Torquay Timelines

1796

January 1

First Australians from Wadawurrung Tribe inhabited the for over 40,000 years. For more information on the First Australians timeline click here.

1797

January 1

Naming Bass Strait

George Bass sailed from Sydney, around Cape Howe, the farthest point of south-east Australia sailing westwards along the coast to Western Port. The following year he circumnavigated Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) naming the passage between Van Diemen’s Land and the mainland Bass Strait.

1824

December 24

Hume & Hovell

Explorers Hume and Hovell, arrived at Duck Ponds (Lara) near Jillong (Geelong) concluding it was a good place for settlement. Noticing the fine harbour and the surrounding country, they concluded that it would be a great place for a settlement. They recorded that the Aborigines described the bay as Jullong and land as Corago, suggesting origins for the names of Geelong and Corio.

1835

May 1

John Batman Arrives

John Batman arrives off Indented Head and establishes a holding station. On 6 June Batman recorded in his journal that he had signed a treaty with the local Aboriginal people, the Wurundjeri. In this treaty, Batman purported to buy land near the Yarra River and around Geelong, on Corio Bay – almost all of the Kulin nation’s ancestral land. In exchange he gave the eight “chiefs” whose marks he acquired on his treaty some blankets, knives, tomahawks, scissors, looking-glasses, flour, handkerchiefs and shirts. It is unlikely they understood the European negation. For the Indigenous people of Victoria, the land was not about possession but belonging. However, the treaty was significant as it was the first and only documented time when Europeans negotiated their presence and occupation of aboriginal lands. It was later declared void by the Governor of New South Wales. Buckley reveals himself to Batman’s men at Indented Head.

1836

January 1

Establishing Pastoral Runs

Wadawurrung territory started to be settled on by the newly arrived squatters. The Aboriginal community resisted the European invasion by driving off or stealing sheep, which then resulted in conflict and sometimes a massacre of Aboriginal people. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-27/map-of-indigenous-massacres-grows-to-include-more-sites/10040206 Once Dr Alexander Thomson built his house ‘Kardinia’ on the south bank of the Barwon settlement started to spread south establishing the townships of Mount Duneed and Jan Juc. John Stokes purchased the ‘Sport Hall’ pastoral run which has been sometimes reported to be in Puebla, but was located in what we know as Connewarre/Breamlea. The name was later changed to Stokes Station.

1837

January 1

Court System Established

Captain Foster Fyans arrived as Police Magistrate giving the informal settlement of Geelong an official basis.

1838

October 10

Geelong Gazetted

Geelong was surveyed and Gazetted on 10 October. As Geelong grows with European settlers the Aboriginals are forced to live on the fringe of town.

1839

February 14

Geelong Land Sales

The first sale of Geelong land was held, in Sydney, then the capital of the colony of New South Wales, of which this district was a part. It took place on February 14, 1839 and averaged £65 an allotment.

1840

January 1

Elias Harding

Elias Harding had arrived at Port Phillip Bay on 2nd October 1838, with his young family. The Port Phillip area, which was then part of N.S.W., was being rapidly developed, and good land was being opened up for sheep farming and grazing. Free settlers were being granted one acre for every pound sterling or pound’s worth of property brought into the country, and so Elias received a grant of 1,000 acres from the Government and became a pioneer settler at “Bream Creek”, Connewarre. In due course, Elias was able to take up several thousand acres of leasehold land in the same area. Shortly after he purchased the licence for the Mount Pleasant Run from his cousin Silas Harding.

1841

January 1

Other Settlers Follow

Other settlers followed Elias Harding. 1841 – Henry Tait took up the lease for Spring Creek Station. His wife takes over in 1846 when Henry becomes ill. 1843 – John Goodall selects farm ‘Iron Bark Forest’ on Spring Creek 1844 – Joseph Gundry acquired the Iron Bark Forest station. 1848 – Robert Zealley squatters’ licence from July 1848 to Feb 1850 before purchasing the South Beach run in December 1851 1849 – James Tait took up the lease for Connewarre Lakes Station 1849-56

TORQUAY HISTORY TIMELINE

Torquay Timelines