O'Shanassy with images of the French Revolution to undermine their Ministry. One famous Punch image, "Citizens John and Charles", depicted the pair as French revolutionaries holding the skull and cross bone flag of the so-called Victorian Republic. [50]

In 1862 Duffy's Land Act attempted, but failed, through a system of extended pastoral licences, to break the land-holding monopoly of the so-called "squatter" class. [51] In 1871 Duffy led the opposition to Premier Sir James McCulloch's plan to introduce a land tax, on the grounds that it unfairly penalised small farmers, and himself was briefly Premier (June 1871 to June 1872).

In 1866, the Victorian parliament passed the "McCulloch Tariff", which was the first recognisably and substantially protectionist piece of legislation in Australian tariff history, applying 10% duties to a range of manufactured commodities; there is no evidence, however, that it had an effect on the colony's manufacturing. [52] Although, further increases in protectionism in the late nineteenth century were consequential for Victoria manufacturing. [53]

The first foreign military action by the colony of Victoria was to send troops and a warship to New Zealand as part of the New Zealand Wars. Troops from New South Wales had previously participated in the Crimean War.

Kelly Gang

Ned Kelly the day before his execution in 1880. Ned Kelly in 1880.png
Ned Kelly the day before his execution in 1880.

From 1878 to 1880 Victoria was the location of the celebrated bushranger Ned Kelly and his gang. Historian Geoffrey Serle has called Kelly and his gang "the last expression of the lawless frontier in what was becoming a highly organised and educated society, the last protest of the mighty bush now tethered with iron rails to Melbourne and the world". [54] In the century after his execution in Melbourne in 1880, Kelly became a cultural icon, inspiring numerous works in the arts and popular culture, and is the subject of more biographies than any other Australian.

Depression of 1893

A period of prosperity in the 1880s led to a wild speculation in land and buildings, and money poured in from England. Land companies, mortgage societies, municipal bodies, building societies, and a host of other organisations all clamoured for a share in the good things that were on offer, and probably £40,000,000 flowed into Victoria during a period of six years. With so much money in circulation, a fictitious prosperity of a feverish sort resulted. The banks issued notes to the value of millions of pounds, and trade and industry flourished as never before. The reaction came quickly. Public confidence subsided like a pricked balloon. A run commenced on the banks, and the bursting of the boom brought with it widespread disaster.

In 1893, 14 banks failed, twelve of those with 905 branches throughout Australia, had liabilities assessed at £166,000,000, and thousands of people lost the whole of their possessions. Bank notes in many cases became worthless, and Victoria reached the farthest depth of a financial depression. Unemployment became widespread, wages and prices dropped and bankruptcies followed one another in disturbing sequence. The most drastic retrenchments were made by the Government and public bodies. [55]

1901 federation

At the beginning of 1901, following a proclamation by Queen Victoria, Victoria ceased to be an independent colony and became a state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Victorian and Tasmanian politicians were particularly active in the Federation process.

As a result of the gold rush, Melbourne became the financial centre of Australia and New Zealand. Between 1901 and 1927, Australia's Parliament sat in Melbourne while Canberra was under construction. It was also the largest city in Australia at the time, and the second largest city in the Empire (after London). [56]

World War II

Main articles: Australian home front during World War II, and Military history of Australia during World War II

