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Thehistory of Victoria refers to the history of the Australianstate ofVictoria and the area's precedingIndigenous andBritish colonial societies.
BeforeBritish colonisation of Australia, manyAboriginal peoples lived in the area now known as Victoria. After the first Europeans settled there in October 1803, in September 1836 the area became part of thecolony of New South Wales, known as theDistrict of Port Phillip. In July 1851, the District of Port Phillip was established as its own colony, becoming theColony of Victoria, with its own government within theBritish Empire. During the 1850s, gold was discovered inClunes andBuninyong inBallarat in 1851, which was the start of theVictorian Gold Rush. In 1901 it became a state of theCommonwealth of Australia.
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The state ofVictoria was originally home to manyAboriginal nations that had occupied the land for tens of thousands of years.[1] According toGary Presland,Aboriginal people have lived in Victoria for about 40,000 years,[2] living a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farmingeels, as is evident in theBudj Bim heritage areas.[3]
At theKeilor Archaeological Site a human hearth excavated in 1971 was radiocarbon-dated to about 31,000 yearsBP, making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia.[4] Acranium found at the site has been dated at between 12,000[5] and 14,700 yearsBP.[4]
Archaeological sites inTasmania and on theBass Strait Islands have been dated to between 20,000 – 35,000 years ago, when sea levels were 130 metres below present level allowing Aboriginal people to move across the region of southern Victoria and on to the land bridge of the Bassian plain to Tasmania by at least 35,000 years ago.[6][7]
During the Ice Age about 20,000 yearsBP, the area now the bay ofPort Phillip was dry land, and the Yarra and Werribee rivers joined to flow through the heads then south and south west through the Bassian plain before meeting the ocean to the west. Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands became separated from mainland Australia around 12,000 BP, when the sea level was approximately 50 metres (160 ft) below present levels.[8] Port Phillip was flooded by post-glacialrising sea levels between 8000 and 6000 years ago.[9]
Oral history and creation stories from theWathaurong,Woiwurrung andBoonwurrung languages describe the flooding of the bay, which they call Narm-Narm; it was previously covered in scrubby tea-tree and was akangaroo hunting ground.Aboriginal creation stories describe howBunjil was responsible for the formation of the bay,[7] or the bay was flooded when theYarra River was created.[10] Another story says thatBalayang the bat created the oceans, rivers, and creeks.
Coming from New Zealand in 1770, LieutenantJames Cook in HM BarkEndeavour sighted land atPoint Hicks, about 70 km west ofGabo Island, before turning east and north to follow the coast of Australia.
Ships sailing from Great Britain to Sydney crossed the Indian Ocean andSouthern Ocean, sailing aroundVan Diemen's Land before turning north to their destination. Several captains viewed the expanse of water between Van Diemen's Land and the east coast ofNew South Wales and wondered whether it was a large bay or astrait. Survivors ofSydney Cove, wrecked in theFurneaux Group of islands, also thought it might be a strait.
To clear up the question, GovernorJohn Hunter sentGeorge Bass to explore thoroughly the coast in a whaleboat. After reachingWilsons Promontory andWestern Port in January 1798 bad weather and lack of provisions forced him to return to Sydney. Bass returned withMatthew Flinders in December 1798 inNorfolk and sailed through the strait, proving its existence.
In December 1800, LieutenantJames Grant inHMS Lady Nelson, on way from Cape Town to Sydney, sailed through Bass Strait from west to east. GovernorKing, disappointed at the vagueness of Grant's chart, sent him back to survey the strait more thoroughly. Bad weather prevented him from proceeding beyond Western Port, where he stayed for five weeks, planting wheat, Indian corn, peas, rice, coffee and potatoes onChurchill Island offPhillip Island.[11]
In 1801Harbinger, underJohn Black, was the second vessel to sail throughBass Strait en route toPort Jackson. She reached the coast nearCape Otway on 1 January 1801, then veered sharply south-west to the north-western tip of Governor King's Island (nowKing Island), which Black named after the Governor of New South Wales,Philip Gidley King. She then sailed easterly towardsWilsons Promontory. Proceeding around the tip of the promontory, Black discovered theHogan Group, which he named after the ship's ownerMichael Hogan.Harbinger arrived in Port Jackson on 12 January 1801.[12]
In January 1802 LieutenantJohn Murray inLady Nelson visited Western Port and enteredPort Phillip on 14 February. He namedArthur's Seat, exploredCorio Bay and formally took possession of the bay (which he named Port King) for Britain. The bay was then known as Narm-Narm by the people of theKulin Nation, and Murray called the bay Port King after theGovernor of New South Wales,Philip Gidley King. On 4 September 1805, King formally renamed it Port Phillip, in honour of his predecessorArthur Phillip. Murray chose to base theLady Nelson off what is now known as Sorrento Beach.
