Cooksland in North-Eastern Australia
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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at http : //books . google . com/ ST ttIA, c^^T*^-- . v. /<?/• DR Jit. \L .~« xvxyur,ivi&UJN, COLLINS STREET. T 1856. ^ »t • • • .••• • •• • ... • •••• • ••, • • • • ••••• . • DISCOVERT AND SETTLEMENT PORT PHILLIP; A HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY NOW CALLED VICTORIA ARRIVAL OF MR. SUPERINTENDENT LATROBE, IN OCTOBER, 1839. !foe$**gtoc /<?//- BY JAMES BONWICK; ^ AUTHOR V>F GEOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND; GRAMMAR FOR AUSTRALIAN YOUTH, &c, $c; AND COMPILER OF THE GEOLOGICAL MAP OF VICTORIA. REVISED, AT REQUEST, BY W, WESTGARTH, ESQ., Author of " Victoria, late Australia Felix," &c. &c. MELBOURNE ; PRINTED BY GOODALL & DEMAINE, 29, MARKET STREET. Published for the Author, BY GEORGE ROBERTSON, COLLINS STREET. 1856. PREFACE. IN presenting the first volume of a series on Australian Colonial History, the1 Author would claim the kind indulgence of the reader. The compilation of such a work was one of considerable difficulty. In the dearth of written* authorities the materials had to be principally procured from oral testimony. Conscious of the liability to error in dependence upon such evidence, intelligent, conscientious and disinterested as it may be—collected from persons of both sexes, and of various stations and employments—he would claim forbearance . for inadvertencies, and solicit corrections of mis-statements. A residence of only fifteen years in these Colonies prevented the Author speaking from personal experience of the events of this present history; but an esteemed friendship with some of the Fathers of the Settlement, many years reading and study of facts connected with Port Phillip progress, together with a close and lengthened investigation of Early Times amidst the scenes about which he writes, have given him considerable advantages in the preparation of this book. The historian who does not personally figure in the story he describes may be supposed to be the more free from prejudice and bias. The writer sincerely avows his honest desire to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, in the spirit of Christian candour and charity. In the discharge of such a duty he may occasionally appear to pass over the threshold of private life; but it must be remembered that the early history of an infant Colony embraces no narrative of bloody battles, or political contests, but is little more than a family record—men of humble name being the heroes of the drama. ^* The present work brings us down to the appointment of Mr. Latrobe as ^ Superintendent, October 1st, 1839. At some early opportunity the second volume will be published, detailing the great prosperity and sudden decline of the youthful settlement,—the GOOD AND BAD TIMES OF PORT PHILLIP. 4 It was intended to have included a notice of the Aborigines in this volumej but so interesting a subject was found too extensive for so limited a space; Within a month, a Sketch of the Natives will appear, under the title of " The i Wild White Man, and his Port Phillip Black Friends;' Most gratefully would the Author acknowledge the assistance of Old Colonists, the courtesy of Mr. Ridgeway of the Council Library, and the •4 kindness of Mr. Westgarth in revising the work. BOROONDARA BOARDING SCHOOL, NEAR MELBOURNE, May 12th, 1856. CONTENTS. PAOB CHAPTER I.—Discovery of Port Phillip , 1 CHAPTER 11—First Settlement of Port Phillip , 9 CHAPTER III.—Abandonment of the Colony of Port Phillip 15 CHAPTER IV.—Further discoveries in the Country Hume and Hovell's Overland Trip. 21 Settlement of Western Port 23 Captain Sturt on the Murray 24 Major Mitchell's Australia Felix. 28 CHAPTER V The Successful Settlement of Port Phillip 88 Batman and Gellibrand's Application 84 Settlement of Portland Bay 80 Life of Batman 86 Batman's visit to Port Phillip 40 Fawkner's Yarra Settlement 51 Mr. Wedge's Narrative , 60 William Buckley 63 The Association and Government 69 CHAPTER VI.—Progress of the Settlement 83 Flocks and Flock-masters 84 Government; Stewart, Simpson, Lonsdale^ Latrobe 87 The Land and Land Sales 91 Law, Police and Post Ill Commerce, Trade and Shipping 113 Melbourne and Geelong 117 Hotels and Licences 120 Amusements 123 Rise and Progress of the Port Phillip Press 124 Religion in Port Phillip, .., .. 132 CHAPTER I. DISCOVERY OF PORT PHILLIP. OH April 18, 1770, a vessel was straying through an unknown ocean. Impelled by a love of adventure and ambition for discovery, Captain Cook had dared the dangers of a long and novel voyage. He had visited the cannibal home of the Maories, and blessed it with new and nutritious articles of food. Sailing westward from New Zealand, the cry of " Land, land," arose on the above mentioned day. The fortunate man whose eye first rested on the shore received the honor of having the spot named after him. Point Hicks was the first land sighted by the English in Eastern Australia. It lay westward of Cape Howe, and; therefore, within the territory of Port Phillip, now Victoria. Rounding Cape Howe, our navigator followed the coast, entered Botany Bay, named Port Jackson, reached Cape York, and took possession of the country in the name of his Sovereign George III., as the land of NEW SOUTH WALES. Upon his return home he strongly recommended the formation of a colony at Botany Bay. The govern ment had lost the plantations of America to which they had heretofore shipped their convicts, and sold them to the settlers ; they listened, then, to the tale of landscape beauty, delicious climate, prospective empire, and a distant world, and resolved upon a penal settlement on the New Holland shore. Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Botany Bay on January 18th., 1788. The " Sirius " and " Supply " brought 212 soldiers, 55S male prisoners, 228 female prisoners, 28 free married women, and 17 children. Preference being given to Port Jackson, the party removed thither four days after. On the lovely banks of this noble harbour a judicious site was selected for the camp, which was named after B NT /<p/- x FOR f ^ ;3ET. —~~*HOUIN, COLLINS STREET. 1856. 8 course was, against all precedent, detained for six years a prisoner of war by the French Governor of the Mauritius, the record of Baudin's voyage was published in France, with a claim to the discovery of nearly the whole southern coast of Australia. The Englishman's work, however, which was subsequently published, gave justice to Grant and himself. When Captain Flinders left the " Geographe " in Encounter Bay, he steered to the eastward and entered Port Phillip Bay, April 26tb, 1802, one month after Baudin, and ten weeks after Murray. At first he mistook the waters for those of Western Port. Going ashore, he ascended Arthur's Seat, and afterwards landed upon what he called Indented Head.