The Three Colonies of Australia/Part 1/Chapter 18
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The Antipodes Islands.—(From a Sketch by J. A. Jackson, ESQ.)
CHAPTER XVIII.
VICTORIA, OR PORT PHILLIP.
1835 to 1850.
IN the year 1834 Victoria, or Port Phillip, was a desert, barely known to Europeans except by the reports of wandering shore parties of whalers and sealers. In the year 1852 nearly two hundred thousand inhabitants, six millions of fine-woolled sheep, a city furnished with many of the luxuries if not the comforts of civilised life, two thriving ports crowded with ships, steam-boats, and coasters, farms, gardens, and vineyards, attested the colonising vigour of the English race, the advantages of its soil and climate, and, not least, of administrative and legislative neglect; for Port Phillip attained all its solid prosperity without the aid of colonising companies or acts of Parliament, or governors or regiments, or any of the complicated machinery with which sham colonies are bolstered up, and real colonies are so often encumbered.
A small band of experienced colonists, a succession of flocks and herds from the opposite coast, a magistrate, a few policemen and customs officers, then a sort of deputy-governor under the modest name of superintendent—these were found sufficient for building up the most flourishing dependency of the British crown, without calling on the home country for a single shilling.
The history of Port Phillip is singularly barren of incident, and may be comprised in a very few pages, while volumes might be filled with the moving accidents which have chequered the career of colonies which have not attained, and are not likely to attain, one-tenth of its wealth and importance as a field for British labour and capital.
In 1798, Bass, in the course of his whale-boat expedition, visited Western Port, one of the harbours of Victoria. In 1802 Flinders sailed into Port Phillip Bay, having been preceded ten weeks previously by Lieutenant John Murray, of the Lady Nelson.
In 1803 Lieutenant Governor Collins, who held the office of judge-advocate under Governor Phillip in the first colony, and on his return to England in 1796 had published an "Account of New South Wales," was sent out with H. M. ships Calcutta and Ocean with detachments of royal marines, a number of free settlers, and several hundred prisoners to found a settlement at Port Phillip, where, having sailed on April 27th, he arrived October 3rd. The expedition disembarked on the southern shore of the bay, where the beach was unfavourable for landing, and there was no fresh water. It is evident, from a narrative published by one of the party,[1] that from the first Colonel Collins[2] had no earnest desire to form a settlement at Port Phillip: he had heard glowing accounts of the beauty and fertility of the opposite shores of Van Diemen's Land, and, after a very cursory survey, he decided on removing thither. In the course of a walk round the bay, undertaken by the officers of the ship, they found "on the eastern shore, twenty-eight miles from the entrance, a stream of water emptying itself into the port." "The bed of the stream is covered with folicacious mica, which our people first conceived to be gold-dust." At the present day we cannot be so sure that it was mica. According to an account given in a Tasmanian almanack, which does not agree with that of Lieutenant Tuckey, the expedition remained at Port Phillip from 3rd Oct. to 30th January. If that were so, it is difficult to understand how the great natural advantages of Port Phillip could have escaped the observation of two ships' crews.
During their encampment on the shores of Port Phillip three of the convicts escaped into the interior: one of them was William Buckley, a native of Macclesfield, who had been a grenadier, served under the Duke of York in Flanders, and had been transported for striking his superior officer.
Previous to the arrival of Collins, Mr. Charles Grimes, the surveyor-general of the colony, had completed the marine survey of Flinders by making an outline of the harbour, where he reported the existence of the river now known as the Yarra Yarra, or "ever-flowing water."
In 1824 Messrs. Hume and Hovell, two stockowners of New South Wales, made an expedition to explore new pastures, and, travelling from near Lake George four hundred miles, in the course of which they traversed the flanks of the Australian Alps, and crossed three rivers, which they named the Hume, the Ovens, and the Goulburn, emerged on shores which they imagined to be those of Western Port; but there is now little doubt that they had really reached the western arm of Port Phillip Bay, near the site of the port of Geelong. In looking at a map of the Melbourne district a spot will be found marked Mount Disappointment, about thirty miles from Melbourne. It was this hill that the weary travellers climbed, calculating that from its summit they would behold the sea. They were right in the direction, and a long line of coast and a stretch of the finest sheep plains lay in a line before them; but, unfortunately, lofty broad-boled trees hid everything from their longing eyes, and they descended sad and disheartened.
