Historical Timeline

June 3rd The astronomical observations were successfully carried out at Tahiti. Having sailed around Cape Horn, they observed the transit of Venus from Tahiti then set a course towards New Zealand, which they circumnavigated and set a course westward. Two months later Cook sailed southwards in search of the supposed southern continent.

October 7th The East Coast of New Zealand was discovered. A landing was made on the shores of Poverty Bay two days later and the next six months were spent in sailing around New Zealand and mapping the islands.

July 13th Cook arrived at Plymouth, England after journeying home via Batavia. His prestige was greatly enhanced by the extraordinary odyssey which did so much to increase man’s knowledge of his world.

On his third voyage to discover a passage round the North Coast of America from the Pacific by way of the Cape, Tasmania, New Zealand, the Pacific & Sandwich Islands and the North Coast of America, he reached Karakakoa Bay, Hawaii on 14th February 1779 where he was killed by Hawaiian islanders.

August – the east coast of New South Wales was selected as a place to found a Penal Settlement.

January 26th The First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay marking the foundation of the colony of New South Wales. This day is nationally celebrated as ‘Australia Day’, the anniversary of the day Captain Arthur Phillip raised the English Flag at the new convict settlement in Sydney Cove.
February 7th – Phillip was formally proclaimed Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales with a territory extending from Cape York to South Cape, Van Diemen’s Land, on the east to all the country inland westward as far as the 135th degree of east longitude and including all the adjacent islands in the Pacific Ocean.

April – Governor Phillip named the southern section of the Blue Mountains which could be seen from parts of the settlement, Lansdowne Hills.

From 1788 to 1867, male and female convicts for terms ranging from seven years to life were sent from England and Ireland embarking for Australia and totalled well over 162,000. Most went to New South Wales – 80,000 and Van Diemen’s Land – 67,000, while Western Australia took 9,600 and lesser numbers went to Moreton Bay and Norfolk Island.

Ships of the Third Fleet arrive.

September 26th The first ship to sail directly from Ireland, the “Queen”, arrived in Port Jackson.

Governor Hunter opens the fertile Hawkesbury River area for settlement.

Assignment – A system under which Convicts were sent often immediately after arriving from Britain or Ireland to work for private employers who had to feed and house them thus saving the colonial treasury. Employers could bring convicts before Magistrates for punishment and were themselves liable to fines if they permitted their assignees to wander at large. Assignees could earn money through extra work. The system was ended on the recommendation of the 1838 Molesworth Select Committee on Transportation.

A naval dockyard is established at Sydney Cove.

A severe drought destroys the colony’s wheat and maize crops.

January 2nd Wilson’s Promontory and Phillip Island sighted by George Bass.

January 5th Bass and his men enter Western Port.

February Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) and George Bass joined the schooner “Francis” the first seagoing vessel launched in Australia. Six months passed before any action was taken to decide the question whether there was a passage between New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land.

October 7th The “Norfolk” sailed from Sydney under the command of Flinders with Bass on board.

December John Batman (1800-1839), the son of William & Mary Batman was born at Parramatta, New South Wales.

European population of New South Wales is 5,995 with half living in Sydney and the rest settled in the Parramatta, Toongabbie and Hawkesbury areas.

Lieutenant Murray, R.N., discovers and examines Port Phillip in the “Lady Nelson”.

April-May Port Phillip Bay, a large bay upon which Melbourne is situated, explored by Matthew Flinders. A record of his voyage to Terra Australia was published on 19th July 1814, the day he died. After his greatest voyage Flinders put forward the name ‘Australia’ to encompass the island of Van Diemen’s Land, New South Wales, and New Holland. At that time the eastern mainland was known as New South Wales, the western part as New Holland, and Tasmania as Van Diemen’s Land. Governor Lachlan Macquarie (1762-1824) adopted the name formally in 1817, during his time as Governor of New South Wales (1810-1821).

Hobart is established.

Early in 1804, with the permission of Governor Philip Gidley King, Collins moved the expedition from Sullivan’s Cove to Hobart, where he became the first Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land.

Massive flooding of Hawkesbury River destroys crops.
Launceston settlement established in Van Diemen’s Land.

Severe drought in New South Wales destroys crops and causes water shortages.

