The Chronicles of Early Melbourne/Volume 1/Chapter 1
THE
CHRONICLES OF EARLY MELBOURNE.
CHAPTER I.
THE UNNAMED VILLAGE AND ITS BEGINNINGS.
SYNOPSIS:—First White Discoverer of the Yarra. —Selection of the Site of the Embryonic City. —Famous Flank March of Sir Thomas Mitchell. —Captain Stewart's Report. —The First Ordinance. —Limited Autocracy. —" Bearbrass." —Attack by Aboriginals. —A Black Protectorate. —Interesting Relics. —Early Bonifaces. —Population of the Colony in December, 1836. —Arrival of Sir Richard Bourke. —Batman and Fawkner. — White Foundation of the Colony. —Historical Curiosities. —Early Title Deeds of Land from Natives. —First Arbitration Award in the Colony.
THOUGH an oft-told tale, it may be as well to secure a thorough starting point by indicating the dates of a few remarkable events—the chronological symbols that act as way-marks to the commencement of those incidents which have, in so short a period, rendered Melbourne, as the Capital of Victoria, one of the marvels of ancient or modern colonization.
The first European who sighted this portion of the Australian Continent—the present Cape Everard, in Gippsland—on the 19th of April, 1770, was Lieutenant Hicks, an officer of the memorable expedition of Captain Cook; and on the 4th of June, 1798, Bass, an adventurous ship surgeon, whilst on a coasting expedition from Sydney, in a whale-boat, made Western Port. Lieutenant Murray discovered the bay of Port Phillip (15th February, 1802); and on January 20th, 1803, Mr. Grimes, the Acting Surveyor-General of New South Wales, arrived from Sydney, in charge of a party to examine the bay and "walk round" the adjacent country. On the 9th October, in the same year, Lieutenant Colonel Collins, as commandant of a convict expedition with a few free settlers, entered the Heads, and established himself near the now Sorrento; but, after a brief stay, deeming the place unsuited for a penal settlement, abandoned it and sailed away to Van Diemen's Land. Messrs. Hovell and Hume, in November, 1824, accomplished an overland journey, from Sydney to Port Phillip, in the course of which they crossed and named several rivers. They penetrated as far as Geelong and saw Port Phillip Bay, which Hovell mistook for Western Port, whilst Hume held differently, in consequence of information received from Mr. James Fleming, a member of the Grimes Survey Party. In 1826 some vague rumours of an intended French seizure of Western Port and Western Australia moved the British Government to take measures for the occupation of these places, and a military force was despatched from Sydney to Western Port. A landing was effected, and the eastern part of Phillip Island fortified; but, the scare dying out, the place was abandoned in less than a year. In January, 1827, John Batman, a resident of Van Diemen's Land, applied, for himself and others, to the New South Wales Government for permission to establish a settlement at Western Port, but the application was refused. A Captain Wishart, whilst on a sealing voyage from Sydney in a cutter called the "Fairy," was driven by stress of weather, on St. Patrick's Day, into a bay to the westward, which he named "Port Fairy," after his little vessel. Portland Bay, in 1828-29, was visited by Mr. William Dutton, in the course of some sealing ventures, and it was he who put up the first house on the present site of Portland. He returned to the place occasionally until 1832, when he formed a whaling station. In July, 1833, Mr. Edward Henty paid a short visit to Port Phillip in the schooner "Thistle," but it was not until the 19th November, 1834, that his permanent settlement commenced, and it is to his and his brother's pioneering energy and enterprise that the future prosperity of the squatting interests were largely due. Mr. Edward Henty is chronicled as having landed the first pure Merino sheep in the present colony of Victoria.
It happened that a lad named Fawkner, then eleven years old, was allowed to accompany his father, one of the convicts of the Collins' party; and this boy, as he grew to man's estate, in Van Diemen's Land, often longed to revisit the strange country across Bass' Strait, which he had previously seen; and the idea had at length grown so strong in him, that he set about executing his long-cherished project. But he had an energetic rival, who had also been thinking of the very same thing, who set about the work in a cool, methodical manner, organised a company, and made all necessary preparations; so that whilst Fawkner was getting ready for his undertaking, and delayed by some unforseen obstacles, Batman had the start and arrived in the Promised Land before him.
On the 29th May, 1835, John Batman, with three white followers and seven Sydney aboriginals, passed into Port Phillip Bay, in the schooner "Rebecca," of 30 tons, and anchored a dozen miles inside off Indented Head. Accompanied by some of his party and aborigines he landed, and, after several excursions through the country, found that it more than satisfied his expectations as to its appearance and fertility. Renewing his excursions for several days, he met with the Saltwater and Yarra rivers, passed through the environs of the future city, had several conferences with the natives; and, on the 6th of June, at the Merri Creek, near Northcote, purchased from eight of the aborigines, who represented themselves as chiefs, the fee-simple of six hundred thousand acres of land (including the sites of Melbourne and Geelong) for some blankets, tomahawks, scissors, looking-glasses, beads, flour, men's shirts, and other articles. The whole assortment might be valued at £200, and an annual tribute was to be paid — some £150 worth of the same sort of chattels. Batman, though not a lawyer, had a lawyer's eye to business; for, before leaving Launceston, he had prepared, in due legal form, two deeds of conveyance with blanks to be afterwards filled; and according to his statement, by the aid of two of his Sydney blackfellows, he succeeded in making the vendors clearly comprehend the purport of the parchments presented to them. So the bargain was struck, the deeds "signed, sealed, and delivered," the consideration paid down, and possession given, by marking certain trees, and each of the chiefs handing to the vendee a lump of the alienated soil. Batman fancied he had made a good thing of it; but, no doubt, he thought differently when the Home Government afterwards annulled the whole transaction. He kept a journal of his trip, and, from an entry therein, it appears that, on the 8th June, he rowed up the Yarra — "the large river which comes from the east, and, about six miles up, found the river all good water and very deep." "This," he wrote, "will be the place for a village." Returning to Indented Head, he left there the three white men of his party, with five of the New South Wales blacks, after directing them to build a hut and start a garden. He supplied them with three months' provisions, half-a-dozen dogs, a quantity of fruit pips and garden seeds, and, arming one of them (James Gumm) with a written authority to act as his land bailiff, he hastened back to Launceston to communicate the results of his journey.