It would seem as if there had been a spell over this fortunate land which guarded its wealth from the discovery of a series of explorers, from Cook to Hovell and Hume.
Mr. Hovell was afterwards employed by the government to form a settlement at Western Port, which, however, was soon abandoned; and the fine pastoral country traversed in the course of his journey with Mr. Hume excited little attention, in consequence of the discovery, about the same time, of Brisbane Downs, better known as Maneroo, which were more accessible from the previously-occupied districts.
In 1834 Messrs. Henty, engaged in the whaling trade at Launceston in Van Diemen's Land, formed a branch establishment at Portland Bay, and soon afterwards imported a few sheep and cattle to feed on the splendid pastures which there, unlike the other districts of Australia, 
Gum Trees near Melbourne.
carpetted the shores almost to the water's edge; and in the same year other flockowners from Van Diemen's Land crossed the straits to Port Phillip.
Already the Tasmanians had found the pastures of their island, covered as the greater portion of it is by inaccessible mountains and forests of gigantic timber, too limited for the annual increase of their flocks. The reports of the pastoral resources of the opposite shore became a constant subject for discussion; and in April, 1835, a party of settlers formed themselves into an association,[3] for the purpose of taking possession of an estate in Port Phillip; but before they could execute their project Mr. John Batman, a blacksmith, born in New South Wales, but then visiting Van Diemen's Land, secretly set sail from Launceston, accompanied by a party of tame blacks from the neighbourhood of Sydney, landed in the middle of May, and, through his native interpreter, entered into an arrangement with the Port Phillip aborigines for the purchase of some of their land; returned to Van Diemen's Land, and, again crossing the straits with a store of goods, induced the savages to put their marks to a deed prepared by a Tasmanian lawyer, which purported to transfer a large tract of land, altogether about half a million acres, in consideration of certain blankets and tomahawks. This transaction, like all similar purchases from hunting tribes, was mere child's play. The aborigines of Australia have no idea of cultivation, and consequently no idea of possession of land or anything else. They accepted Batman's blankets, tobacco, flour, tomahawks, &c., and only understood that by that payment he became their ally.
Batman selected the site of his future manor-house at Indented Head. Thence he soon beheld the approach of the ships of the Association whom, by his rapid proceedings, he had forestalled in the honour of founding the future Victoria.
It is said, we know not with what truth, that he mounted his horse, and, galloping down to the beach, warned them off his estate. Perhaps, in 1950, a young Victorian painter may assemble crowds in the Melbourne National Gallery, to see "Batman warning the intruders from Port Phillip Bay."
Some of the party, awed by his legal threats, retired inland, and set their flocks to feed on land they eventually acquired. Mr. John Pascoe Fawkner, a name still well known in Victoria, with more obstinacy and good fortune, took up a position on the northern banks of the Yarra, overlooking the spot where a natural ledge divided the salt tide from the fresh river at the ebb, above a natural basin, which has since, by the aid of masonry, been converted into a port for the city of Melbourne, open to vessels and steamers of two hundred tons.
Batman had previously addressed a letter to Colonel Arthur, the Governor of Van Diemen's Land, in which he informed him of his proceedings; described the country he had explored in glowing but not exaggerated terms; and requested the support of his excellency in his schemes of colonisation, and for the civilisation of the natives. Colonel Arthur transmitted copies of Batman's letter, and all the documents connected with his alleged purchase from the natives, to the Colonial Office; expressed his decided opinion that the settlement of Port Phillip would form a useful outlet for the settlers of Van Diemen's Land; and that Mr. Batman, "whose conduct had been marked by humanity as well as enterprise," was deserving of a grant of land, although his purchase, as he had already informed him, was clearly illegal.