May Blue Mountains crossed. In 1813, a drought year when the need for new pastures became urgent, Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson & William Wentworth finally made a successful assault. The six previous attempts in 1793, 1794, 1796, 1802, 1804 and 1806, failed because the explorers had tried to penetrate through the gullies and gorges. Blaxland’s party with four assigned servants, left his farm at South Creek on May 11th, and keeping to the ridges, sometimes nearly 2km wide and sometimes less than 1m, they made the crossing in 17 days.

1815
First free immigrants arrived in Van Diemen’s Land.

John Pascoe Fawkner (1792-1869) placed on a bond for his involvement in a robbery for which his father received 200 lashes and two years in Newcastle. Fawkner moved to Launceston, married Eliza Cobb (1800-1879) who had been transported for baby stealing, and eventually opened the Cornwall Hotel.

Species of black northern European bees successfully introduced into Australia.

Van Diemen’s Land becomes a separate colony.

‘Advance Australia’ – slogan made popular after its use in the masthead of the “Sydney Gazette” from 1825 and adopted in 1856 by the Victoria Land League which campaigned for the unlocking of the Squatters’ holdings.

March 29th John Batman marries a convict girl, Eliza Callaghan (or Thompson) at St. John’s Church, Launceston.

John Pascoe Fawkner establishes the “Launceston Advertiser” newspaper, partly to earn money and partly to support the emancipist cause.

James Wishart on a sealing expedition to Julia Percy Island in the cutter “Fairy”, establishes a new harbour which he calls Port Fairy.

February 9th Charles Sturt (1795-1869), becomes the first European explorer to see the mouth of the Murray River.

Issue of transportation of convicts to Australia comes under attack in England.

April John Pascoe Fawkner purchases the “Enterprise” and provisions her for a trip to Port Phillip with the intention of forming a settlement.

John Batman (1801-1839), a founder of Melbourne was commissioned to explore & navigate. He had moved from New South Wales to Van Diemen’s Land in 1821 with his younger brother Henry. His part in the capture of the bushranger Matthew Brady earned him a grant of 830 ha to add to his growing holdings and by the mid-1830’s he had nearly 3000 ha. However Batman’s eyes were on the unclaimed grazing lands of Port Phillip and in 1834 he was the principal founder of the Geelong and Dutigalla Association (later Port Phillip Association).

May 29th John Batman enters Port Phillip Heads in the “Rebecca” and explores the Yarra River, recording in his journal on the 8th June the famous words – “This will be a place for a village.” He signs a treaty with aboriginal members of Dutigalla, a band of the Wurundjeri tribe of Port Phillip.

July 6th William Buckley surrenders to Batman’s party.

July 27th John Pascoe Fawkner’s vessel, the “Enterprise” sails from George Town, Van Diemen’s Land, conveying Peter Hunter, as master and Fawkner’s expedition, organised by him for the purpose of occupying land either at Western Port or Port Phillip. The party comprised John Pascoe Fawkner, publican, William Jackson, carpenter, Robert Hay Marr, carpenter, John H. Lancey, master mariner, and George Evans, plasterer. Fawkner took with his as employees, James Gilbert, blacksmith, his wife, Mary, and Charles Wise, farm hand and George Evans took his servant, Evan Evans.

July 30th The “Enterprise” returns to George Town. John Pascoe Fawkner, said to have been prostrated by sea-sickness, lands a horse on the 3rd August and rides to Launceston.

August 8th The “Enterprise” with John Lancey as Fawkner’s representative, reaches Western Port. The party spends a week examining the country around Western Port. The “Enterprise” then sails for Port Phillip Bay, and anchors off the encampment of John Batman’s party at Indented Head on the 16th August. The next three days were spent in examining the land on the east coast of Port Phillip Bay.

August 20th The “Enterprise” reaches the mouth of the Yarra River and on August 29th anchors a little to the west of Spencer Street.

August 31st A start is made to unload cargo from the “Enterprise”.

September 5th The off-loading of her cargo completed, the “Enterprise” sails for Launceston.

October The Enterprise returns to those left camped on the Yarra Yarra River with John Pascoe Fawkner, his wife Eliza, William Watkins, a lad they had adopted, John Scott, servant and Mrs. Lancey with her three children.