See also

Notes

  1. Richard Broome, pp xviii–xxii, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, Allen & Unwin, 2005, ISBN   1-74114-569-4, ISBN   978-1-74114-569-4
  2. Gary Presland, The First Residents of Melbourne's Western Region, (revised edition), Harriland Press, 1997. ISBN   0-646-33150-7. Presland says on page 1: "There is some evidence to show that people were living in the Maribyrnong River valley, near present day Keilor, about 40,000 years ago."
  3. Gary Presland, Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People, Harriland Press (1985), Second edition 1994, ISBN   0-9577004-2-3. This book describes in some detail the archaeological evidence regarding Aboriginal life, culture, food gathering and land management.
  4. 1 2 Gary Presland, Keilor Archaeological Site , eMelbourne website. Accessed 3 November 2008
  5. Peter Brown, The Keilor Cranium Archived 15 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine , Peter Brown's Australian and Asian Palaeoanthropology, Accessed 3 November 2008
  6. Hanna Steyne, Investigating the Submerged Landscapes of Port Phillip Bay, Victoria Archived 23 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine Heritage Victoria, Accessed 3 November 2008
  7. 1 2 David Rhodes, Terra Culture Heritage Consultants, Channel Deepening Existing Conditions Final Report – Aboriginal Heritage Archived 1 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine , Prepared for Parsons Brinckerhoff & Port of Melbourne Corporation, August 2003. Accessed 3 November 2008
  8. Hanna Steyne, Investigating the Submerged Landscapes of Port Phillip Bay, Victoria Archived 23 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine Heritage Victoria, who sources (Lambeck & Chappell 2001) Accessed 3 November 2008
  9. Hanna Steyne, Investigating the Submerged Landscapes of Port Phillip Bay, Victoria Archived 23 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine Heritage Victoria, who sources(Bird 1993, Bowler 1966, Holdgate et al. 2001). Accessed 3 November 2008
  10. Ian Hunter, Yarra Creation Story Archived 4 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine , Wurundjeri Dreaming. Recorded 2004-5. Accessed 3 November 2008
  11. "Facts About Victoria". Gippsland Times . Vic.: National Library of Australia. 24 July 1941. p. 4. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  12. Eccleston, Gregory C. (2012), The Early Charting of Victoria's Coastline, Australian and New Zealand Map Society
  13. Lee, Ida (1915). The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson. London: Grafton & Co. p. 134.
  14. "[?]RIMES' CHART". The Argus . Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 21 September 1877. p. 7. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  15. "CORRESPONDENCE". The Advertiser . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 14 October 1901. p. 7. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  16. "Collins Settlement Historic Site, Sorrento" (PDF), Park Notes, Parks Victoria, July 2003, archived from the original (PDF) on 1 May 2012, retrieved 1 November 2011
  17. "Collins Settlement Site, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H1050, Heritage Overlay HO255". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria.
  18. Morgan, John (1852), The life and adventures of William Buckley thirty-two years a wanderer amongst the aborigines of then unexplored country round Port Phillip, now the province of Victoria., Hobart: A. Macdougall, OCLC   5345532, OL   6571577M
  19. "BIRTH OF MELBOURNE". The Argus . Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 13 October 1928. p. 6. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  20. 1 2 "What is the northern boundary of Victoria?". The Age . 21 April 1906. Archived from the original on 15 September 2009.
  21. 1 2 Shaw, A. G. L. (June 1982). "Agitation for the Separation of the Port Phillip District from the Colony of New South Wales, 1838–1850". Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society . 68 (1): 1–17. ISSN   0035-8762.
  22. Shaw, A. G. L. (1996). A History of the Port Phillip District: Victoria Before Separation. Carlton South, Victoria: Miegunyah Press. ISBN   0522846513.
  23. "Part Three—Members of the Legislative Council Appointed Prior to the Date of Responsible Government in 1856" (PDF). Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  24. An Act to provide for the division of the Colony of New South Wales into Electoral Districts and for the Election of Members to serve in the Legislative Council (PDF) (16). 23 February 1843. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  25. 1 2 3 4 McCombie, Thomas (1858). The History of the Colony of Victoria: From Its Settlement to the Death of Sir Charles Hotham. Melbourne: Sands and Kenny.