Fawkner all this time was not idle. Purchasing the "Enterprise," a fifty-five ton schooner, and freighting her with horses and various animals, a plough, and other farming implements, fruit trees, garden seeds, and some stores, he sailed with a party of six from Launceston, but the elements fought against him. He took so sea-sick that the schooner put back to George Town , where he was sent ashore the "Enterprise" resumed her voyage, and arrived at Western Port, on the 8th August. A Captain Lancy, who was in charge of the expedition, though not of the vessel, gave orders to move onward, and, steering for Point Nepean, they reached the bay and anchored off Point Ormond. Mr. William Jackson and others of the party landed, explored the bush for several miles about Melbourne, crossed the Yarra above the Falls, and camped on Batman's Hill. The river was next examined in a whaleboat, and the basin of the Yarra reached. Soundings were taken, and poles, vice buoys, fixed on some of the shoals; and on the 29th August, 1835, the "Enterprise," was the first vessel of the kind that floated on the Yarra, and must have been well-handled by her master (Hunter) for she had no ordinary difficulties to overcome, through parts of the stream being impeded by snags and the trunks of fallen trees until the Yarra Falls interposed a barrier, which seemed to exclaim "Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther!" The craft was brought to, and warped round a large tree growing on the river bank, opposite the (now) Custom House. Fawkner's parting injunction was to look out for a place with "good grass and plenty of fresh water;" and, believing these two conditions existed, though it was Sunday, the handful of men went to work, cut away some of the overhanging trees, so that the vessel might be comfortably berthed, and, by means of a plank, landed their stores and live stock, the latter consisting of two horses, two pigs, three kangaroo dogs, and a cat. They immediately put together out of sods, earth, and branches, a kind of structure, by which to shelter their provisions and themselves, and such was thefirst"house" or store ever raised in Melbourne. The "Enterprise" returned without much delay to Launceston for Fawkner and his family, who arrived in Melbourne on the ioth October, 1835.
There is some controversy as to the first white discoverer of the Yarra. It is averred that David Gibson, a runaway prisoner from the Collins encampment came upon it, and, on returning to give himself up at Sorrento, and reporting his discovery, it was treated as one of those unreliable "yarns" which convicts are especially prone to "spin." Buckley, "the wild white man," another of the convict colony, who escaped from the temporary penal depot, and lived for thirty years with the aborigines, until he surrendered to the Batman establishment at Indented Head, must have undoubtedly crossed the Yarra at some point in his weary circuitous wanderings from Sorrento to that unromantic hole at Point Lonsdale, still known as "Buckley's Cave," where he occasionally led a sort of amphibious life, when he went for a change of air to the seaside, with one of the couple of matrimonial "native companions" successively assigned to him by the "Watourongs," the aboriginal tribe by which he was adopted. But the records of the Grimes Suivey places it beyond doubt, that during the examination of the bay and the surrounding country, the party, not only found the Saltwater and Yarra rivers, but came up in a boat to Batman's Hill, where they landed (4th February, 1803), and traversed several of the (now) city suburbs, going as far as the "Falls" at Studley Park. Their journal explicitly declares "that the most eligible place for a settlement is on the Freshwater river "—the Yarra. A s the Collins expedition did not arrive until the following October, there can be no doubt as to the first white visitors there.
The next question of debate is as to the selection of the site of Melbourne, i.e., who made it? and, without question, it must be decided, if not in favour of Fawkner, certainly of Fawkner's party. On Batman's arrival he fixed upon Indented Head as his head-quarters in the first instance; but subsequently entertained some notion of a township on the Yarra—though not where Melbourne afterwards sprung up. A map of his has been found which delineates the extent of the Batman possessions, as secured by the Aboriginal treaty; and from this it would seem that he marked off a portion of the south side of the river "for township and other public purposes;" whilst, on the north side, "the extensive marsh is reserved for a public common." This would place the township over the Yarra, opposite the Spencer Street Railway Station and the Melbourne Gas Works—whilst the "public common " would be north-west of the railway terminus, taking in the then large swamp round by the Saltwater River. Batman seems to have had a weakness for perpetuating himself in nomenclature, for some of the most prominent localities were very soon branded with his cognomen. T h e beautiful tree-covered hill, the most unique of the olden landmarks, was called "Batman's Hill," the Yarra was the "Batman River," the marsh was "Batman's Swamp," the town was to be "Batmania;" and he even blotted out the name of "Merri" from the well-known creek, and designated it the "Lucy" Creek, after one of his daughters. But every trace of Batman was afterwards obliterated, and at the present moment he has neither "local habitation nor name" in any town, village, street, hill, river, stream, or creek in Victoria. On the other hand, Fawkner, though never the man "to hide his light under a bushel," was not affected in this way, and so far showed a delicacy and good taste in which his rival was deficient.