Lord Aberdeen, and his successor, Lord Glenelg, followed the unfortunate course which has almost invariably been adopted by our colonial ministers. They began by saying no, and in a very short period were obliged to say yes—to acknowledge a fact!
Lord Aberdeen in December, 1834, and Lord Glenelg in July, 1835, wrote elaborate despatches, the one against the occupation of Twofold Bay, the outlet to Brisbane Downs, or Maneroo, as it is now called, on the borders of Port Phillip, as recommended by Sir Richard Bourke, and the other against the occupation of Port Phillip, as recommended by Colonel Arthur, objecting to measures "the consequence of which would be to spread over a still further extent of country a population which it was the object of the land regulations to concentrate," and declining, on the ground of "expense to the mother country, and danger to the natives and settlers," to sanction the proceedings of Batman and his associates.
But before the despatches were unsealed the thing was done. Mother Partington's mop was not more powerful to stop the Atlantic than paper proclamations to arrest the march of Australian settlers with sheep and lambs in sight of "fresh fields and pastures new."
On the one hand, shepherds and stockmen were spreading overland, following their flock from pasture to pasture toward Port Phillip; on the other, a Port Phillip fever seized the Tasmanians, and they crowded across the straits like the patriarchs of old, with tents and all their woolly possessions.
"We went down," says a lady, who was then a little child, "to see the six adventurers embark for Port Phillip, with the same feeling as if it had been Cortez or Pizarro; but very soon there was the same universal rush for Port Phillip that there is now for the gold-diggings."
It was while one of these early parties was landing from boats near the future site of Melbourne that they saw, amid a tribe of natives sitting under a tree, with all the arms and tokens of a chief, a man of large limbs and gigantic stature, lighter-coloured than his companions, as well as could be distinguished through tan, paint, and dirt. He stared hard at the strangers, and seemed muttering to himself; then, rising, he approached, and addressed them in a strange jargon, in which a few words of English were distinguishable. It was Buckley, one of the convicts who had escaped from the party of Colonel Collins, and, after thirty-two years' sojourning with the aborigines, again found himself among his countrymen.
He had forgotten his native tongue, and had assumed all the habits of his savage companions, among whom he was a chief by virtue of his superior stature and strength.[4] He at once joined the colonists, gradually re-acquired the English tongue, and exercised very useful influence over his late subjects. Colonel Arthur, the Governor of Van Diemen's Land, granted him a free pardon, and, as it was disagreeable to him to remain in the scene of his savage life, he became a constable in Van Diemen's Land.
But either some original infirmity or long absence from civilised social life had impaired his intellect, and he rarely and unwillingly conversed on the events of his extraordinary career. There is reason to believe that he and his tribe never wandered more than forty miles inland from the shores of the bay.
When, in June, 1836, a magistrate, Mr. Stewart, despatched by Sir Richard Bourke, arrived to assert her Majesty's rights, and to announce the invalidity of all purchases from the aborigines, he found the country already occupied, and the work of colonisation steadily proceeding. Nearly two hundred men had arrived from Van Diemen's Land, and were settled around the estuary of Port Phillip; 35,000 sheep, under the charge of strong armed parties, with a number of horned cattle and horses, were spread for many miles over the site of the present Ballarat gold-fields, each party seeking to appropriate as large a run as possible.
Until very recently, on the station of Messrs. Jackson, at Saltwater River, was to be seen one of the great bells, mounted on a lofty frame, which used to be rung from station to station to summon assistance when an attack from the blacks was anticipated.
In the same year Sir Thomas Mitchell re-explored and surveyed the overland route from New South Wales, part of which had been traversed by Messrs. Hovell and Hume, and described the fine plains of Victoria, to which he gave the name of Australia Felix—"the better to distinguish it from the parched deserts of the interior country, where we had wandered so unprofitably and so long."[5] He then discovered and named Mount Byng, the hill since become world-famous as Mount Alexander.