Fawkner brought 2,500 fruit trees from Van Diemen’s Land which he planted along the Yarra River. He eventually began selling them and was considered the first Nurseryman of the Port Phillip District. He opened the first hotel, the first newspaper, and acquired a grazing property some kilometres to the north (now Pascoe Vale). He made a quick fortune, lost it in the 1840’s, recovered, and by the 1850’s was one of the most substantial and influential men in the colony. About 15,000 people lined Melbourne’s streets for his funeral in 1869.

Archbishop John Bede Polding (1794-1877) appointed first Catholic Bishop of Australia. A Benedictine orphan, born in Liverpool and ordained in 1819, he became Archbishop in 1842.

New South Wales’ Catholic population approximately 18,000.

Port Phillip Association founded in Launceston (originally as the Geelong and Dutigalla Association) by John Batman, Joseph Tice Gellibrand and others to arrange the private colonisation of the Port Phillip District.

November 18th Fawkner commences cultivation on the south side of the Yarra Yarra opposite the Settlement.

Two migrant-assistance schemes introduced. One pays the captains of ships a bounty for each settler carried, and the other is a direct payment towards a migrants’ passage money.

Charles Hotson Ebden (1811-1867) first overlanded sheep from New South Wales to Melbourne.

March 1st Governor Richard Bourke visited the Port Phillip settlement and approved “the grid of streets” Robert Hoddle (1794-1881) and his team of surveyors marked out, which he named Melbourne.

The Old Melbourne Cemetery consisted of ten acres set aside by Governor Bourke which were vested in various church leaders in trust. The first burial is thought to have taken place in 1837. (At least ten people were buried at Flagstaff Hill. As a result of previous brief settlements in the Port Phillip District near Sorrento in 1803 and on Western Port Bay at Corinella in 1826, some burials were known to have taken place).

April 13th Edward James Foster appointed as Melbourne’s first Official Postmaster. John Batman had previously been elected by the original Port Phillip settlers to take care of their mail.

April 26th Robert Hoddle officially appointed Surveyor in charge of Melbourne with a salary of £400 per year.

June 1st Governor Bourke authorises the first land sales conducted in Melbourne by Robert Hoddle on the south west corner of Collins & William Streets. One hundred city lots of half acre each, average price half acre lots – £35. All the land was sold with blocks ranging in price from £5 to £95.

The blocks were numbered 2,4,12-14 and the boundaries were: No. 2-Flinders Street, William Street, Collins Street & King Street. No. 4-Flinders Street, Elizabeth Street, Collins Street and Queen Street. No. 12-14 Collins Street, Swanston Street, Bourke Street & William Street. Each block with a lane in the middle from west to east was subdivided into 20 allotments of 1 rood 36 perches each.

The minimum price of an allotment was £5. Ten per cent deposit had to be paid at the sale and the balance within a month. The purchaser of each allotment was bound to erect, within a year, a house to the value of £50. In the bond to be signed by purchaser the building was defined as ‘dwelling house’ store or other permanent building. Purchasers were not permitted to make any carriage ways across the foot ways as access of the kind had been provided by back streets (Flinders Lane & Little Collins Street) in which no foot ways were to be laid out.

The first brick building was a general store which was built for young businessman, William Frederick Augustus Rucker (c1807-1882) in the latter half of 1837 at the corner of Queen and Collins Streets.

November 1st The second sale of Melbourne town allotments of 1 rood 36 perches was conducted by Robert Hoddle. The boundaries of the blocks which were numbered 3,5,19-21 were: No.3-Flinders Street, Queen Street, Collins Street & Market Street. No. 5-Flinders Street, Swanston Street, Collins Street & Elizabeth Street. No.19-21 Bourke Street, Swanston Street, Lonsdale Street & William Street, except the present sites of Elizabeth Street, Post Office and the adjoining building and of the Law Courts which were reserved. The highest price £100. The lowest price £7. 83 Allotments sold for an average price of £42.

Worst drought since settlement begins – many rivers dry up.

November 7th The first Auctioneer’s license was issue to James Hill.

November 14th The Port Phillip Auxiliary Temperance Society was organised, with John Gardiner as President and George Langhorne as Secretary.

