Frontier History in Colonial Early Victoria
The Economy of Early Victoria: Work, Industry, and the Making of Melbourne and Geelong, 1835–1851
MLA Educational Series — History, Economy, and Country
Between 1835 and 1851, Victoria transformed from a collection of small coastal camps and sheep runs into one of the wealthiest colonies in the British Empire. Centred on Melbourne and Geelong, this transformation was built on the seizure of Indigenous land, the labour of convicts and immigrants, and the rise of industries such as pastoralism, shipping, timber, and trade. This article examines the economic foundations of early Victoria, the roles of Indigenous and settler workers, the growth of Geelong as a frontier port on Wadawurrung Country, and the broader social and environmental costs of colonisation.
The Economic Foundations of a Colony
1. Colonisation and the “Land Economy”
When John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner arrived at Port Phillip in 1835, their aim was not only to settle but to profit. The Port Phillip Association, a syndicate of Tasmanian investors, sought vast tracts of land for sheep and cattle, driven by the growing global demand for wool. Although Batman claimed to have “purchased” land from Woiwurrung Elders, the British government annulled the treaty and declared all land Crown property under the doctrine of terra nullius (Reynolds, 1987).
This allowed the Crown to issue squatter licences, charging a small annual fee for the right to graze stock over immense areas of Indigenous Country. By the 1840s, the pastoral economy dominated Victoria’s wealth — but it came at enormous cost to the Indigenous nations of the region.
2. Indigenous Labour and Early Economic Exchange
In the early years of settlement, Indigenous men and women played key roles in the new colonial economy. They worked as guides, trackers, stockmen, and domestic workers, bringing essential local knowledge to settlers unfamiliar with the landscape (Cahir, 2012).
On Wadawurrung Country, some families around Geelong and the Barwon River engaged in trade — exchanging fish, possum skins, and woven baskets for flour, tea, and tobacco.
However, these exchanges were unequal, and as pastoral expansion intensified, Indigenous labour was increasingly exploited, while access to traditional food sources was destroyed.
Melbourne: From Camp to Commercial Hub
Foundations and Urban Growth
By the late 1830s, Melbourne had become the commercial heart of the Port Phillip District.
Surveyor Robert Hoddle laid out the now-famous grid plan in 1837, creating wide streets suitable for bullock drays and markets.
Population: Around 2,000 by 1838; over 23,000 by 1851 (Shaw, 1966).
Primary Industries: Pastoral trade, shipping, timber milling, blacksmithing, brickmaking, and retail.
Export Products: Wool, tallow, hides, and later wheat.
Merchants and shipping agents such as John Batman’s associate John Helder Wedge, and later the entrepôts of Collins Street, managed the export of wool to London.
Port and Shipping Economy
The Yarra River wharves became central to colonial commerce. Goods were unloaded at Queen’s Wharf and transported inland by bullock drays. Warehouses lined Flinders Street, while shipbuilders and carpenters clustered near Docklands.
In the 1840s, Melbourne’s economy also benefited from immigrant labour — English, Irish, Scottish, and Chinese workers arrived to build homes, roads, and bridges, forming the early working class of the colony.
Geelong: The Frontier Port on Wadawurrung Country
A Strategic Harbour
Founded the same year as Melbourne, Geelong became the principal port for the western plains. Its deep harbour on Corio Bay made it ideal for exporting wool from the inland districts of Ballarat, Colac, and the Leigh River. Captain Foster Fyans, police magistrate at Geelong from 1837, supervised the development of the town and its port facilities (Cahir, 2012).
By the mid-1840s, Geelong had over 6,000 residents, a thriving wharf, and emerging industries in:
Wool sorting and scouring
Tallow and soap production
Timber milling and lime kilns
Brickworks and rope-making
The Barwon River powered small mills and provided water for sheep washing and tanning, though this caused pollution and damaged traditional Wadawurrung fishing sites.
Indigenous Dispossession and Labour
The rise of Geelong’s economy coincided with Wadawurrung displacement.
Sheep runs consumed the grassy plains, and sacred sites such as Mount Buninyong and Lal Lal Falls were fenced off. Many Wadawurrung people worked seasonally for settlers — shearing, cutting wood, or guiding overlanders — but wages were inconsistent and often replaced with rations (Broome, 2005).
By the 1850s, surviving Wadawurrung families had been moved to missions like Narre Narre Warren or Coranderrk, cutting them off from the economic life of their own Country.
