THE FOUNDATION OF MELBOURNE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1229, 18 September 1885, Page 3

THE FOUNDATION OF MELBOURNE.

(From the ‘ Age, August 29.)

This day 50 years ago Melbourne was founded. Ou the 29th day of August 1835 the schooner Enterprise, the first vessel ever brought up trie V atra Yarra River, was ni-ide fast to a tree ne .s the spot where the Geelong steamers now take on board and discharge their passengers. The energetic men, who, after overcoming great difficulties, succeeded in bringing the schooner to .hat spat, were Captain Hunt»r (die master), George Evans, Robert Hay Marr, Captain Lanoey, William ari l Samuel Jackson, wi.h John Gilbert and his wife as servants—all acting under the dir ctions of John Pascoe Fawkner, who had bee-i vented by illness from coming with the schooner wh.-n it left George Town. Taemmia, then known as Van Diemen's Land. Fawkner, v hen a iittle lad, was on board one of the royal ships which in 1801 had lieen ancho ed for months in Port Phillip Bay under command of Colonel Collins, sent to found a British convict settlement, which failed utterly—so utterly that Lieutenant Tuekey wrote, on quilling our now well-known hay, “ the kanga-oo seems foreign undisturbed lord of the soil—dominion which by the evacuation of Pot Phillip, he is likely to retain for ages." On leaving those shores Colonel Collius sailed for the Derwent River and founded a settle ment there, thus ending the first escape Port Phillip had fro o being tainted by the perraan -lit residence of Home" convicts. As se tlement extended from the south to the nor hj of Tasmania, attention was directed to the abandoned country, P n rt I'hill-p. The rieutys ventured the settle ment of the Portland country as a whaling station. John Batman and his association started settlement in the country, near Geelong and the Barwon Heads, for stock-, raising, and Mr Fawkner, through these ventures, was induced to turn bis attention to tne founding of a tow . of free settlers, somewhere in the neighbourhood of the country where, when a lad, he had stayed for some months in 1803. The boldness of this intention can be batter realised by remembering that from 1788. when Sydney was founded, to 1835, no settlement in Australia had been disconnected from the “Home" Government and provision for convicts.

Mr Fawkner made his arrangements, loaded the Enterprise, and sta- ted for the officially-condemned country, Port Phillip. The one strict injunction laid down by Mr Fawkner, when compelled to leave the pioneers, was to “ make certain of permanent fresh water.’’ The first search for it was made for nine days round Western Port Bay, then the Port Phillip Heads weie entered, and for 16 days the eastern shore of the bay was examined without success until the mouth of the Yarra River was discovered. Owing to timber and overgrowih the Saltwater River was mistaken for the main stream, and the pioneers, for want of fresh water, were driven back to their vessel faint, but not disheartened, fur the next day, 24 hj August, another attempt wa-> made, which resulted in the Enterprise being moored close to where *he abundant f-esn water of the Yarra Yarra came turah. hng over the falls. The pioneers bein-> agreed that it w»s a suitable spot for settle'ment, they at once proceeded to land their live stock, farming implement-, and materials for building, showing that theirs was no adventure to be discontinued easily. To these pioneers, instructed by Mr Fawkner, must the efoia be given the credit of founding the first free town in Australia unassisted. When settlement on the Yarra Riv.r grew and prospered, the Governm nt in Sydney appeared to look kindly upon it, surveyed the town, and gavo it the name of Melbourne; but, being situated within the territory of New South Wale-, it came to be regard d as a place to which “ Horae” con-dots could be protested against being subjected to convict taint. They bad started without Government aid and, determined that i heir freedom should not be interfered with, they resolved to prevent by force, if necessary, the landing of convicts, The ships bringing the convicts were therefore ordered on to Sydney—a second escape for the Port Phillip settlement, Its people, however, organised to bring about a separation from New South Wafas, and on the first of July, 1850, Victoria was officially declared a separate colony, and the day made an annual holiday as “Separatiop Day.”' A. generation bag grown up since those rejoicings ; the early struggles of the M elfa -urne -ettiers are fon-otten, and the day winch 35 years ago meant so much all t-trough tho Colony, is removed from the list of annual hj delays. Whatever fnstification there may be for its removal, on this day it is well to remember whrt made Melbourne people rejoice for it may hold ns to to urih in out protests against the intro-

Auction of French con vies, arid be prepared to act, if necessary, as the previous generation in Melbourne acted, in resistance of all attempts of the French Government to be quit of recidivistes by a process of sifting them through New Caledonia on to Australian shores. Fifty years since, this day, the city was founded a free settlement; its record shows nothing to be ashamed of ; it is but right that the end of its first halfcentury should not pass without a wont of grateful tribute to the memory of those men who planned and carri d forward without help outside their own determined wid, the foundation of Melbourne, now a city of 300,000 inhabitants, and certainly not <he least attractive amongst dries in the Southern Hemisphere.