Seven hundred and forty immigrants arrived by sea. 1,050 letters and 1,355 newspapers passed through the Post Office, the revenue being £33.10.10.

December 31st Population all of Port Phillip: 1,264 comprising 984 males and 280 females.

February 4th Charles Joseph La Trobe appointed Superintendent of Port Phillip by the British Government at a salary of £800 per year.

Re-emerged, the “Melbourne Advertiser & Port Phillip Gazette” as the “Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser.”

April 28th A meeting of Roman Catholics was held in Melbourne to support a petition to the Vicar Apostolic of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land, the Right Reverend John Bede Polding, asking that a priest be sent to Melbourne.

May 6th John Batman dies.

May 11th – An appeal from the Roman Catholics of Melbourne to their Protestant and Christian brethren for financial support was published in the “Port Phillip Gazette.”

May 11th The “Port Phillip Gazette” stated that a mail cart would start from Melbourne to Geelong on this date.

May 15th Melbourne’s Catholic population was about 2,000 when Reverend Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan (1805-1864), a Franciscan, arrived from Sydney in the schooner “Paul Pry” and the first Mass was offered on the 19th May in a little unroofed store on the corner of Elizabeth & Little Collins Streets, owned by a non-catholic, Arthur Horne.

October 2nd Charles Joseph La Trobe (1801-1875) arrives. First Superintendent of the Port Phillip District (30 September 1839 – 15 July 1851).

November Melbourne’s population approximately 3,500
Land purchased in 1837 at £150 an acre now sold for £10,000.

December 31st The estimated population of Port Phillip is 5,822 comprising 4,014 males and 1,718 females.

January 3rd The steamer “Clonmel”, on its second voyage between Sydney and Melbourne, was wrecked near Corner Inlet.

January 22nd The foundation stone of the first Scots’ Church was laid by Dr. David Patrick. Samuel Jackson was the architect of the building – Webb and Allec were the contractors for the stone and brickwork and James Rule, was the contractor for the carpentry, joinery, plumbing and glazing.

February 1st First Coroner for the District of Melbourne, William Byam Wilmot, appointed.

February 3rd First resident Judge, John Walpole Willis, of the Supreme Court, Port Phillip, appointed at a salary of £1,500 a year.

February 9th Angus McMillan sets out on further exploratory treks and founds the site of Port Albert near Corner Inlet.

March 2nd Census of Port Phillip – 11,738 (8,274 males, 3,464 females). The population of Melbourne recorded as 4,479 and Geelong 454 people.

March 8th A day school for boys and girls was opened in the schoolroom of the Independent Church, with James Smith as Schoolmaster.

April 12th The Supreme Court sits in Melbourne for the first time in a small brick building on the south-west corner of King and Bourke Streets that was previously used as the Land Office.

June 24th The Wesleyan Chapel, Collins Street, was opened by the Reverend Samuel Wilkinson (1813-1899).

October 4th – The Foundation Stone of St. Francis’ Roman Catholic Church was laid by the Reverend Patrick B. Geoghegan.

October 22nd Incorporation of the Town of Melbourne. Melbourne was divided into four wards – Bourke Ward: north-west; Gipps Ward: north-east; La Trobe Ward: south-east and Lonsdale Ward: south-west.

Economic Depression – general financial collapse. A fall in wool prices the cessation of overseas investment and financial dislocation in all the colonies combined to bring down the rickety facade of prosperity.

First government building for postal services opens in Melbourne.

Australia’s first great economic depression occurred after the settlers embarked on a wild spree of land speculation using high interest British capital.

The “Melbourne Almanac and Port Phillip Directory for 1841” compiled by William Kerr was published.

Australia’s first gas lighting is turned on in Sydney.

December 31st Population of Port Phillip: 20,416 (14,391 males and 6,025 females).

Melbourne now a substantial town.

March 1st Great Comet makes its appearance in southern skies.

April 1st Bank of Australia fails.

June 17th – Governor Gipps orders the removal from office of Justice John Walpole Willis, resident Judge in the Port Phillip District, after powerful interests in Melbourne petition for his recall.

Yass pastoralist, Henry O’Brien, begins boiling down sheep for their tallow, thus establishing a standard minimum value for sheep.