During this voyage, Murray records in his journal his first encounter with localAboriginal peoples in the eastern Melbourne region. This initially friendly encounter started with trading, eating, and gifting, and was suddenly interrupted by a violent ambush by another group of Aboriginal people. The crew in response shot at the Aboriginal people, and continued to shoot at them as they fled, inflicting likely mortal wounds on two of them. Murray then ordered the shipcarronades to be fired at the fleeing Aboriginal people.[13]
"They were all clothed in opossum skins and in each basket a certain quantity of gum was found. ... if we may judge from the number of their fires and other marks this part of the country is not thin of inhabitants. Their spears are of various kinds and all of them more dangerous than any I have yet seen."
Three weeks later the French explorerNicolas Baudin sailed through the strait from east to west and was the first to properly survey the coast to the west. In April 1802, a French expedition shipLe Naturaliste underJacques Hamelin explored the area aroundFrench Island, as part of theBaudin expedition to Australia. It named the islandIle des Français, since Anglicised as French Island.
On 26 April 1802, Flinders, unaware of Murray's visit, entered Port Phillip inInvestigator, climbed Arthur's Seat, rowed toMornington and across to theBellarine Peninsula and climbed theYou Yangs.
In January 1803 Acting-LieutenantCharles Robbins in the schoonerHMS Cumberland sailed right around Port Phillip. With him were acting surveyor-generalCharles Grimes, MrJames Meehan and gardener James Fleming.[14] At the head of the bay they found a river and followed it upstream where it soon divided. They followed the western branch and named it the Saltwater River (the presentMaribyrnong) to what is nowBraybrook, and then the eastern fresh-water branch (theYarra) toDights Falls. They had a friendly meeting with local Aboriginal people and returned to their ship via Corio Bay. They concluded that the best site for a settlement would be on the freshwater at the northern head of the bay, but were unenthusiastic about the soil and its agricultural potential.
With Britain involved in theFrench revolutionary wars, Governor King was concerned that Bass Strait could harbour enemy raiders, and that in peace time it could provide an important trade route and trading base. The appearance of Baudin's ships served to reinforce the concern that France was interested in the area. King was also looking for an alternative settlement for the increasing number ofconvicts in Sydney and to reduce the pressure on food resources. Port Phillip, with a favourable climate and rich fishing and sealing resources, seemed an ideal location for another settlement.
A full description of Murray's and Flinders' discoveries, together with King's thoughts on settlement, but not Grimes' report, reached England just asHMS Calcutta was being prepared to send a shipload of convicts to Sydney. In February 1803,Lord Hobart theSecretary of State changed the destination to Port Phillip. On 24 April 1803 HMSCalcutta, commanded by CaptainDaniel Woodriff, with Lieutenant-ColonelDavid Collins as commander of the expedition, left England accompanied by the store-shipOcean. The expedition consisted of 402 people: 5 Government officials, 9 officers of marines, 2 drummers, and 39 privates, 5 soldiers' wives, and a child, 307 convicts, 17 convicts' wives, and 7 children.[15] One of the children was the eleven-year-oldJohn Pascoe Fawkner, later a founder of Melbourne, who accompanied his convicted father and mother.
The party entered Port Phillip on 9 October 1803 and chose a site atSullivan Bay near present-daySorrento.
Collins was soon disappointed with the area. Reports from exploring parties led by LieutenantJames Tuckey and surveyorGeorge Harris described strong currents, sandy soil, poor timber, swampy land and scarce fresh water. They also clashed with theWathaurung people near Corio Bay, killing their leader – the first Aborigines known to have been killed by settlers in Victoria.
