Frontier History in Colonial Early Victoria
The Henty Brothers: Settlement, Pastoral Expansion, and the Beginning of Colonisation in Western Victoria (1834)
In 1834, the arrival of the Henty brothers at Portland Bay marked the first permanent European settlement in what would become Victoria. Established without official permission from the British Crown, their venture was driven by ambition, economic opportunity, and the pastoral frontier’s relentless expansion.
The Henty settlement symbolises the transition from exploration to occupation—a moment when Victoria’s western lands, home to Gunditjmara peoples for tens of thousands of years, were transformed by grazing, violence, and dispossession.
Timeline: The Henty Settlement and Its Consequences
1829: The Henty family—Thomas, Frances, and their sons Edward, Stephen, Francis, and John—emigrate from Sussex, England, to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).
1833: Seeking larger pastures and freer land laws than those in Tasmania, the brothers begin exploring the southern mainland coast.
November 1834: Edward Henty lands at Portland Bay with servants, livestock, seed, and equipment, establishing a homestead on Gunditjmara Country (Portland district).
1835: The settlement expands into a wool enterprise; ships from Launceston begin regular trade in tallow, hides, and grain.
1836: Major Thomas Mitchell’s “Australia Felix” expedition passes through the region, meeting the Hentys and reporting favourably on their operations (Mitchell 1839).
1837–1840: Dozens of squatters follow the Hentys into the Western District, occupying fertile volcanic plains and displacing Indigenous communities.
1840s: Frontier conflict, massacres, and mission establishment follow in the wake of the Hentys’ pioneering settlement (Clark 1995).
Background: The Henty Family and Imperial Expansion
The Hentys were part of a broader wave of entrepreneurial settlers from Britain seeking wealth through pastoralism. Thomas Henty, the family patriarch, had been a wealthy Sussex farmer and investor. His sons brought sheep and cattle to Tasmania in 1832 but soon clashed with colonial authorities over land restrictions.
The family decided to settle on the southern coast of the mainland, claiming to have received informal approval from the Governor of Van Diemen’s Land. In reality, they established their enterprise without Crown sanction—effectively an illegal occupation of Indigenous land (Boyce 2011).
This act of self-authorised colonisation prefigured the larger “squatter movement” that would soon consume Victoria’s western plains.
Encounter and Dispossession on Gunditjmara Country
The area around Portland Bay had long been occupied and managed by the Gunditjmara people, whose aquaculture systems, eel traps, and stone dwellings at nearby Budj Bim represent one of the oldest engineered landscapes on Earth (Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation 2019).
When the Hentys arrived, they entered a densely peopled and lawfully ordered Country:
Fire management: Gunditjmara used seasonal burning to maintain grasslands for kangaroo and wallaby hunting.
Eel aquaculture: Complex channels and weirs sustained food supply and community economies.
Clan estates: Country was divided among family groups with strict laws governing use and movement.
The Hentys’ livestock trampled eel traps, fouled waterholes, and destroyed yam and tuber grounds. Conflict followed: oral histories and records describe raids, stock theft, and violent reprisals. The Convincing Ground massacre (c.1833–34), occurring near the Henty whaling site, became one of Victoria’s earliest and most notorious frontier killings (Clark 1995).
Economic Motives and the Rise of the Wool Industry
Edward Henty’s letters reveal the economic rationale behind the move: abundant grass, fresh water, and access to shipping made Portland ideal for export. Within two years:
Thousands of sheep grazed across Gunditjmara Country.
Whaling and sealing were conducted from Portland Bay.
Exports of wool and whale oil flowed to Britain.
By 1836, the Hentys had established the first major private port on Victoria’s coast. Their success inspired further incursions by squatters and encouraged government recognition of “unofficial” settlements.
Pastoralism became the backbone of Victoria’s early economy—but at immense environmental and cultural cost.
British Response and Legalisation of the Settlement
Initially, the British authorities condemned the Portland settlement as unlawful. Governor Bourke of New South Wales (which then included Victoria) declared that the Hentys held no legal title to the land.
However, practical realities soon overrode legal objections:
The Crown recognised the potential value of western Victoria’s wool trade.
Henty petitions for formal recognition were eventually approved, granting pastoral leases in the 1830s–1840s (Cannon 1991).
This retroactive legalisation set a precedent—rewarding occupation and dispossession with legitimacy. It effectively normalised unauthorised colonisation across Victoria’s frontier.
Frontier Conflict and Indigenous Resistance
As other settlers followed, violence escalated:
The Convincing Ground massacre (c.1833–34) involved whalers and settlers attacking a Gunditjmara group after a dispute over a whale carcass.
Throughout the 1840s, killings occurred across the Western District, particularly along the Wannon and Glenelg rivers (Clark 1995).
Survivors were forced onto missions such as Lake Condah and Framlingham later in the century.
Despite immense loss, Gunditjmara people maintained resistance and continuity of culture, keeping stories and connection to Country alive through oral tradition and later land rights movements.
The Hentys’ Legacy
In settler history, the Hentys were long celebrated as the “first Victorian colonists,” their enterprise portrayed as industrious and heroic. Streets, monuments, and even postage stamps honoured their arrival.
Yet from Indigenous and modern historical perspectives, the Henty story marks the beginning of systematic colonisation in Victoria—a story of profit built on invasion.
Their actions catalysed:
The squatter occupation of millions of acres across western Victoria.
Dispossession of Indigenous communities.
The rise of wool as the colony’s economic foundation.
The first sustained wave of violence between settlers and Indigenous nations.
Conclusion
The settlement of the Henty brothers at Portland Bay in 1834 was a pivotal moment in Victoria’s colonial history. Though presented as pioneering enterprise, it was in fact an act of dispossession carried out without consent or authority.
From this foothold grew the pastoral empire that defined 19th-century Victoria—wealth and growth for settlers, and devastation for the Indigenous peoples whose lands sustained them.
Today, truth-telling and recognition of Gunditjmara sovereignty offer new ways to understand the Henty story—not as the birth of Victoria, but as the beginning of colonisation’s enduring legacy.
References
Boyce, J 2011, 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia, Black Inc., Melbourne.
Broome, R 2005, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Cannon, M 1991, Old Melbourne Town: Before the Gold Rush, Loch Haven Books, Main Ridge.
Clark, I D 1995, Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.
Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation 2019, Budj Bim Cultural Landscape: World Heritage Nomination Dossier, Victorian Government, Melbourne.
Mitchell, T L 1839, Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, T & W Boone, London.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (16 September 2025)
MLA
Sharing the truth of Indigenous and colonial history through film, education, land, and community.
www.magiclandsalliance.org
Copyright MLA – 2025
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.