The site and surroundings of the embryonic city, when in a state of nature, formed a picture of wild and wayward beauty. The River Yarra from its embouchure was so half-choked with the trunks and branches of fallen trees and other impedimenta as to render its navigation a matter of difficulty and delay to even the smallest of coasters. Its low sides were lined with thick ti-tree scrub and trees over twenty feet high, and skirted with marshes covered with a luxuriance of reeds, wild grass and herbage. The Eastern Hill was a gum and wattle tree forest, and the Western Hill was so clothed with sheoaks as to give it the appearance of a primeval park where timber-cutting and tree-thinning were unknown—whilst away northward, as far as the eye could see, was a country umbrageous and undulating, garbed in a vesture of soft green grass, of a height that if a person rode through it it would reach above the saddle-girths. Elizabeth Street, the outlet between the two hills, was a jungly chasm — an irregular broken-up ravine, through which the winter flood-waters thundered along over shattered tree-trunks, displaced rocks, roots, and ruts—whilst trending away north-westward spread out a large expanse of marsh of deep black soil, and without a solitary tree, its centre a deep lacune where swans, geese, ducks, quail, and other wild-fowl swarmed "thick as leaves in Vallambrosa." The country southward of the river was an immense wilderness, where, in the language of the historian Westgarth, "The kangaroo skipping about in undisputed happiness would emerge in troops upon the flats from the dense woods. The branches of the old gum-trees were filled with black and white cockatoos, and innumerable parroquets, whose gaudy plumage sparkled in the bright sunshine, while their incessant chattering imparted life to a scene otherwise hushed in the presence of man, and the total absence hitherto of his noisy, but enlivening commerce." From Fawkner's description, which is evidently overtinted, the place assumed quite an Elysian aspect. "His party," he writes, "reached with great joy the 'basin' at Melbourne, and were delighted, in fact, half wild with exultation, at the beauty of the country. The velvet dike grass carpet, decked with flowers of the most lively hues, most liberally spread over the land, the fresh water, the fine lowlands and lovely knolls around the lagoons, on the flat or swamps, the flocks, almost innumerable, of teal, ducks, geese, swans, and minor fowls, filled them with joy."
Batman, as has been already observed, went away to Launceston; but Fawkner kept his ground firmly, notwithstanding strong hints given by some of the "Batmanites," who looked upon the territory as theirs by right of purchase. It was agreed amongst the "Fawknerites" that each should select a few acres of land for a house and garden, but this does not seem to have been acted upon. However, a first selection was made near the Western end of Flinders Street, where a plough was set to work, and five acres of wheat sown in six days, thefirstcrop from which yielded one hundred bushels. Never was there a better beginning in a new country than this early manifestation of industrial enterprise. Shortly after Fawkner's arrival he moved nearer to the river, and what he was pleased to designate "a residence" was thrown up near the corner of William and Little Flinders Streets. Batman returned some time after and established himself on Batman's Hill, and the "Fawknerites," under an apprehension that he might have some legal claim, migrated from north to the south side of the river where about eighty acres of land were enclosed and cultivated. For some time a tribal feud raged between the rival "Septs," but it never passed beyond the stage of wordy warfare, and soon died out. To his dying hour, however, Fawkner never thought kindly of Batman, and hardly ever had a good word for his memory.
It was evident that once a commencement was made the earliest inhabitants could not long keep all their good luck to themselves. The news borne by the returned schooners to Launceston soon spread its wings, and new faces lost no time in putting in an appearance. In fact, almost simultaneous with the arrival of Fawkner, Mr. John Aitken dashed into the bay with a sheep-laden vessel, landed his stock, and settled in that fine country, not far from town, since known as Mount Aitken. Others followed, and towards the close of the year, "the settlement," as it came to be called, was in this position:— About sixty acres of land were under cultivation, and some good wheat grown. The habitations consisted of two weatherboard huts with brick chimneys, and some dozen sod erections or hovels; the population numbered about fifty souls; the live-stock, one hundred head of cattle, fourteen hundred sheep, six horses, some poultry and dogs, a few rabbits, and last, though not least, Fawkner's cat. It will be seen from this enumeration that master "bunny" may be classified as amongst the very oldest of colonists, and there was no need to acclimatise the destructive pest years after. The total shipping entered numbered eight, viz., one barque, two brigs, four schooners, and one cutter. Three squatting stations, viz., Connolly's, Solomon's, and Swanston's, were formed at a distance of ten miles, and for twenty miles into the interior the country had been explored with a result that told favourably as to its fertility and fitness for stock depasturing.
These primitive flock-masters proceeded forthwith to turn what was then known, in official phraseology, as "the territory of Doutta-galla" into a vast sheep-walk. No doubt when they beheld the "fresh fields and pastures new" unfolding before their delighted eyes, larger and larger the further they went, they began to realise the possibility of the Johnsonian phrase of "a potentiality of becoming rich beyond the dreams of avarice;" but the spell was to be soon broken by the fiat of the Home Government, which disallowed the Batman compact. Subsequently the Batman "Association" obtained £1,000 compensation, in remission of land purchase-money, and, in 1839, they bought 9,416 acres of land to the westward of Geelong.
The famous "Flank March," effected by Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor-General of New South Wales, in 1836, and its great results, soon spread the name and fame of "Australia Felix" (as he called it) far and wide. Travelling from Sydney, overland, he crossed the Murray, and following its course reached Swan Hill. Proceeding to the South Australian border, he turned back, making Portland, and visiting the "Henty" settlement; and thence by Mounts Sturgeon and Alexander, and the Rivers Goulburn and Ovens, got back to Sydney. In the course of his return journey, he was met at the Murrumbidgee by Messrs. John Gardiner and Joseph Hawdon, with cattle from Sydney to Port Phillip. On their arrival in Melbourne, Gardiner took up the south side of the Yarra to feed his stock, and for some time occupied both sides of the river for several miles. One day, whilst in quest of some strayed stock, he reached the Upper Yarra country, which so surprised him with its rich pasturage, that he speedily moved off there. South Yarra in itself was not held in much account for stock fattening; the plains on the Saltwater River, the Exe, and down about Indented Head being regarded as the "prime joints." Stations, were, however, rapidly taken up here, there, and everywhere. Batman's first sheep station was where St. James' Episcopalian Church, off William Street, is built, and a shepherd's hut was placed there: but he soon moved the "homestead" to Flemington Hill. Solomon sat down at the Saltwater River, and Wedge and Simpson on the Werribee. More settlers began gradually to come in; and, on the tidings of what had happened reaching England, moneyed men lost no time in turning their attention to the newly opened field for investment. Sheep and cattle poured in from Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales, and a brisk trade sprang up with the ports of Launceston and Hobartown.