Industries and Labour in Early Victoria
Pastoralism: The Wool Economy
The colony’s first and most lucrative industry was sheep grazing. By 1840, there were over 2 million sheep in Victoria, and wool accounted for more than 90% of exports (Serle, 1971). Sheep stations were vast, sometimes over 40,000 hectares, employing shepherds, stockmen, and shearers — many of them former convicts or immigrants seeking work.
Shepherding was harsh and isolated. Workers lived in bark huts or tents, enduring extreme heat and loneliness. Conflicts with Indigenous families were common, as shepherds were often stationed deep within traditional lands, guarding waterholes and food sources critical to survival (Critchett, 1990).
Timber, Brickmaking, and Construction
Victoria’s building boom created demand for timber from the Dandenong Ranges and Otways, and bricks from the Yarra and Barwon clay deposits. Abandoned convict labour camps supplied early infrastructure, including roads and stock routes linking Melbourne and Geelong. Carpenters, masons, and blacksmiths formed the backbone of the colony’s first skilled trades.
Women’s and Family Labour
Though often overlooked, women’s labour sustained the early colonial economy. They worked as laundresses, cooks, innkeepers, and midwives; others managed small farms while men drove stock or worked at sea. Indigenous women in both Melbourne and Geelong contributed to domestic service, weaving, and craft production — yet their roles were rarely documented in official records (Barwick, 1998).
Economic Cycles: Boom, Bust, and Gold
Depression of the 1840s
The early 1840s brought a severe economic depression, caused by over-expansion and falling wool prices in Britain. Many squatters went bankrupt; urban unemployment soared.
Melbourne’s population briefly declined, and wages for labourers dropped below subsistence levels. Indigenous people, already dispossessed, faced further hardship as rations were cut and frontier violence intensified.
Gold and Economic Transformation
The discovery of gold in 1851 near Clunes, Ballarat, and Mount Alexander — all within traditional Dja Dja Wurrung and Wadawurrung Country — transformed Victoria overnight.
The gold rush drew tens of thousands of new immigrants, ending the pastoral monopoly and shifting the economy toward mining, commerce, and manufacturing. Melbourne and Geelong exploded into modern cities, but the foundations of that wealth remained tied to the earlier decades of Indigenous dispossession.
Social and Environmental Impacts
Environmental Change
The pastoral and timber industries reshaped the landscape. Clearing, erosion, and overgrazing degraded once-fertile soils, while river systems like the Barwon and Yarra became polluted from tanneries and mills.
Inequality and Class
By the 1850s, wealth was concentrated in the hands of the “squattocracy” — large landholders who dominated colonial politics and trade. In contrast, shepherds, domestic workers, and labourers lived precariously, while Indigenous communities faced systemic exclusion from both wages and land rights.
Cross-Cultural Exchange and Resistance
Despite oppression, Indigenous peoples continued to engage economically and culturally with settlers — as workers, advocates, and guides. Figures like William Barak (Wurundjeri) and Simon Wonga later demanded land and self-determination, laying early groundwork for Victoria’s ongoing treaty and truth-telling processes (Barwick, 1998).
Conclusion
The economic rise of early Victoria — from the establishment of Melbourne and Geelong to the boom of pastoralism — was built on Indigenous land, labour, and loss. While settlers prospered from wool, shipping, and trade, the Indigenous nations of Victoria endured dispossession, displacement, and cultural disruption. Yet they also adapted, worked, and resisted, continuing to assert their sovereignty over Country.
Understanding the economy of early Victoria therefore means acknowledging both the wealth it produced and the wounds it caused — lessons that remain vital in today’s discussions of land, justice, and reconciliation.
References
Barwick, D. (1998). Rebellion at Coranderrk. Canberra: Aboriginal History Inc.
Broome, R. (2005). Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Cahir, F. (2012). Black Gold: Aboriginal People on the Goldfields of Victoria, 1850–1870. Canberra: ANU E Press.
Clark, I. D. (1995). Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Critchett, J. (1990). A Distant Field of Murder: Western District Frontiers, 1834–1848. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Reynolds, H. (1987). The Law of the Land. Ringwood: Penguin.
Serle, G. (1971). The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victoria 1851–1861. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Shaw, A. (1966). A History of the Port Phillip District: Victoria Before Separation. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (22 October 2025)
MLA
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Magic Lands Alliance acknowledges the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay respect to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples’ communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of their respective communities.