Port Phillip, Australia.

Title

Port Phillip, Australia.

Description

Port Phillip is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia, it is the location of Melbourne.

ca. 1845

Artist

Kelly

Historical Description

John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner are considered to be the founders. Batman was a representative of the Port Phillip Association formed that year by a group of Launceston businessmen. He purchased some 240,000 acres of land from the resident Aboriginal tribes, who negotiated under Billibellary's leadership, in a treaty known as Batman's Treaty, and established a settlement on the north side of the Yarra River. In 1835, a group of Tasmanian settlers joined John Pascoe Fawkner, who in the following single-mindedly pushed ahead with settlement activities. Melbourne, unlike other settlements in southeastern Australia, was never a penal colony, but was planned from the beginning as a residential area with wide streets and extensive parks. In 1851, Melbourne became the capital of the newly formed British colony of Victoria, which broke away from New South Wales. Melbourne's greatest period of growth began with the Victorian Gold Rush of the early 1850s, when gold was discovered in inland Victoria - especially near Bendigo and Ballarat.