In the way of government, the country was a kind of every man's land, and, accordingly, everyone seemed to do much as he liked; but the few people were industrious and law-abiding without law. Anything like a crime amongst the whites was almost unknown, and theft was quite at a discount—probably because there was little of convertible property that could be conveniently abstracted. The only quarrelling was between Batman and Fawkner, and it is a notable circumstance that Fawkner was the first person to show himself amenable to an equitable jurisdiction, by his agreeing to an arbitration to adjudicate upon some difference between himself and Batman's brother. This somewhat anomalous state of "society" obtained until near the middle of 1836, when, at the instance of the Governor in Sydney, Captain Stewart, the police magistrate at Goulburn, in New South Wales, and a territorial justice of the peace, proceeded to the new settlement to enquire into, and make report upon, the state of affairs there.
Arriving in the cutter, "Prince George," at the end of May, the Commissioner lost no time in setting to work. On the 1st June, 1835, a meeting of the principal residents (twenty-seven in number) was held in the "parlor" of Batman's residence. Harmony and good feeling prevailed, and the result of the deliberations was the adoption of a sort of Emergency Constitution, which, it was believed, would answer all public requirements until some legally governing power could be called into existence.
This was the first popular "Ordinance" passed in the colony, and, though not a Magna Charta, as a charter of "Home Rule," a short précis of it may not be uninteresting. There was no "preamble," but it contained eight clauses of the following purport:—
- 1. The appointment of Mr. James Simpson, J.P., as Arbitrator upon all disputes between individuals, excepting such as might relate to land, with power to name two assistants to help him, if necessary.
- 2. The Arbitrator to have power to inflict suchfinesas he might consider proportionate to any injury sustained.
- 3. The subscribing parties bound themselves to bring no action at law or equity for any act of the Arbitrator; and all residents not at the meeting, were to be invited to join in the action taken.
- 4. They bound themselves to communicate to the Arbitrator any aggression committed by, or upon, the aborigines, that might come to their knowledge and that the Arbitrator be empowered to proceed in all such matters as he might think fit.
- 5. All subscribing parties pledged themselves to afford all the protection in their power to the aborigines; not to teach them the use of fire-arms, nor allow their servants to do so; nor allow the aborigines to possess them.
- 6. That the Arbitrator should collect all fines, and hold them until the next meeting, on the 1st September.
- 7. That a reward offiveshillings be given for the production of every head of wild dogs killed; that a fund be raised for that purpose; and that the master's certificate be sufficient proof.
- 8. That a petition be forwarded to Governor Bourke, asking for the presence of a Resident Magistrate at Port Phillip; and also the appointment, from the residents, of other gentlemen to assist the Resident Magistrate.
The first Government was, therefore, a limited autocracy, yet, strange to say, from that day to this, no better choice of an autocrat could possibly be made than Mr. Simpson. H e had been police magistrate at Campbelltown, in Van Diemen's Land; and, with a large experience of our earlier and later magistracy— stipendiary and honorary—I never knew a more independent and impartial man on the bench. For many years Mr. Simpson was police magistrate of Melbourne and a magistrate of the colony, and held other honorary offices, such as Warden of the District Council of Bourke, Returning Officer, &c.; and he always comported himself in a manner which secured the confidence of everyone who witnessed his thorough uprightness. There was a something stern and slightly forbidding in his sallowed face; but it was only skin deep; and, if one could not admire him outwardly, the honesty of purpose which seemed to actuate him, never, failed to ensure for him one's respect. He filled the office of Sheriff of Melbourne for some time, and when he died, it was amidst very general regret for the loss of a man who had secured so many good wishes in his day.
Captain Stewart, having fulfilled his mission to his own satisfaction, transmitted his report to Sydney; and, from a perusal of that document, some facts are gathered pertinent to this narrative. Amongst other incidents he relates that he held a conference with a number of the aborigines, amongst whom he distributed some blankets brought with him for that purpose. As far as could be then judged of, the aboriginal population numbered about 800, 400 of whom had on one occasion assembled round "the settlement," as the place was called. The use of tobacco was unknown to them, and, even if it were not, he (Captain Stewart) thought it would not be appreciated. What they most prized were blankets, tomahawks, knives, and brass ornaments. They knew little or nothing about "grog," which the settlers up to that time kept from them. "The town — 'Bearbrass'"—he writes, "is on the left hand side of the Yarra Yarra, about seven miles from its mouth, which, at present consists of thirteen buildings, viz., three weatherboard, two slab, and eight turf huts." The whole European population he estimated at 142 males and 35 females, and nine of the former were land owners, claiming under the Batman bargain. The grazing stock he reckoned at about 100 head of cattle, 26,500 sheep, and 57 horses; and the value of the whole, including farming implements, might be put down at £80,000. The Europeans occupied in extent about 100 miles, but no one was known to have penetrated more than 70, and the most distant station was not more than 35 miles from the township. Eleven vessels, chiefly laden with stock, had made forty-eight trips from Van Diemen's Land, and the smuggling of spirits and tobacco had already commenced. Captain Stewart strongly recommended the establishment of a branch of the Customs for the protection of the public revenue.
Such is a resume of the most important portions of the magisterial manifesto; and Captain Stewart need not have lived very long to learn the unreliability of his tobacco theory about the aborigines, for, in the course of a short time when these unfortunate people came to be initiated into some of the rites of civilization, the two things in the world for which they most ardently longed were tobacco and rum, or the "white money" wherewith to procure them. It will also be observed that Captain Stewart gives "Bearbrass" as the name of the settlement; but what had put such an absurd and inappropriate term into his head is more than I could, or I suppose ever shall, comprehend.