Collins reported his criticisms to Governor King, who supported him and recommended moving the settlement. On 18 DecemberCalcutta departed forPort Jackson, and the party was prepared for evacuation. This was achieved in two voyages ofOcean in January and May 1804, assisted byHMS Lady Nelson which had been surveyingPort Dalrymple on the north coast ofVan Diemens Land. The party was transferred to the fledgling settlement ofHobart, founded by LieutenantJohn Bowen as a penal colony atRisdon Cove in September 1803.
The brief settlement at Sorrento achieved little and left only a few relics for modern tourists to observe. Collins has been criticised for not investigating the bay thoroughly, in particular, the northern head with its fresh-water river, and for being too hasty in his condemnation of the bay. The site of the settlement is now a reserve incorporating four graves from the period.[16][17]
When Collins departed, several convicts – who had escaped when they heard the colony was leaving for Van Diemen's Land – were left behind. They were presumed killed by Aboriginal people. However,William Buckley survived, meeting Wathaurong people on theBellarine Peninsula and living with them for the next 32 years. (In 1835 he became aware ofJohn Batman'sPort Phillip Association camp and reintroduced himself to Europeans.)[18]
For the next thirty years a few sealers and whalers rested on the southern coast of New South Wales.
Following a number of exploratory expeditions south from the settled areas of New South Wales, the pastoralistHamilton Hume and former sea-captainWilliam Hovell set off to explore the country to the south in October 1824. They crossed theMurray River (which they named the Hume River) near the site ofAlbury and continued south. They crossed theGoulburn River (which they called the Hovell) above the site ofYea, and were forced to detour around mountains. They arrived on the shores ofCorio Bay, mistakenly believing it to be Western Port, and returned to Sydney in January 1825, lavishly praising the quality of the country they had passed through.
In April 1826 the French explorerd'Urville visited one of the sealers' camps on Phillip Island. Worried by this renewed French interest in the area and encouraged by Hume and Hovell's reports, GovernorDarling ordered a settlement to be established at Western Port. A small convict party arrived in November 1826 atCorinella under the command of Samuel Wright, to protect the approaches to the bay. Hovell, accompanying the party, soon realised that this was not where he had arrived two years before, and reported unfavourably on the swampy land around Western Port, although he referred to better land to the north. In spite of clearing the land for crops, and the construction of a fort and houses, the settlement was abandoned in April 1828.
The shortage of good pasture in Van Diemen's Land led to settlers there showing interest in the country across Bass Strait, following Hume and Hovell's reports and stories of visiting sealers. PastoralistJohn Batman and surveyorJohn Wedge planned an expedition fromLaunceston in 1825 but permission was not granted. A number of settlers sought land over the next few years, but Governor Darling turned down all requests.
A sealer and whalerWilliam Dutton built a hut on the shore ofPortland Bay in 1829 where he resided for a time prior to the arrival of the Hentys.
The expedition down the Murray River byCharles Sturt in 1830 again aroused interest in settlement in the south. In April 1833Edward Henty, returning to Van Diemen's Land fromSpencer Gulf called in to Portland for a cargo of oil, and was much impressed. In November 1834John Hart, another sailor, reported favourably in Launceston on Western Port. It was now inevitable that settlement would occur.
In June 1834 bankerCharles Swanston advised his clientGeorge Mercer that land was scarce in Van Diemen's Land and he should invest across Bass Strait. Pastoralists John Aitken and George Russell suggested forming a partnership, and in August 1834 a group of eight Launceston capitalists formed what became thePort Phillip Association. On 19 November 1834 Edward Henty landed inPortland Bay and began the first permanent European settlement on the north coast of Bass Strait.
Victoria's first successful British settlement was atPortland, on the west coast of what is now Victoria. Portland was settled on 19 November 1834[19] by theHenty family, who were originally farmers fromVan Diemen's Land (Tasmania). WhenMajor 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 thePort Phillip Association (led byJohn Batman) started the Port Phillip settlement that later become known as Melbourne.