The publication of this report in the colonial and English papers, and afterwards of Sir T. Mitchell's travels, fanned up the flame of the Port Phillip fever, and very soon, along the overland route, pool after pool was drunk dry by the thousands of stock marching on to the promised land.
In April, 1837, Sir Richard Bourke visited the new colony, and gave directions for laying out the town of Melbourne on two hills, East and West Hill, sloping down to the banks of the River Yarra. In June the first land sale took place, and speculation commenced, and did not cease until it ended in wide-spread insolvency in 1841 and 1842.
The steady course of depending on their increase of flocks and herds was abandoned; all but a few went into town speculations and country lots; village sites were laid out in all directions, some of which remain projects or miserable hamlets to this hour. Emigrants crowded in from all parts of Great Britain. At Hobson's Bay, the entrance to the Yarra, more than one hundred three-masted ships were to be seen at anchor at one time. Labour rose to an enormous price; brickmakers earned 8s. a day; the common four-pound loaf was sold for 3s. 6d.; and mere huts were let at the rate of £100 a year. Meantime, fortunately, the living pastoral treasures of Australia came pouring in, and increased and multiplied on the fine downs and grass-covered hills, while some wise, hard-working settlers devoted themselves to agriculture.
During this period the Port Phillip district was nominally under the government of the central authority at Sydney, but in reality the people governed themselves, with the help of a magistrate and a few policemen, while a neighbouring colony of the same date was enjoying all the costly magnificence of elaborate government machinery.
In 1839 C. J. La Trobe, Esq., the present governor, was appointed superintendent of Port Phillip district, with an authority little more than nominal, as the surveys, post-office, customs, &c., were managed by subordinates responsible to the chief departments at Sydney; and even up to 1839 the sales of rural land took place at Sydney.
The centralisation of authority in a distant city, having different interests, and the appropriation of funds derived from Port Phillip land sales to emigration into Sydney district, were long subjects of grievance on which, as they have been redressed, it is not necessary to dwell.
When representative institutions were conceded to New South Wales, six representatives were apportioned to the Port Phillip district; but it was soon found impossible to find that number of colonists able and willing to live for six months of the year six hundred miles away from their estates; and for several sessions before 1850 the Port Phillippians virtually declined to elect representatives.
In 1842 Melbourne obtained a municipal corporation, under 5 and 6 Victoria, c. 76. Victoria has, however, never been a penal colony, although long and still suffering from the overflowings of the felonry of Van Diemen's Land.
It would not serve any useful purpose to record the struggles of Port Phillip to obtain an independent existence as a separate colony, now that the question has been finally settled.
The general quality of the soil in Port Phillip has given the settlers an advantage over land purchasers in less fertile districts of Australia, and the absence of an expensive local government has enabled the colonists to escape a local debt like that which so long weighed down South Australia.
In fact the brief history of Port Phillip proves how much more safely, successfully, and inexpensively colonies may be planted by colonists than by enthusiastic amateurs and speculating companies.
In 1852 the assembling of the first Legislative Council of Victoria marked the commencement of a new era of independence and prosperity, crowned by the golden discoveries at Ballarat and Mount Alexander.
Bunynong Hill, near Ballarat.
- ↑ Lieutenant Tuckey's Voyage in H. M. S. Calcutta, to found a Settlement in Bass's Straits. 1803-4."
- ↑ Colonel David Collins was the grandson of Arthur Collins, author of the Peerage of England, which was afterwards continued by Sir Egerton Brydges. He was a Lieutenant of Marines in the Southampton frigate in 1772, when Matilda, Queen of Denmark, took refuge on board. He afterwards fought at the battle of Bunker's Hill, under his father, General Collins; he died in Van Diemen's Land.
- ↑ The association consisted of Messrs. S. and N. Jackson, Fawkner, Marr, Evans, and Lancy.
- ↑ Buckley was six feet seven inches in height.
- ↑ Mitchell's "Australia Felix."