The small community was daily expanding, and the planting of stations increased. Mr. Hawdon found out Dandenong, Howie annexed a goodly slice at Mount Macedon, and Yaldwyn took a fancy to Kyneton. Mr. C. H. Ebden was the first station-holder on the Murray, and it was he who established the first crossing-place at Albury, but the researches of Mr. Bonney afterwards induced him to remove to Carlshrue; and so on the squatting system kept moving, every week enlarging its orbit. The Yarra Falls were found inconvenient, and even dangerous, for the crossing over of sheep, but a Mr. M'Intyre was a match for the emergency, and, ferreting out a ford near the "Falls," at the confluence of the Reilly Street drain and the Yarra, the old "Falls" were superseded as a sheep thoroughfare. "The land of the West" did not long escape the white invasion, and a horde of modern Argonauts, in quest of no fabled Golden Fleece—the Austins, the Cowies, the Steiglitzes, cum aliis, were soon following the true scent. Quiet Geelong and Corio were awakened from their slumbers by the Derwent Company and the Roadknights; whilst the Murrays, the Loyds, and Morrises disturbed the "corroborrees" round lone Lake Colac, an intrusion by no means relished by the aborigines of that quarter.
This reference to the aborigines reminds me to remark that, though at first muh good feeling existed between the settlers and the native race, troubles very soon set in. Towards the close of 1836 an atrocious double murder was perpetrated by some of the Goulburn tribe stealing down towards "the settlement," and, surprising a Mr. Charles Franks and his shepherd, at the Werribee, speared them. The bodies were brought to Melbourne and buried on the side of the (afterwards) Flagstaff Hill, where a small enclosed area was reserved for a cemetery. Theirs may be said to be the first public funeral in Melbourne, for all the inhabitants joined in the melancholy ceremonial. In November, 1837, Messrs. Gellibrand and Hesse, started on a bush excursion from Geelong, and were lost in the Cape Otway Ranges. It was supposed that the blacks had murdered them; Gellibrand's skeleton was found some months after and identified by the fact of one of his teeth having been stuffed with gold; and one of the teeth in the discovered remains was in that condition. He was an ex-Attorney-General of Van Diemen's Land, came over with Batman, and Gellibrand's Point, near Williamstown, was named after him. He and Hesse were gentlemen of high respectability, and two hills near Winchelsea are called after them. The singular mode of recognition by the stuffed tooth has much doubt cast upon it by the following undoubted facts :—In 1844, a M r . Allan, a settler in the Western portion of the district was one day in the bush, attended by some blacks, when they found a skeleton which was supposed to be the remains of Gellibrand. The skull was of peculiar configuration, and a front tooth was missing. Some metal buttons were picked up near the bones, and they were said to resemble those the deceased used to wear. Allan communicated the intelligence to some members of Gellibrand's family, resident at Hobartown, but they treated the matter so indifferently as not to reply to his letter. Allan next buried the bones, and kept the skull, which he suspended from the roof or ceiling of the kitchen of his house where it remained until May, 1847, when he took it down and shipped it off to Gellibrand's friends, in the Wave schooner which sailed from Belfast for Hobartown. So far as I am aware, nothing further was heard of the novel consignment. Gellibrand's life was insured for £11,000, and the policy was paid three years after his presumed death.
In 1838 a convoy of stock belonging to Mr. Faithfull, whilst en route from New South Wales to Melbourne, was attacked near the Ovens by a mob of two or three hundred blackfellows, and eight out of eighteen white men in charge, murdered. Several other outrages of a similar, though not so serious a kind, were committed on the Goulburn, the Ovens, the Murray, and at other places; and for some years collisions between the blacks and the whites occasionally occurred. Aboriginal aggression, as a rule, is said to have led to the disasters, though there can be little doubt that the white stockmen and shepherds not infrequently provoked reprisals, and fatal retaliations were often made on both sides. As early as December, 1836, an Aboriginal Mission was established where now flourish the Botanic Gardens; Mr. George Langhorne, a very benevolent man, was appointed missionary, and his assistant was the John Thomas Smith to be so well-known in the early future. The black population within a thirty mile circuit of the township might, at this time, be estimated at about seven hundred souls, including men, women and children. Appeals were frequent to the Executive at Sydney for protection for the lives and property of the settlers, and various were the nostra propounded; but the only immediate result was the formation of several mounted police stations at points of the overland route, and subsequently in other localities. The early settlers are declared to have treated the aborigines with kindness and consideration. In 1838 the British Government appointed a "Black Protectorate," consisting of one chief and four assistant Protectors. The colony was subdivided into four districts, one official in each district, whilst the chief exercised general supervision from Melbourne, and made periodical visits of inspection. The whole black population under the Protectorate Jurisdiction numbered about three thousand. The Protectorate existed for many years, and it was never a popular institution with either the settlers or public, for it was credited with the desire of promoting the personal interests of its members, rather than attending to the amelioration of the physical and moral comfort of the numerous State wards consigned to its care.
And so from small beginnings the new country continued to be explored, taken up, and occupied, as sheep and cattle stations, which were unrestingly pushed forward in every direction. Yet the township but little progressed, even up to the time when Captain Lonsdale arrived from Sydney as a nominal Government Agent or Administrator, for the population then did not exceed a couple of hundred.
