Chapter Xlii. Port Shipping
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHAPTER XLII. PORT SHIPPING. SYNOPSIS.—Batman and Fawkner the Founders of Victorian Commerce—Fawkner the First Ship-owner.—Harbour Nomenclature.—Fawkner's First Lighter.—The First Custom House.—Arrival of H.M.S. "Rattlesnake" with Governor Bourke.—Arrival of H.M.F. "Conway" with Bishop B rough ton. — Captain Fermaner's Reminiscences. — The First Yarra Steamer.—Despatch of the First Wool and the First Mail for London.—Early Ship Signalling. — The Pioneer Steamers. — The Port Phillip Steam Navigation Company. — Visit of Captain Sir Everard Home.—Launch of the "Jane Cain."—Postscript.—An Old Colonist's Maritime Reminiscences. H ATMAN and Fawkner were the founders of our commerce, the schooners (the " Gem" of the one and the " Enterprise" of the other) being the first two crafts laid on in the port, so, as Fawkner purchased the " Enterprise," he was our first ship-owner. Batman and Fawkner were -z^r also our first traders, because from the beginning they were engaged in trade or traffic of some sort. Batman became an importer, and was for some time the principal merchant or storekeeper, whilst Fawkner was a kind of "Johnny All Sorts," and dabbled in everything. Batman's establishment was a substantial shed-like construction, erected on portion of the site of the now Western Market, where he carried on the affiliated avocations of wholesale and retail storekeeper, shipping agent, bill discounter, broker, and money-lender, in addition to some squatting speculations. His town business was attended to by one or more of his seven daughters, efficiently aided by Mr. Willoughby, his son-in-law. The other earliest merchants were Messrs. W. F. Rucker, S. Craig, J. Hodgson, J. F. Strachan, P. W. Welsh, F. Nodin, and J. M. Chisholm. What the settlement most feared in its babyhood was a dearth of flour. But the shadowy spectrum of an incoming schooner, when descried some miles off Williamstown, would cheer up the drooping spirits of the fistful of a populace to a state of jubilation, and the messenger of plenty was always accorded a heartfelt welcome. Grimes made the first survey and prepared the first chart of the Bay; but in 1836, Captain Hobson, whilst on a trip from Sydney to Melbourne in H.M.S. "Rattlesnake," instituted a more thorough examination. It may be as well to state here that the whole of the harbour was named Port Phillip, after Captain Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales; and its upper portion or head Hobson's Bay, after the Captain Hobson just mentioned. Two well known localities at the Heads were designated Points Nepean and Lonsdale, the first in compliment to Sir Evan Nepean, of the Admiralty, and the other to William Lonsdale, the first Police Magistrate and Commandant of Port Phillip. The nomenclature of Queenscliff has undergone some amusing nominal alterations. It was first called Whale's Point by Captain Woodriff Commander of the " Calcutta," the principal ship of the Collins Convict Expedition of 1803, in consequence of its formation resembling the head of a whale. It was also known as Shortland's Bluff, after Lieutenant John Shortland, a naval officer, who in 1788 accompanied "the first Fleet" to Sydney as Government Agent. Sorrento, when it formed the infant penal settlement of Collins, was officially known as Sullivan Bay and Sullivan Camp, after Mr. John Sullivan, an Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. Williamstown was in the first instance named Point Gellibrand, after the Van Diemen's Land lawyer of that name, who figured conspicuously in the land-grabbing negotiations of Batman with the natives, and was the first to perish a supposed victim of Aboriginal assassination. Williamstown, which would unquestionably have been selected as the chief township but for a want of anything approaching fresh water, was for a brief period a place of more importance than THE CHR ONLCLES OF EARLY MELBOURNE. 565 Melbourne. The live stock imported was landed there. For some time no provision whatever was made for the safety of vessels navigating the Bay and river, and the discharge of cargo at the appointed places was accomplished under every imaginable disadvantage. THE FIRST LIGHTER. "Johnny" Fawkner—though he could in after years affect the aristocrat when it suited his vanity to do so—was prone to the snobbish indulgence of disinterring a period when he toiled in a saw-pit in Van Diemen's Land, and used to take pride in himself as a "top sawyer." Were there nothing else to be ashamed of in his pre-Port-Phillipian antecedents, no need to blush at this, but when persons seek to make too much capital from humble beginnings, the overdoing develops into the ridiculous. Fawkner was just the sort of man for a new settlement, practically a