The Great Potato Famine begins. A blight attacks the plants and destroys the crops. Ireland is one of the worst effected. Many Irish people decide to migrate.

February 11th John Batman’s son, John Charles Batman, drowns in the Yarra Yarra River.

April 21st The Queen’s Theatre opened in Melbourne.

August 4th A fierce storm drives the emigrant ship “Cataraqui” ashore on King Island. Of the people on board 399 died and only 9 survived.

Melbourne proclaimed a city but it is not official until the Proclamation is gazetted on February 5th 1848.

June 29th Charles Perry is consecrated an Anglican Bishop in London. He is to take charge of the new Diocese of Melbourne, created a few days earlier.

St. Francis’ rebuild their school in brick. Port Phillip District becomes the See of Melbourne with James Alpius Goold appointed as the first Roman Catholic Bishop on July 9th.

Beginning of period of severe drought in New South Wales.

Golf is introduced by the Hon. James Graham Fife who creates a course at Flagstaff Hill, Melbourne.

Melbourne hosts its first Intercolonial Race Meeting.

Government decides that the recovery from the Depression is sufficient to start land sales in Port Phillip again.

January 1st The “Port Phillip Herald” newspaper becomes the “Melbourne Morning Herald.”

February 24th The “Alfred” arrives in Melbourne with the young Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg travelling incognito as Lt. Frederick Gronwald.

Gas lighting is introduced by William Overton, a confectioner. He, at considerable expense, succeeds in the manufacture of gas and uses it to light his large premises in Swanston Street, Melbourne.

A hurricane blows down houses and levels chimney stacks. The Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers in high flood. At Dight’s Falls the Yarra rises 37 feet above its normal level.

August 31st Melbourne has its heaviest snowstorm.

Tokens, used as currency, issued for the first time by Melbourne grocers Annand, Smith & Co.

February 6th Black Thursday. A day when the temperature in Melbourne rose to 47° centigrade at 11 am. Melbourne Town was in grave danger of destruction by encircling bush fire. Areas affected included Portland, the Plenty Ranges, Westernport, the Wimmera and Dandenong districts. Approximately 12 lives, 1,000,000 sheep and thousands of cattle were lost.

April 1st Melbourne Chamber of Commerce founded.

May 15th The “Sydney Morning Herald” carries news of gold discovery and the rush to the Ophir goldfield begins.

May 22nd Proclamation issued in New South Wales declaring all gold found on private or Crown land to be the property of the Crown. A licence to dig required after 1st June at a fee of 30 shillings per month.

June 26th Sale gazetted as a village site.

July 1st Victoria separates from New South Wales and Melbourne becomes the capital of the Colony of Victoria. Port Phillip is declared an independent Colony and is to be known as Victoria. The first state boundaries are established and the treaty is signed under the separation tree in Melbourne’s Botanical Gardens.

July 7th James Esmond discovers gold near Clunes, 35km north of Ballarat. The announcement marks the beginning of the Victorian gold rush.

July 15th Charles Joseph La Trobe becomes the first Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Victoria (until 5th May 1854).

July 20th Gold officially discovered at Mount Alexander. This was one of Victoria’s earliest and richest goldfields. Located 100km north-west of Melbourne, it encompassed the diggings at Chewton, Forest Creek, Fryer’s Town, Campbell’s Creek and Castlemaine. Thomas Peters, a shepherd, found gold in mid-July but maintained secrecy for several weeks. Late in October 4,000 men had rushed to the district and by the end of 1852 there are 30,000 diggers.

August 8th Gold discovered in the Buninyong Range, near Ballarat. Ballarat, 110km north-west of Melbourne, became one of the richest goldfields in the world. The area was rushed in 1851 after John Dunlop found gold under some wattle trees. When the alluvial gold petered out, Ballarat became famous for its deep lead mines, some of which tunnelled far below the surface. The very fact that Ballarat’s gold was so deep was an indirect cause of the Eureka rebellion. Miners objected to paying 30 shillings a month licence fee (introduced in Victoria on September 1st, 1851) during weeks and months they were sinking shafts and earning no income.

September Gold field discovered near Creswick.

November 13th Victoria’s Legislative Council formally opened in St. Patrick’s Hall, Bourke Street, Melbourne.

December 31st Victoria’s population approximately 20,000 people.