I have now before me as I write, two curiously interesting relics, kindly placed at my service by Mr. Robert Russell, the chief officer of the first Survey party despatched from Sydney to operate in Port Phillip. They were prepared by himself, and their authenticity is undoubted. One is a pen and ink "sketch of the settlement of Port Phillip, in November, 1836;" a person inspecting it is supposed to stand off Collins Street, facing the Western Market, and, looking forward, what does he see? Half-a-dozen mud or wattle-and-daub huts, for they cannot by any stretch of courtesy be termed houses, some with mud-made chimnies, and others with no other outlet for the smoke than the door or "a hole in the wall." One of these is the "General Post Office," for there was only a single postal institution then in existence; another, the private residence of Mr. Henry Batman, the acting head of the police, the rest belonging to everybody or nobody. The whole hill-side is overgrown with long coarse grass; scrub and ti-tree abound everywhere, and there are broken logs strewn about to break the shins of any enterprising wayfarers out after dark. Fawkner's schooner, the "Enterprise," rides at anchor in the Yarra basin, and loafing about her are two or three shabby-looking dingies, and as many bark canoes, evidently waiting anxiously for "something to turn up."A couple of aborigines are strolling amongst the hovels, no doubt on the same tack as the boating fraternity, —whilst yonder is a bushman tramping to the "settlement," struggling under a clumsily made-up swag, and probably on his way to Fawkner's grog shanty further down, there to enjoy a little "life," and dissolve the "order" for his three or six months' wages in the throat-scorching rum, or execrable beer of the period. A huge gum tree stands posted like a towering sentinel, with an immense head-gear of foliage, at irregular intervals of every dozen yards, on the track eastward, now the "block," and Emerald Hill over the Yarra looks looming with verdure, and infinitely more blooming than now.
The other relic is a tracing from a lithograph survey made at the same time before the town was marked out, and upon the lines of which it was afterwards formed. It is a very skeleton production, for there was no possiblefillingin to put on it; yet it reveals a few small etchings of the draughtman's art, which present some almost incredibly queer contrasts when viewed from the stand-point of to-day. It was then sans streets, and the names of a few were afterwards added to identify certain localities. The only weatherboard residence is Batman's, on the side of his so-called hill—the Spencer Street Railway Station— near which, at the end of Little Collins Street, the Acting-Governor is "hutted." Fromm this quarter there runs a rough, sinuous bye-way, shaping its course in a wriggling, snakish style, through the scrubby bush country now forming the intervening space between Collins and Little Flinders Streets, and so continuing until lost amongst the stoney rises of the Eastern Hill. All the other tenements (some twenty-five in number) are formed of either turf-sods, bark, or what was known as "wattle-and-daub," covered either with bark or a sort of long reed, to be obtained in abundance on the banks of the river. As the phrase "wattleand-daub" will frequently occur in referring to the early structures of Melbourne, it may be not only convenient, but instructive, if I briefly describe this modus fabricandi. Imprimis—the size of the required "premises" was to be marked, and stakes or posts to be driven in the ground a few feet apart; these were then connected with interwoven twigs of gum, wattle, or ti-tree, like rough wickerwork. The next stage was to "daub" well on both sides with needed clay, and so puddled, when baked in the sun, the walls become weatherproof. After the roofing of bark, reeds, or shingle was attached, if there were the addenda of a brick chimney, and a dash of whitewash externally, the habitation or store, as the case may be, was considered complete; but the age of brick and lime had not yet arrived. The residents were scattered over the landscape, according to a "rule of thumb," by which every one "quambied" like a blackfellow wherever his fancy led him. What is now known as the Western Market appeared to be the centre of attraction for the traffic-masters, because it was the heart of "the settlement."
"Johnny" Fawkner was domiciled rearward of the now Custom House, off the southern line of Little Flinders Street near its junction with William Street; D'Arcy, one of the Survey party, towards the other end, near Market Street; and Webb, a Customs' officer, perched in the middle of Little Flinders Street close by. Onward, in the same line, some half-way between Market and Queen Streets, a Mr. Michael Carr, an ancient publican, barred the way, and flanked his position with an enclosure, intended for the growth of cabbage, potatoes, or other useful esculents. Some half-a-dozen storekeepers seized on or about the Market Square, and amongst them appeared the names of Diprose, Powell and Nodin, whilst a Mr. Robson hoisted his signboard in the centre of Collins Street, and Mr. Skene Craig similarly located himself in William Street. Mr. James Smith was berthed cosily like an old hen on the south side of Collins Street West, and a Mr. Eyre further down. Robert Russell and Darke, of the Survey staff, pitched their tents over the river, close by the "Falls;" but the encampment of the working gang was pitched on the side of the hill, north of Russell Street. Dr. A. Thomson, the pioneer settler of his profession, and one of Batman's party, took up some ground between Swanston Street South, and Russell Street; whilst two enterprising individuals—Adams and Armstrong—coolly jumped an area for a cultivation paddock, near the intersection of Swanston and Flinders Streets, taking in the present site of St. Paul's Cathedral. But the rashest adventurer of all was Mr. Thomas Halfpenny, who had the temerity, with a mate, to throw up a hut of sods and reeds in Collins Street, opposite the now Bank of Victoria, where he contented himself for some time. He was so far without the pale of civilization that friends often seriously advised him to come "nearer home." Yet he laughed at their apprehensions, and clove to the forest, where he throve so well that, in the course of a short time, he went into "public" business and continued for years one of the best known and most flourishing of the old Bonifaces. He is still hale and hearty in the land of the living. A nondescript wooden building served as a church, or chapel, or conventicle, as required, at the north-west corner of Little Collins and William Streets, now the St. James' school reserve, and a diminutive area is indicated as a graveyard, on the eminence to the far north-west, then known as the Burial Hill, afterwards the popular Flagstaff Hill, where all the Melbourne "world and his wife" used to take their outings on Sundays and holidays, and on every other day when they had time or inclination to inhale the fresh country air.
It was a struggling, uncomfortable battle of life, during this period for the few enterprising colonists who clung to the n e w country, and its rough-and-ready mode of existence, with a tenacity that deserved success. The year at length came to a close, and, from the police returns taken at the time, the following was the state of the province on the 31st December:— The population made a total of 224 individuals, i.e., 186 males and 38 females—within a fraction off five men for each woman. During the year there had been one birth as against three deaths. There were 50 acres of unpurchased land under cultivation, and the live stock was put down at 75 horses, 155 horned cattle, and 41,332 sheep.
In March, 1837, an event of much importance occurred, being nothing less than the arrival of Sir Richard Bourke, the Governor of New South Wales, from Sydney. His Excellency was received with a loyal and dutiful iespect by the young colonists; and, as a matter of course, the inevitable address of congratulatory welcome and the reply were not omitted from the programme. His visit, though brief, was turned to good account, for, approving of the site of the township, he called it Melbourne, named the streets, and, after aflyingtrip to Geelong and Mount Macedon, returned whence he came.