  26. Taylor, Greg (2006). "Victorian Constitutionalism: A Brief History". The Constitution of Victoria. Federation Press. pp. 23–63. ISBN   9781862876125.
  27. "Contemporary opinions on the late election movements". Geelong Advertiser . 29 July 1848. p. 2. Retrieved 17 June 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  28. "Apology for Earl Grey's election". The Port Phillip Patriot and Morning Advertiser . 31 July 1848. p. 2. Retrieved 17 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  29. "Writs for a general election". New South Wales Government Gazette . No. 68. 27 June 1848. p. 799. Retrieved 17 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  30. "Melbourne". Geelong Advertiser . 27 July 1848. p. 4. Retrieved 17 June 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  31. "Election of a representative for the City of Melbourne". Port Phillip Gazette and Settler's Journal . 29 July 1848. p. 2. Retrieved 17 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  32. 1 2 3 Twomey, Anne (20 April 2013). "Senator Assange?". Constitutional Critique – Critical Constitutional Analysis by the Constitutional Reform Unit. Sydney Law School of the University of Sydney. Archived from the original on 16 March 2019.
  33. 1 2 "The Hon. Henry (Earl Grey) Grey". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  34. "Writ of election: Port Phillip". New South Wales Government Gazette . No. 91. 25 August 1848. p. 1065. Retrieved 17 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  35. "The district election". The Argus . 13 October 1848. p. 2. Retrieved 17 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  36. "Melbourne election". The Sydney Morning Herald . 14 November 1850. p. 2. Retrieved 17 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  37. Ian D. Clark, pp17-22, Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995 ISBN   0-85575-281-5 Excerpt also published on Museum Victoria website Archived 5 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine , accessed 26 November 2008
  38. 1 2 "THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VICTORIA". Traralgon Record . Traralgon, Vic.: National Library of Australia. 19 March 1915. p. 4 Edition: MORNING. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  39. Pascoe, Bruce, 1947– (2007). Convincing ground : learning to fall in love with your country. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. ISBN   9780855756949. OCLC   671655666.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  40. "PORT PHILIP". The Cornwall Chronicle . Vol. 2, no. 31. Tasmania, Australia. 30 July 1836. p. 2. Retrieved 1 November 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  41. James Boyce, 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia, Black Inc, 2011, page 151 citing Richard Broome, 'Victoria' in McGrath (ed.), Contested Ground: 129
  42. James Boyce, 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia, Black Inc, 2011, p.177
  43. James Boyce, 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia, Black Inc, 2011, p.199
  44. James Boyce, 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia, Black Inc, 2011, p.163
  45. Auty, Kate (216). Hunt them, hang them : 'the Tasmanians' in Port Phillip 1841–42. Melbourne: Melbourne Justice Press; Clayton : Legal Service Bulletin Cooperative. ISBN   9780959472769.
  46. "Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner public marker". Archived from the original on 3 October 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  47. "Documenting Democracy". Archived from the original on 16 July 2005. Retrieved 3 October 2005.
  48. "150 Years of Gold Mining in Victoria". Stawell Historical Society. Archived from the original on 11 February 2008. Retrieved 12 February 2008.
  49. McCaughey, Victoria's Colonial Governors, p. 75
  50. Punch, 7 January 1859, p. 5
  51. George Gavan Duffy papers, historyireland.com; accessed 6 March 2016.
  52. Varian, Brian D. "The unavailing origin of Australian protectionism? Victoria's McCulloch Tariff of 1866" (PDF). Australia National University Centre for Economic History Discussion Paper. 2024 (08).
  53. Sinclair, W. A. (1955). "THE TARIFF AND MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT IN VICTORIA, 1860–1900". Economic Record. 31 (1–2): 100–104. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4932.1955.tb02922.x. ISSN   0013-0249.
  54. Serle, Geoffrey (1971). The Rush to Be Rich: A History of the Colony of Victoria 1883–1889. Melbourne University Press. p. 11. ISBN   978-0-522-84009-4.
  55. "FINANCIAL FLUCTUATIONS". The Mercury . Hobart, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 23 October 1930. p. 5. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  56. "AFTER THE WAR". The West Australian . Perth: National Library of Australia. 30 October 1944. p. 4. Retrieved 27 January 2012.

