point known as the Little Red Bluff, afterwards improved into Point Ormond, and here some four miles from Melbourne, a pleasant enough spot, was organized ourfirstsanitary station, where tents were pitched, and crew and passengers sent ashore. Ample precautions were taken to intercept communication with the interdicted world by land or sea, and Dr. Barry Cotter, Melbourne's first practising medico, not being too full handed with patients in a small, healthy, youthful community, with a magnanimity that did him credit, volunteered his services to take charge of the newly-formed station. There was a military detachment located there, from which a guard was assigned to protect the encampment on the land side, whilst the revenue-cutter, "Prince George," from Sydney, was stationed seaward to shut off communication by boat or otherwise. The Surgeon-Superintendent entered upon his duties with a becoming sense of their importance. By an amusing perversion of terms he styled the place "Healthy Camp," and whilst lording it there, issued regular bulletins upon the condition of the invalids and convalescents consigned to his care. Three of the immigrants died there, and were interred near the Bluff. Their lonely graveyard was afterwards enclosed with a rough wooden railing, but has been destroyed by time, and from oversight or culpable neglect has not been replaced, and so their mortal remains have rested in peace, unprotected and undisturbed.
On the publication of the foregoing in the Press, the following correspondence took place. A writer signing himself "Architect" says:—
"In Garryowen's Reminiscences of Early Melbourne he mentions the dilapidated state of the forgotten graves on Point Ormond. Now as the St. Kilda Council seem to have gone to sleep over the matter, I think it would be well for the public to endeavour to place an iron railing and small monument over the spot. I send you cheque for one pound to start the subscription, and I shall be most happy to prepare plans, &c., and superintend erection of same without charging for my labour."
To this Mr. J. N. Browne, Town Clerk of St. Kilda, thus replies:— "This Council (St. Kilda) applied to the Hon. the Minister of Lands for control of the reserve at Point Ormond, which request was refused by the Minister. The reserve in question is now vested in and under the control of certain gentlemen as a committee of management."
A note by the Editor further explains thus:— "We are informed that the late Councillor Tullett, of St. Kilda, moved in the matter, but died before any definite action could be taken. Councillor Tullett moved that a suitable monument should be erected at the expense of the Council, and inscribed as follows:— 'This monument was erected by the Mayor and Councillors of the Borough of St. Kilda, in memory of Armstrong, locksmith; Craig, weaver; James Matter, cook; George Denham, all of Scotch nationality. They arrived in this colony in the barque 'Glen Huntley,' which sailed from Obin, Scotland, 28th October, 1839, and thence to Greenwich, where the above deceased embarked, and having been detained there in quarantine for some weeks, sailed thence 13th December, 1839, and after an extraordinary succession of illnesses on board and accidents (once running on a rock, one collision, and once fouling with another ship) arrived, and anchored at the point then known as Point Ormond, now called Red Bluff, 17th April, 1840.'"
A friend, to whom I am under much obligation for acts of courtesy, has forwarded a communication containing this extract:— "When I landed here in February, 1842, there was a ship, I think, called the 'Manlius,' in the Bay near Williamstown, with her passengers landed, and in quarantine at Williamstown. Many of the passengers died, and were interred near the old lighthouse. That would be some years before the ship 'General Palmer' arrived." I obtained similar information from another private source; but not finding any corroboration in the newspapers of the period, I did not include it in my narrative.
South Williamstown.
Settlement was gradually, though sparsely, extended over the hilly, grassy, swampy country, now (1888) one of our wealthiest suburbs, and the danger and inconvenience of a lazaretto so close to Melbourne grew so self-evident that another and more suitable site had to be looked up, and it was determined to cross the Bay and appropriate some locality on the other side. A spot on