TheDistrict of Port Phillip was formally established as an administrative division within theColony 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 of36°S latitude, and between141°E (that is, the border with the futureColony of South Australia) and146°E longitude.[20] Coinciding with the introduction of a fixed-price land sale scheme in January 1840, the District was expanded north to follow the course of theMurrumbidgee River from its source to thePacific coast atMoruya.[21] However, the border was retracted south to theMurray River after extensive opposition in Sydney, including from theLegislative Council,[21][22] all of whom were appointed by the Sovereign or the Governor of the Colony.[23] When the Legislative Council was expanded and restructured to include 12 appointed members and 24 members elected by eligible landowners, taking effect from the1843 colonial elections, the newly created electoral districts includedPort Phillip (to be represented by 5 members) and theTown of Melbourne.[24] On 1 July 1843, a proclamation formalised the border as running fromCape Howe, to the nearest source of the Murray River, and then along the course of the Murray to the border with South Australia.[20]
Elected representatives for Port Phillip and Melbourne needed to be in Sydney to serve in the Legislative Council, placing them at a great distance from the areas they represented, and they were consequently considered ineffective and out-of-touch by locals.[25][26]: 23–27 In protest and in support of a campaign for independence,[27][28] the1848 election scheduled for 27 July[29] was disrupted by not nominating candidates for Port Phillip[30] and putting forward for the Town of Melbourne the incumbentSecretary of State for War and the Colonies in the British Cabinet,Earl Grey. Grey received nearly 75% of the vote[31] despite Grey having never visited the Colony and being ineligible as a current member of theBritish Parliament.[32][33] A second writ was issued to elect five representatives for Port Phillip in October 1848.[34] Following the strategy involving Earl Grey, the nominees included theDuke of Wellington,Lord Palmerston,Lord Brougham,Lord John Russell, and SirRobert Peel but local representatives were elected.[35] Grey never attempted to take up his seat and it was declared vacant in 1850[25][32][33] and a replacement elected.[36] The independence campaign continued and led Grey to introduce theAustralian Colonies Government Act 1850 into the British Parliament, separating the District of Port Phillip from New South Wales to become theColony of Victoria from 2 July 1851.[25][32] The separation occurred along the 1843 borders and still apply to the modernState of Victoria. The same Act created bicameral legislatures and institutedself-government for each colony.[25]
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 theConvincing Ground massacre occurred in Portland Bay in 1833 or 1834 in a possible dispute about abeached whale between whalers and theKilcarer gundidj clan of theGunditjmara people.[37]
Melbourne was founded in 1835 byJohn Batman, also fromVan 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,[38] 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.[39] TheTraralgon Record newspaper reported in 1915 that the party "took vengeance on the murderers" (referring to the untried Wathaurong people),[38] whileThe Cornwall Chronicle of Tasmania reported with approval in 1836 that the band had scouted the Wathaurong camp overnight, and in the morning launched an attack with the intent of "annihilating them".[40] 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.[41] 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."[42] "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".[43] 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."[44]
Regarding the infamous Trial ofR 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 thePort 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."[45] TheTunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner public marker exists at the place of execution near the site of theOld Melbourne Gaol, with artwork byBrook Andrew andTrent Walter.[46]
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.[citation needed]
The first petition for the separation of the Port Phillip District (or 'Australia Felix') fromNew South Wales was drafted in 1840 byHenry Fyshe Gisborne and presented by him toGovernor Gipps. Gipps, who had previously been in favour of separation, rejected the petition.
Agitation of the Port Phillip settlers continued and led to the establishment of Port Phillip District as a separate colony on 1 July 1851. The British Act of Parliament separating Port Phillip District from New South Wales, and naming the new colony "Victoria" (after Queen Victoria) and providing it with a Constitution, was signed byQueen Victoria on 5 August 1850. Enabling legislation was passed by theNew South Wales Legislative Council to take effect on 1 July 1851. This was formally the founding moment of the Colony of Victoria, with separation from New South Wales established by section 1 of the 1851 Act.[47] La Trobe became the new colony's first Lieutenant-Governor.
In 1851, the white population of the new colony was still only 77,000, and only 23,000 people lived in Melbourne. Melbourne had already become a centre of Australia's wool export trade.
In1851gold was first discovered inClunes and Buninyong nearBallarat,[48] and subsequently atBendigo. Later discoveries occurred at many sites across Victoria. This triggered one of the largest gold rushes the world has ever seen. The colony grew rapidly in both population and economic power. In ten years the population of Victoria increased sevenfold from 76,000 to 540,000. All sorts of gold records were produced including the "richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world" and thelargest gold nugget. Victoria produced in the decade 1851–1860, twenty million ounces of gold, one third of the world's output.