more useful member of an incipient community than Batman, for he had health, energy, pluck and perseverance ; a disposition to be doing something, and a mind so fertile in resources through the vicissitudes of colonial life, that failure in one respect was succeeded by fresh efforts in another. He was the first to place a buoy in the harbour, and, when in 1836, there was a difficulty in discharging the schooners, Fawkner essayed to mitigate the inconvenience. Procuring a whale-boat he placed it on the river as a lighter to convey goods to the few storekeepers establishing themselves around the Western Market square. This vehicle he "skippered" himself, and his first crew consisted of Thomas Halfpenny and John Harrison. Halfpenny has lately told me that the river sailors would be worried almost to distraction by the myriads of mosquitoes swarming and swooping down upon them in clouds. Fawkner wrould grin and yell like a Bedlamite, but, nevertheless, had the comfortable assurance that the venture paid, for his lighterage scale of charges was heavy. Halfpenny declares that for a time Fawkner pocketed the incredibly enormous remuneration of ,£20 per ton for water carriage from the Bay to the town. Though positive as to this amount, I cannot resist the conclusion that his memory must be at fault, for such a payment appears to be preposterous. In 1852-3—the raving gold fever years—river lighterage did not rise above ^£7 or £8. As evidence, however, that the Fawknerian enterprise answered its helm pecuniarily, may be cited the fact that the whale-boat was soon replaced by one of ten tons burden, and commanded by Halfpenny, whose chief officer, or rather man of all work, was named Cotter, a brother of Dr. Barry Cotter, historically inscribed as Melbourne's first practising physician. Increasing trade led to improved lighterage accommodation, and Fawkner's second contrivance had to make way for its betters. THE FIRST CUSTOM HOUSE Was a curiously shabby out-at-elbows affair, and the first person who appeared as a public benefactor in his solicitude to provide for the safety of the harbour was the inevitable Fawkner. In August, 1836, it is recorded " that he had beacons placed at his own expense;" and in the first number of his manuscript newspaper, issued in January, 1838, there appears the following characteristic advertisement:— WANTED by the commercial world at Williamstown and Melbourne about forty beacons (good tea-tree stakes would answer) to mark the channel for the outer anchorage to this town. Whoever shall perform the service shall be entitled to public thanks. In 1838 the Sydney Government Gazette contained the important notification of a call for tenders for three wooden buoys for the Bay; and in 1839 it was announced that there was to be a floating light near the Heads, and the arrival of a pilot was anxiously expected. The predecessor of the present staid-looking lighthouse at Williamstown was a wooden structure, erected in 1840, though it could not be lighted up until a lamp was transported hither from Van Diemen's Land. Fawkner's Melbourne Advertiser (9th April, 1838) complained of the wharfage neglect by the Government. At Williamstown, it declares "that persons who land must wade ashore through water 566 THE CHRONICLES OF EARL Y MELBOURNE. and mud, or else pay for being carried through it." It averred that the Fawknerian free beacons or buoys originally fixed in August, 1835 (1836 ?), had been twice renewed at Fawkner's expense, but the boatmen used to destroy them for their own benefit. Masters of craft coming up the river had to send a boat ahead, sounding all the way, and though vessels paid port charges, there was no Government pilot. In 1839 Melbourne was proclaimed a free warehousing port, though Geelong and Portland were not freed until 1848. Though there were as yet no such nocturnal conveniences as old boilers or gas pipes providing gratuitous "shakes down" for belated vagabondism, the wharf loafer had already come to the front, and a regulation or bye-law was issued—a sort of Curfew law—warning off all loiterers after sundown, who were liable on apprehension to a fine. This and the other requirements of the time will be best ascertained by the publication of a waif, the first of the kind in Port Philip. WHARF RULES AND REGULATIONS. 1.—Vessels are to remain no longer than six days alongside the wharf. 2.—The Commanders of vessels at the wharf and in the basin, are to keep a watch on board during the night, and not to allow any disorder on board. 3.—No person allowed to loiter on the wharf after sunset. 4.—No nuisance to be committed, and no rubbish or filth to be landed on the wharf. 5.—No timber, or bulky article of any description, to remain within twenty feet of the wharfs edge, nor to continue more than four days on any part thereof.