Collins Street, C. 1839
Artist W.Knight:
When the first Fleet sailed for Sydney Cove in 1788 there were two office bearers on board Governor of NSW and Surveyor General of NSW. The British knew that along with force of arms, you took ownership of land via legal title, established by survey.
John Pascoe Fawkner liked to claim that the British Government wasted a lot of money founding a settlement in Port Phillip, and failed, where as he founded a successful settlement at no cost to the Crown. In reality, he had made a bush camp.
Fawkner’s party landed at the site of Melbourne in September 1835. Initially Governor Burke proclaimed the settlers to be trespassers, but by June 1836 there were more than 150 European people on and around the settlement. London, still concerned by a potential French colony, overruled Burke and implemented the standard 1st phase of colonization. That is, establish law and order, build infrastructure, and provide security against local inhabitants.
William Lonsdale was appointed as magistrate and general superintendent of the district. He was also to protect and conciliate the aboriginal people. The first group of surveyors arrived with Lonsdale. Governor Burke visited the new colony in March 1837. Claiming the head surveyor Robert Russel had not mapped out the new township sufficiently and appointed Robert Hoddle to manage the infrastructure planning. On this visit Burke, proclaimed the town, declared a holiday, announced a land sale, and promised the aboriginals he would look after them. Then he returned to Sydney. Hoddle quickly set out a grid plan, ignoring all existing buildings, and had the first land sale on the 1st June 1837. By Nov 1837 the European population was around the 1,000 mark, about 30% female and 80% from Van Diemans Land, many ex-convicts.
”By 1839 a jetty at Williamstown was the only permanent structure completed. All the official buildings were small and dilapidated; there was no public wharf, no dam across the river and no punt either. The roads were said to have 'looked like porridge' - muddy, undrained, ill lit and covered with tree stumps - but clearing and draining them were beyond Lonsdale's resources.” (eMelbourne)
October 1839 saw the arrival of Superintendent Charles Joseph La Trobe. Latrobe had almost no administrative experience, and little independent decision making authority. He was also handicapped by shortage of money and labour. LaTrobe bought land in Jolimont and had his home in London transported in pieces and reassembled. Latrobe’s Cottage remains as a Melbourne landmark. In the three years from 1839 to 1841, more than 1100 immigrants arrived in the district from the United Kingdom, raising Melbourne's population to 4500 in March 1841 and to nearly 8000 by the end of 1842, almost balancing the sexes and drastically reducing the proportion of ex-convicts. The colonies’ infrastructure did not keep pace.
In 1840, the second stage of colonisation began, where the settlers felt safe and secure enough to demand “freedom”. The first prominent separatist was Henry Fyshe Gisborne. A public servant and Commissioner of Crown Land in the Port Phillip Settlement. He was not a favourite of Governor Gibbs but collaborated successfully with LaTrobe. He was instrumental in the creation of Flemington Race track in its current position as well as founding the Mechanics Institute and the Pastoral Society. He was the face of the Separation Association who's key complaint was inequitable allocation of public works revenue to the district. He resigned his Government position in 1840 due to ill health and died the next year.
Separation was a very popular cause in the colony. Superintendent LaTrobe was seen as part of the NSWs establishment and was subject to continuous and often vitriolic commentary from the local newspapers. Labour was still a problem in the colony and initially LaTrobe welcomed the landing of the Pentonvillain’s, also putting him at odds with the popular mood. In the development of the infrastructure he worked with Hoddle in the Melbourne plan to included public space for the Botanical gardens, and extensive parks which surround the city today. He was also concerned with the frequent reports of killing of the aborigines and initially supported Augustus Robinson in his role in the Aboriginal Protectorate but later criticized him as being largely ineffective in improving the lot of the natives.
A part-elective Legislative Council was granted to New South Wales in 1843, and Port Phillip was allotted only six of the twenty-four elected members. This was not seen as a practical solution by the Port Phillip colony.
In 1846 Earl Grey became British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. He was sympathetic to the need for further constitutional reform for New South Wales. By 1847 he had presented a plan to Governor Fitzroy who had replaced Governor Gibbs the preceding year. Fitzroy rejected the plan. In 1849 Earl Grey put a revised plan to the British Parliament without consulting Fitzroy.
Although it was well known that the Port Phillip Colony would gain its independence from NSW, the Separation Association and newspapers continued to attack LaTrobe up to and including after independence was declared. In 1848 the town council partitioned London for LaTrobe’s recall. He did have a brief period of popularity in in 1849 when he denied landing to the 9th and 10th boatloads of Pentonvillians.
An example of the tone of the colonist’s relations with the superintendent. “The Alderman …would suffice to express the unutterable loathing he felt, at the diabolical conduct of the man, who eating the bread of the colonists as Mr. La Trobe had been doing since 1839, had been milking use of his position to stab them in the dark, in their most vital interests. … It was not, however, for his dislike of free institutions that he blamed Mr. LaTrobe, but for the daring audacity of his declaration, that a representative legislature would be ill suited to the real state and position of the Province he, (Alderman Kerr) was one of the many who conceived that any British community was better able to govern itself, than it could be done otherwise, … (The Argus, 20 September 1849)
The mechanics of Government were well advanced with the Melbourne Argus on the 8th August 1848 reporting June quarter revenue of £22,618 from a balanced range of source. Interesting to note that about 40% of this revenue came from tobacco and alcohol.
The Australian Constitutional Act 1850 received royal assent in August 1849 which formally established the Colony of Victoria.