Immigrants arrived from all over the world to search for gold, principally from the British Isles and particularly from Ireland. Many Chinese miners worked in Victoria, and their legacy is particularly strong inBendigo and its environs. Although there was someracism directed at them, there was not the level of anti-Chinese violence that was seen at theLambing Flat riots in New South Wales. However, there was ariot at Buckland Valley nearBright in1857. Conditions on the gold fields were cramped and unsanitary – an outbreak oftyphoid at Buckland Valley in1854 killed over 1,000 miners.
In1854 there was an armed rebellion against the government of Victoria by miners protesting againstmining taxes (the "Eureka Stockade"). This was crushed by British troops, but some of the leaders of the rebellion subsequently became members of the Victoria Parliament, and the rebellion is regarded as a pivotal moment in the development of Australian democracy.
In 1857, reflecting the growing presence of Irish immigrants, in Victoria theBritish Empire had its first Catholic government leaders:John O'Shanassy as Premier, and the formerYoung Irelander,Charles Gavan Duffy his deputy. Melbourne's Protestant establishment was ill-prepared "to countenance so startling a novelty".[49] In 1858–59,Melbourne Punch cartoons linked Duffy and O'Shanassy with images of theFrench Revolution to undermine their Ministry. One famousPunch image, "Citizens John and Charles", depicted the pair as French revolutionaries holding the skull and cross bone flag of the so-calledVictorian Republic.[50]
In 1862 Duffy's Land Act attempted, but failed, through a system of extended pastoral licences, to break the land-holding monopoly of the so-called"squatter" class.[51] In 1871 Duffy led the opposition to Premier SirJames McCulloch's plan to introduce aland tax, on the grounds that it unfairly penalised small farmers, and himself was briefly Premier (June 1871 to June 1872).
In 1866, the Victorian parliament passed the "McCulloch Tariff", which was the first recognisably and substantiallyprotectionist piece of legislation inAustralian tariff history, applying 10% duties to a range of manufactured commodities; there is no evidence, however, that it had an effect on the colony's manufacturing.[52] Although, further increases in protectionism in the late nineteenth century were consequential for Victoria manufacturing.[53]
The first foreign military action by the colony of Victoria was to send troops and a warship to New Zealand as part of theNew Zealand Wars. Troops from New South Wales had previously participated in theCrimean War.
From 1878 to 1880 Victoria was the location of the celebratedbushrangerNed Kelly and his gang. HistorianGeoffrey Serle has called Kelly and his gang "the last expression of the lawless frontier in what was becoming a highly organised and educated society, the last protest of the mighty bush now tethered with iron rails to Melbourne and the world".[54] In the century after his execution in Melbourne in 1880, Kelly became acultural icon, inspiringnumerous works in the arts and popular culture, and is the subject of more biographies than any other Australian.
A period of prosperity in the 1880s led to a wild speculation in land and buildings, and money poured in from England. Land companies, mortgage societies, municipal bodies, building societies, and a host of other organisations all clamoured for a share in the good things that were on offer, and probably £40,000,000 flowed into Victoria during a period of six years. With so much money in circulation, a fictitious prosperity of a feverish sort resulted. The banks issued notes to the value of millions of pounds, and trade and industry flourished as never before. The reaction came quickly. Public confidence subsided like a pricked balloon. A run commenced on the banks, and the bursting of the boom brought with it widespread disaster.
In 1893, 14 banks failed, twelve of those with 905 branches throughout Australia, had liabilities assessed at £166,000,000, and thousands of people lost the whole of their possessions. Bank notes in many cases became worthless, and Victoria reached the farthest depth of a financial depression. Unemployment became widespread, wages and prices dropped and bankruptcies followed one another in disturbing sequence. The most drastic retrenchments were made by the Government and public bodies.[55]
At the beginning of1901, following aproclamation byQueen Victoria, Victoria ceased to be an independent colony and became a state in theCommonwealth of Australia. Victorian and Tasmanian politicians were particularly active in theFederation process.
As a result of the gold rush, Melbourne became the financial centre of Australia and New Zealand. Between 1901 and 1927, Australia's Parliament sat in Melbourne while Canberra was under construction. It was also the largest city in Australia at the time, and the second largest city in theEmpire (after London).[56]
Main articles:Australian home front during World War II, andMilitary history of Australia during World War II
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