Related Research Articles

The history of Melbourne details the city's growth from a fledgling settlement into a modern commercial and financial centre as Australia's second largest city, Melbourne, in the state of Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Buckley (convict)</span> English convict

William Buckley, also known as the "wild white man", was an English bricklayer, and served in the military until 1802, when he was convicted of theft. He was then transported to Australia, where he helped construct buildings for the fledgling penal settlement at Port Phillip Bay in what is now Victoria, Australia.

The history of Tasmania begins at the end of the Last Glacial Period when it is believed that the island was joined to the Australian mainland. Little is known of the human history of the island until the British colonisation of Tasmania in the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kulin nation</span> Indigenous Australian ethnic group

The Kulin nation is an alliance of five Aboriginal nations in the south of Australia - up into the Great Dividing Range and the Loddon and Goulburn River valleys - which shares Culture and Language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Batman</span> Australian settler and explorer

John Batman was an Australian grazier, entrepreneur and explorer, who had a prominent role in the founding of Melbourne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indented Head</span> Town in Victoria, Australia

Indented Head is a small coastal township located on the Bellarine Peninsula, east of Geelong, in the Australian state of Victoria. The town lies on the coast of the Port Phillip bay between the towns of Portarlington and St Leonards.

The history of Australia from 1788 to 1850 covers the early British colonial period of Australia's history. This started with the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson on the lands of the Eora, and the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales as part of the British Empire. It further covers the European scientific exploration of the continent and the establishment of the other Australian colonies that make up the modern states of Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foundation of Melbourne</span> Forming of the city of Melbourne in Australia

The city of Melbourne was founded in 1835. The exact circumstances of the foundation of Melbourne, and the question of who should take credit, have long been matters of dispute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Gellibrand</span> Australian politician

Joseph Tice Gellibrand was the first Attorney-General of the British colony of Van Diemen's Land, where he gained notoriety with his attempts to establish full rights of trial by jury. He became an integral part of the Port Phillip Association, producing the Batman Treaty in an attempt to obtain extensive landholdings from the local Aboriginal people around Port Phillip. Gellibrand was also later part of an ill-fated expedition into the region west of Geelong, where he disappeared and was assumed to have been killed by Aboriginal people in the Otway Range.

The Port Phillip Association was formally formed in June 1835 to settle land in what would become Melbourne, which the association believed had been acquired by John Batman for the association from Wurundjeri elders after he had obtained their marks to a document, which came to be known as Batman's Treaty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convicts in Australia</span> Transportation of convicts to Australia

Between 1788 and 1868 the British penal system transported about 162,000 convicts from Great Britain and Ireland to various penal colonies in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Phillip District</span>

The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Lonsdale (colonist)</span> Australian politician

William Lonsdale supervised the founding of the official settlement at Port Phillip from 1836 and went on to serve under the Superintendent La Trobe from 1839 to 1854.

The following lists events that happened during 1803 in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sullivan Bay, Victoria</span> Early penal settlement in Australia

Sullivan Bay lies 60 km (37 mi) due south of Melbourne on Port Phillip, one kilometre (0.6 mi) east of Sorrento, Victoria. It was established as a short-lived convict settlement in 1803 by Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins, who named the bay after the Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, John Sullivan.

The following lists events that happened during 1840 in Australia.

Melbourne Day is an annual celebration to mark the founding of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, on 30 August 1835.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woiwurrung</span> Ethnic group

The Woiwurrung, also spelt Woi-wurrung, Woi Wurrung, Woiwurrong, Woiworung, and Wuywurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European exploration of Australia</span>

The European exploration of Australia first began in February 1606, when Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed in Cape York Peninsula and on October that year when Spanish explorer Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through, and navigated, Torres Strait islands. Twenty-nine other Dutch navigators explored the western and southern coasts in the 17th century, and dubbed the continent New Holland. Most of the explorers of this period concluded that the apparent lack of water and fertile soil made the region unsuitable for colonisation.

The Mount Cottrell massacre involved the murder of an estimated 10 Wathaurong people near Mount Cottrell in the colony of Victoria in 1836, in retaliation for the killing of two European settlers.

References

Further reading