ps_the_settlement_of_melbourne

__**The Settlement of Melbourne**__ Homepage | Founding Fathers | The Discovery of Melbourne | The Aboriginals Mind Map | Alex's Reflection | Danny's Reflection | Bibliography

In 1803 the British Government stated to worry that the French might try to take the Bass Strait and what is now the Melbourne area, so they sent Colonel David Collins with a founding party of 300 convicts to station a settlement at Port Phillip. When Colonel David Collins arrived at Sorrento, on the Mornington Peninsula in October 1803, they tried to make it work but Collins was scared at the lack of fresh water. They tried using an invention of a barrel inside a smaller barrel with the gap between the stuffed with leaves and moss, but after his men stated getting sick off the water Collins decided to give up. So in his report of the area he rated it extremely bad and so in May 1804 he picked up camp and left to go and settle in Van Diemans land (later named Tasmania) becoming the founded of Hobart. Among the convicts at Sorrento was a boy named John Pascoe Fawkner and son of one of the convicts, he would later return to the area in the race to found and settle in Melbourne. The northern Shores of the Bass Strait were empty other than the occasional whaler or sealers and the area of Melbourne was left alone for 20 years by the white men.

In 1835 John Batman, a rich farmer from northern Tasmania wanted more grazing land so in April 1835 he got a boat and he took it across the Bass Strait and went up Port Phillip to the mouth of the Yarra River. There he explored a large area of what are now the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Then on June the 6th Batman signed a treaty in his journal (later known as the Batman Treaty) with the aboriginal people (Wurundjeri tribe), in which he sought to buy 2000 km² of land where Melbourne is now plus another 400 km² near Geelong in exchange he would give the eight chiefs of the region an amount of blankets, knives, axes, scissors, looking glasses (telescopes), flour, handkerchiefs and clothing.

Batman then returned to Launceston and started to prepare a large expedition to establish a settlement on the Yarra River. But John Pascoe Fawkner once son of a convict and now a successful business man, had the same idea. He told batman he had no intention of settling but obviously he did. So he bought the ship the //Enterprise// and stared his adventure on 4th of August 1835 (with out Fawkner because of reasons unknown) with a party of intending settlers and arrived on the 30th of August and as acting captain John Lancey picked a spot for the settlement and set up camp on the Yarra. Meanwhile Batman had sailed his ship the //Rebecca// on the 20th of July. Batman while on his trip has come across a temporary camp site of 30 year ago in Sorrento and there found William Buckley and Englishman and former convict who had escaped from the former settlement at Sorrento in 1803 and had lived with the aboriginal people in Port Phillip for 30 years .Batman finally reached the Yarra on the 2nd of September and was dismayed and furious to find Fawkner’s crew had already settled.

After a edgy first few days, the two groups decided there was plenty of land for everybody, and when Fawkner arrived on the 16th of October with more settlers, they all agreed to start giving out land and not to dispute who settled first.

In March 1836 after having many names and almost being names Batmania it was named Melbourne in honour of the present British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. [] [] []
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