Having thus traced the "unnamed village" from its discovery to the birth of Melbourne, I cannot conclude this chapter more appropriately than by appending brief personal notices of the two individuals who had so much to do in bringing matters to such a state. John Batman was born in 1800, at Parramatta, New South Wales. Tall and dashing, energetic and courageous, he was cut out for what he really was, a capital specimen of the thorough bushman. Passing over to Van Diemen's Land, he led a daring, active life there, rendering good service in assisting to "stamp out" the plague of bushranging, with which the island-colony was then infested. In 1825 he captured Brady, an escaped convict, who had taken to the bush, and committed several depredations—a feat which the Government rewarded by the grant of a thousand acres of land. In the project of quieting the residue of the aboriginal population, by impounding them on Forrester's Peninsula, Batman also distinguished himself; but, in the "Black War," he was said to be as remarkable for his knowledge of the bush and compassion for the natives, as for skill in their pursuit; and for the services so given he obtained a further grant of two thousand acres of land. He did not long survive his coming to Port Phillip, and, after a lengthy illness, died at Batman's Hill, on the 6th May, 1839; and at 11 a.m., of the 8th, was buried in the then very new, but now almost forgotten, old cemetery. He had a family of one son and seven daughters, but the former, whilst a mere boy, was accidentally drowned in the Yarra some years after. It is a strange coincidence, that, on Batman's first meeting with the native chiefs (Jaga Jaga), they were astonished at his seeming to them to be an exact counterpart of a brother who had died very recently, the resemblance corresponding in every peculiarity except colour—even to the loss of a front tooth; and thence, until Batman's death, the younger of the brothers evinced the deepest affection for him. John Pascoe Fawkner was a Londoner, and born 20th August, 1792. AVhen only eleven years old, he, with his mother and sister, was permitted to accompany his father, a convict in the Collins Expedition. The abortive penal settlement at Sorrento has been already referred to, and after the transfer of the party to Van Diemen's Land, young Fawkner struck out for himself, and lived for some years at Hobartown. He worked in a saw-pit (of which he often spoke in after years), took a hand at many things, and, gifted with some of the attributes which win success, won it accordingly. Once he got into trouble as an accessory in the attempted escape of some convicts from the island, but he never so sinned a second time. With an education of a very restricted kind, he was a voracious reader—devouring, but not digesting. He was glib of tongue, choleric, and disputatious; and it is, therefore, not much wonder to hear of his having practised as an advocate in the old Police Court at Launceston, especially at a time when practitioners were scarce, and readiness and bounce answered just as well as law. Though, as a rule, very abstemious, he seems to have had a special penchant for public-houses, and accordingly became the landlord of the Cornwall Hotel at Launceston; and was actually the father of the Northern Press of Van Diemen's Land, for, in 1829, he established the Launceston Advertiser. As a journalist, it is said of him that he never soiled his hands with secret service money or bribes, at a time and under conditions when such perquisites were not unknown, and that in his own fashion he took a sincere interest in the welfare of the community in which he lived. As to his career in Port Phillip, he will frequently turn up in other parts of this work, and I shall now simply add that he died in Melbourne on the 4th September, 1869, an honourable member of the Legislative Council, and so much esteemed that over 200 carriages were present at his funeral, and 15,000 persons lined the streets on his burial day.
And such were the two "Johns" — the earliest fathers of our commonwealth, whose names will be inseparably entwined in its past and future history. It is remarkable that neither of them left issue in the male line, and so far they have become lineally extinct.
There has been much disputation as to whom should be accorded the honour of the "white foundation of the colony," and, after much consideration of the question, I have arrived at the following conclusion, which, to my mind, appears irresistible:—
That the Grimes' party were the first European arrivals at the site of the future capital,
That William Dutton was the first resident at Portland,
That Batman was the first prospector of Melbourne and Geelong, and
That [not Fawkner, but] Fawkner's party—five men, a woman, and the woman's cat—were the bona-fide founders of the present great metropolis.
HISTORICAL CURIOSITIES.
As many incorrect versions of the "Title Deeds" by which the country was conveyed to Batman by the aboriginal chiefs have been printed, it seemed to me not undesirable to append the following copy, as revised from the Originals in the Public Library, the Trustees of that institution having purchased them a few years ago, on the suggestion of Sir W. H. Mitchell, the President of the Legislative Council:—
Know all persons that we, three brothers, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, being the three principal chiefs, and also Cooloolock, Bungane, Yanyan, Moowhip, and Monmarmalar, being the chiefs of a certain native tribe called Doutta-galla, situate at and near Port Phillip, called by us, the above-mentioned chiefs, Iramoo and Geelong, being possessed of the tract of land hereinafter mentioned, for and in consideration of twenty pair of blankets, thirty knives, twelve tomahawks ten looking-glasses, twelve pair of scissors, fifty handkerchiefs, twelve red shirts, four flannel jackets, four suits of clothes and fifty
pounds of flour, delivered to us by John Batman, residing in Van Diemen's Land, Esquire, but at present sojourning with us 
In witness thereof we, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, the three principal chiefs, and also Cooloolock, Bungarie, Vanyan, Moowhip, and Monmarmalar, the chiefs of the said tribe, have hereunto affixed our seals to these presents, and have signed the same. Dated, according to the Christian era, this 6th day of June, 1835.
Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of us, the same having been fully and properly interpreted and explained to the said chiefs.
| Jagajaga, his x mark. Jagajaga, his x mark. Jagajaga, his x mark. (Signed) |
Cooloolock, his x mark. Bungarie, his x mark. Yanyan, his x mark. John Batman. |
Moowhip, his x mark. Monmarmalar, his x mark. |
| James Gumm, Alexander Thomson, Wm. Todd. | ||
Be it remembered that on the day and year within written, possession and delivery of the tract of land within mentioned was made by the within-named Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Cooloolock, Bungarie, Vanyan, Moowhip, Monmarmalar, chiefs of the tribes of natives called Doutta-galla-Geelong, to the within-named John Batman, by the said chiefs taking up part of the soil and delivering the same to the said John Batman in the name of the whole.
| Jagajaga, his x mark. Jagajaga, his x mark. Jagajaga, his x mark. (Signed) |
Cooloolock, his x mark. Bungarie, his x mark. Yanyan, his x mark. In presence of |
Moowhip, his x mark. Monmarmalar, his x mark. |
| James Gumm, Alexander Thomson, Wm. Todd. | ||
Know all persons that we three brothers, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, being the principal chiefs, and also Cooloolock, Bungarie, Vanyan, Moowhip, and Monmarmalar, being the chiefs of a certain native tribe called Doulta-galla, situate at and near Port Phillip, called by us the abovementioned chiefs Iramoo, being possessed of the tract of land hereinafter mentioned, for and in consideration of twenty pair blankets, thirty tomahawks, one hundred knives, fifty pair of scissors, thirty looking-glasses, two hundred handkerchiefs, one hundred pounds of flour, and six shirts, delivered to us by John Batman, residing in Van Diemen's Land, Esquire, but at present sojourning with us and our tribe, do, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, give, grant, enfeoff, and confirm unto the said John Batman, his heirs and assigns, all that tract of country situate and being at Port Phillip, running from the branch of the river at ihe top of the port, about seven miles from the mouth of the river, forty miles north-east, and from thence west forty miles across Iramoo downs or plains, and from thence south-south-west across Mount Vilaumarnartar to Geelong Harbour, at the head of the same, and containing about 500,000 more or less acres, as the same hath been before the execution of these presents delineated and marked out by us, according to the custom of our tribe, by certain marks made upon the trees growing along the boundaries of the said tract of land to hold the said tract of land, with all advantages belonging thereto, unto ard to the use of the said John Batman, his heirs and assigns for ever, to the intent that the said John Batman, his heirs and assigns, may occupy and possess the said tract of land, and place thereon sheep and cattle, yielding and delivering unto us, our heirs or successors, the yearly rent or tribute of one hundred pair blankets, one hundred knives, one hundred tomahawks, fifty suits of clothing, fifty looking-glasses, fifty pair of scissors and five tons of flour.In witness thereof we, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, the above-mentioned principal chiefs, and Cooloolock, Bungarie, Vanyan, Moowhip, and Monmarmalar, the chiefs of the said tribe, have hereunto affixed our seals to these presents, and have signed the same. Dated, according to the Christian era, this 6th day of June, 1835.
Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of me, the same having been fully and properly interpreted and explained to the said chiefs.
| Jagajaga, his x mark. Jagajaga, his x mark. Jagajaga, his x mark. |
Cooloolock, his x mark. Bungarie, his x mark. Yanyan, his x mark. |
Moowhip, his x mark. Monmarmalar, his x mark. |
| (Signed) | John Batman, Banks of Batman's Creek, James Gumm, Alexander Thomson, Wm. Todd. | |
Be it remembered, that on the day and year within written, possession and delivery of the tract of land within mentioned was made by the within-named Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, principal chiefs, and Cooloolock, Bungarie, Vanyan, Moowhip, and Monmarmalar, also chiefs of the tribes of natives called Doutta-galla, to the within-named John Batman, by the said chiefs taking up part of the soil of the said tract of land, and delivering the same to the said John Batman in the name of the whole.
| Jagajaga, his x mark. | Cooloolock, his x mark. | Moowhip, his x mark. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jagajaga, his x mark. | Bungarie, his x mark. | Monmarmalar, his x mark. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jagajaga, his x mark | Yanyan, his x mark. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In the presence of | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Signed) | James Gumm, Alexander Thomson, Wm. Todd. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE FIRST AWARD IN THE COLONY.
Reference has been made to an arbitration of a Fawkner-cum-Batman dispute —
The arbitrators were Dr. Thomson (the first medico), Messrs. John Aitken (the first stock-breeder), and James Simpson (the first magistrate); and after a thorough consideration of the pros and cons, the following judgment, which is in fact the first legal decision given in the colony, was pronounced.
"We award in the dispute between Mr. Henry Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, on the first claim thirty shillings, on the second claim, nothing; although a strong presumption is on our minds that some hasty expressions of Mr. Batman may have led Bullett to destroy the rabbits. On the third claim, damages five shillings, and a fine of twenty shillings in consideration of its being an act of unauthorised aggression; and in the fourth claim nothing, as it does not appear that Mr. Batman set the dogs on the calf. We cannot omit remarking that there has been a degree of forbearance on the part of Mr. Fawkner highly gratifying to us, and, if generally practised, very conducive to the general good.
(Signed) A. Thomson, John Aitken, James Simpson.
May 2nd, 1836.
Mem.—The fines to be appropriated to some general purpose."
The Henry Batman in question was the brother of John Batman, and the following year, the first appointed Chief-Constable of Melbourne. Though the order in which the names are placed in the award would indicate the contrary, it would appear from the context that Fawkner was the complainant, and Batman the defendant. The "Bullett," referred to as a rabbit-killer, was one of the New South Wales blackfellows brought over by John Batman from Van Diemen's Land, to facilitate his land purchasing transactions with the Port Phillip aborigines. It is manifest also that the rabbits belonged to Fawkner, and to him, therefore, must be assigned the merit, or otherwise, of being the introducer of the first of a species, destined, in the not very distant future, to prove anything but a blessing to the land of their acclimatisation.
The document is also remarkable as bearing testimony to Fawkner's good temper, the only instance on record where it was possible to pay him such a compliment during his long, varied, and useful career. Good qualities he certainly did possess, but "forbearance" was an unknown quantity in his organisation, certainly since May, 1836.