Victoria's first successful British settlement was at
Portland, on the west coast of what is now Victoria. Portland was settled on 19 November 1834 by the
Henty family, who were originally farmers from
Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). When
Major Thomas Mitchell led an expedition to the region from Sydney in 1835, arriving at Portland in August 1836, he was surprised to find a small but prosperous community living off the fertile farmland. In 1835,
John Pascoe Fawkner and the
Port Phillip Association (led by
John Batman) started the Port Phillip settlement that later become known as Melbourne.
Borders The
District of Port Phillip was formally established as an administrative division within the
Colony of New South Wales in September 1836, though with ill-defined borders. In 1839, the District was defined as consisting of all the lands within New South Wales south of
36°S latitude, and between
141°E (that is, the border with the future
Colony of South Australia) and
146°E longitude. Coinciding with the introduction of a fixed-price land sale scheme in January 1840, the District was expanded north to follow the course of the
Murrumbidgee River from its source to the
Pacific coast at
Moruya. However, the border was retracted south to the
Murray River after extensive opposition in Sydney, including from the
Legislative Council, all of whom were appointed by the Sovereign or the Governor of the Colony. When the Legislative Council was expanded and restructured to include 12 appointed members and 24 members elected by eligible landowners, taking effect from the
1843 colonial elections, the newly created electoral districts included
Port Phillip (to be represented by 5 members) and the
Town of Melbourne. On 1 July 1843, a proclamation formalised the border as running from
Cape Howe, to the nearest source of the Murray River, and then along the course of the Murray to the border with South Australia. In protest and in support of a campaign for independence, the
1848 election scheduled for 27 July was disrupted by not nominating candidates for Port Phillip and putting forward for the Town of Melbourne the incumbent
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in the British Cabinet,
Earl Grey. Grey received nearly 75% of the vote despite Grey having never visited the Colony and being ineligible as a current member of the
British Parliament. A second writ was issued to elect five representatives for Port Phillip in October 1848. Following the strategy involving Earl Grey, the nominees included the
Duke of Wellington,
Lord Palmerston,
Lord Brougham,
Lord John Russell, and Sir
Robert Peel but local representatives were elected. Grey never attempted to take up his seat and it was declared vacant in 1850 The independence campaign continued and led Grey to introduce the
Australian Colonies Government Act 1850 into the British Parliament, separating the District of Port Phillip from New South Wales to become the
Colony of Victoria from 2 July 1851. The separation occurred along the 1843 borders and still apply to the modern
State of Victoria. The same Act created bicameral legislatures and instituted
self-government for each colony.
Conflict over resources With the dispossession of Aboriginal peoples from their lands with the establishment of sheep runs by squatters, conflict over resources and land use inevitably occurred. One highly notable incident called the
Convincing Ground massacre occurred in Portland Bay in 1833 or 1834 in a possible dispute about a
beached whale between whalers and the
Kilcarer gundidj clan of the
Gunditjmara people. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by
John Batman, also from
Van Diemen's Land and quickly grew into a thriving community, although at great human cost to the original inhabitants. Its foundation was the result of an invasion of wealthy squatters, land speculators and their indentured servants (including ex-convicts) who arrived from 1835, in a race with one another to seize an 'empty' country. The British Crown and colonial governments did not recognise prior Aboriginal ownership of their lands, waters and property, in spite of claiming that Aborigines fell within the protection of the law as British subjects. Early in 1836, Mr Franks, one of the first immigrants to the region, and his shepherd were found dead as a result of steel hatchet wounds to the head. His station was near Cotterill's Mount, called the Sugarloaf, near the river Exe, now Werribee. Upon discovering the scene, and a nearby food store which appeared to have been ransacked, George Smith travelled to Point Gellibrand and formed an exploratory band. The party was sent out led by tour of the Melbourne tribe, and encountered a camp from the Indigenous Wathaurong tribe, whereupon an unclear incident occurred. Port Philip Police Magistrate Captain William Lonsdale advised the Colonel Secretary that no harm was inflicted on the Aboriginal people, however Wathaurong histories report that 35 of their people were murdered in retaliatory violence. The
Traralgon Record newspaper reported in 1915 that the party "took vengeance on the murderers" (referring to the untried Wathaurong people), The incident is today remembered as "
The Mount Cottrell massacre". Between 1836 and 1842, Victorian Aboriginal groups were largely dispossessed of territory bigger than England. Although the British Colonial Office appointed 5 "
Aboriginal Protectors" for the entire Aboriginal population of Victoria, arriving in Melbourne in 1839, they worked "...within a land policy that nullified their work, and there was no political will to change this." "It was government policy to encourage squatters to take possession of whatever [Aboriginal] land they chose,....that largely explains why almost all the original inhabitants of Port Phillip's vast grasslands were dead so soon after 1835". By 1845, fewer than 240 wealthy Europeans held all the pastoral licences then issued in Victoria and became the patriarchs "...that were to wield so much political and economic power in Victoria for generations to come." Regarding the infamous Trial of
R vs Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener, "Tragically two of these (Aboriginal) men,
Tunnerminnerwait (known as Jack) and Maulboyheenner (known as Bob, or sometimes called Timmy or Jimmy), became the first people executed in the
Port Phillip District. This took place in 1842, a mere seven years after John Batman's treaties with the Kuhn people, when the two Tasmanian Aboriginal men were publicly hanged for murder." The
Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner public marker exists at the place of execution near the site of the
Old Melbourne Gaol, with artwork by
Brook Andrew and
Trent Walter. A severe financial crisis took place in 1842–3, mainly due to the Government demanding from the banks the large rate of 7% for all moneys deposited with them, the result of land sales. The banks had to charge their customers from 10 to 12% for loans, very often on questionable securities. It was then accelerated by Lord John Russell's instructions that all lands out of town boundaries to be sold at only £1 per acre. Sheep that had been bought at from 30s to 40s per head are now sold at less than 2s. The Insolvent Court was rushed by all classes of the community. == Separation from New South Wales ==