Frontier History in Colonial Early Victoria
Authority, Settlement, and Aboriginal Dispossession in Geelong, 1835–1900
Geelong, founded in the late 1830s as part of Wadawurrung Country, became one of the earliest centres of colonial settlement in Victoria. Initially governed under the New South Wales colonial administration, Geelong developed through pastoral expansion, the gold rush, and industrialisation into a major regional city. This article examines who held authority in Geelong during the nineteenth century: Crown officials, police magistrates such as Captain Foster Fyans, British military officers, and local civic leaders. It also explores the establishment of Aboriginal protectorates and missions, the emergence of Victorian state policies toward Aboriginal people, and the profound impacts on Wadawurrung families and communities.
Early settlement and Wadawurrung Country
The Geelong district was traditionally the Country of the Wadawurrung people, one of the five Kulin Nation groups. The Wadawurrung managed the volcanic plains, rivers, and coasts through fire, ceremony, and kinship law for tens of thousands of years (Clark 1990).
Pastoral expansion into the region began in the mid-1830s, with squatters moving flocks of sheep and cattle onto Wadawurrung land. Conflicts over food, water, and sovereignty quickly escalated. By the late 1830s, violence—including massacres around the You Yangs and Barwon River—had severely reduced Wadawurrung populations (Clark 1995; Broome 2005).
Crown officials and local administration
Geelong was incorporated into the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. Authority was exercised through Sydney-appointed magistrates and military units.
Captain Foster Fyans, a former British soldier and penal official, was appointed Police Magistrate of Geelong in 1837. Known as “Flogger” Fyans for his harsh discipline, he established a camp at Corio Bay and asserted colonial order over settlers and Wadawurrung alike (Cahir 2012).
Military detachments, including the 28th Regiment of Foot, supported Fyans in suppressing Aboriginal resistance and policing settlers. Mounted police and later Native Police patrols were also deployed in the Geelong district (Connor 2002).
Geelong gained municipal authority in 1849, when it was incorporated as a town. In 1850 it was declared a municipality with its own council, reflecting the growing settler population and civic institutions (Shaw 1966).
The rise of Geelong in the colonial economy
Geelong prospered as a pastoral and port town, supplying wool for export through Corio Bay. After 1851, the gold rush further boosted its importance as a transport hub for miners heading to Ballarat. Local civic leaders—merchants, squatters, and industrialists—began to dominate political life, with representation in the new Victorian Parliament from 1855.
Prominent colonial figures connected to Geelong included squatter and politician Charles Griffith, and industrialist James Harrison, pioneer of refrigeration. Their influence reflected the shift from Crown-appointed officials to settler-dominated self-government (Serle 1971).
Aboriginal protectorates and missions
In the late 1830s, Geelong fell within the jurisdiction of the Aboriginal Protectorate under Assistant Protector Charles Sievwright. Based in the Western District, Sievwright attempted to investigate massacres and protect Wadawurrung people, but his efforts were undermined by settler hostility and government indifference. He was eventually dismissed in 1842 under pressure from local squatters (Clark 1995).
By the 1850s, survivors of the Wadawurrung were increasingly displaced to missions and reserves. Some families moved to Framlingham Reserve near Warrnambool or Coranderrk Mission near Healesville after 1863. These institutions, controlled by missionaries and later the Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines, enforced assimilation and severely curtailed cultural practice (Barwick 1998).
Victorian state policies and local impact
From 1851, with Victoria’s separation from New South Wales, responsibility for Aboriginal policy passed to the colonial government in Melbourne.
The Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines (1860) oversaw missions and reserves. Geelong residents sometimes interacted with mission authorities through donations, church connections, or local politics.
The Aborigines Protection Act 1869 gave the Board sweeping control over Aboriginal lives, including where people could live and work.
The Half-Caste Act 1886 forced many Wadawurrung-descended families to leave missions such as Coranderrk, breaking kinship ties and accelerating marginalisation (Broome 2005).
In Geelong itself, Aboriginal presence was reduced to scattered families working as labourers, shearers, or domestic servants, often under colonial surveillance.
Geelong leadership and politics to 1900
By the late nineteenth century, Geelong was firmly integrated into Victoria’s political system. It returned members to the Victorian Parliament, including influential politicians aligned with protectionist or liberal factions. Local governance was exercised through the Geelong Town Council (later City Council).
Meanwhile, the symbolic authority of the Crown was maintained through institutions like the Governor’s visits and the naming of streets and landmarks after British figures. For Wadawurrung people, however, authority lay outside these structures, rooted in cultural law that persisted despite colonisation.
Chronological Timeline of Geelong, 1835–1900
1835–36: Pastoral settlement begins on Wadawurrung Country; conflicts and massacres occur near the You Yangs and Barwon River.
1837: Captain Foster Fyans appointed Police Magistrate of Geelong; British military detachments stationed in the region.
1839: Charles Joseph La Trobe appointed Superintendent of Port Phillip; Charles Sievwright appointed Assistant Protector for the Western District (including Geelong).
1842: Sievwright dismissed from Protectorate after investigating settler violence. Protectorate weakened.
1849: Geelong incorporated as a town with municipal council.
1850: Geelong declared a municipality; civic self-government begins.
1851: Separation of Victoria from New South Wales; La Trobe becomes Lieutenant-Governor. Gold rush begins; Geelong expands as transport hub.
1860: Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines established; oversees Framlingham and later Coranderrk missions.
1863: Coranderrk Mission established; Wadawurrung families displaced from Geelong region.
1869: Aborigines Protection Act passed, granting the Board control over Aboriginal lives.
1886: “Half-Caste Act” forces Aboriginal people of mixed descent off missions, breaking families and communities.
1890s: Geelong develops as a manufacturing centre; Aboriginal families remain marginalised, many working in seasonal labour or displaced entirely from traditional lands.
Conclusion
Geelong’s history of colonisation reflects the authority of Crown officials, magistrates such as Foster Fyans, and military detachments, followed by the growth of local municipal governance and representation in the Victorian Parliament. For Aboriginal people, protectorates and later state policies brought dislocation, surveillance, and forced assimilation. By 1900, Geelong had become a thriving colonial city, but one whose prosperity was built on the profound dispossession of its original custodians, the Wadawurrung.
References
Barwick, D. (1998) Rebellion at Coranderrk. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Boyce, J. (2011) 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia. Melbourne: Black 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. (1990) Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria, 1800–1900. Clayton: Monash Publications in Geography.
Clark, I. (1995) Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Connor, J. (2002) The Australian Frontier Wars, 1788–1838. Sydney: UNSW Press.
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)
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