Frontier History in Colonial Early Victoria
The Early Land Grab in Wadawurrung Country Before British Colonial Government Arrived in Victoria
Long before a colonial government was established in Victoria, the Wadawurrung people, whose Country stretches across Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula, the You Yangs, Ballarat, and the Moorabool–Barwon river systems, lived within a sophisticated web of ecological knowledge, kinship law, and seasonal land management.
When pastoral settlers arrived from 1835 onward, they entered a living landscape — not an empty one. The “early land grab” began not through lawful purchase or treaty but through private deals, illegal squatting, and speculative grazing that preceded any British authority. This chaotic frontier period — roughly 1835 to 1839 — marked the violent rupture between Wadawurrung people and their Country, a dispossession later formalised under Crown law.
Wadawurrung Country Before Colonisation
The Land and People
Wadawurrung Country extended from the Great Dividing Range near Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh down to the Surf Coast and Bellarine Peninsula, and westward toward Skipton and the Leigh River (Clark, 1990).
The landscape is geologically rich: a mixture of volcanic basalt plains, sandstone ridges, and coastal estuaries formed during the Cenozoic and Quaternary periods (Birch, 2003). Fertile soils supported murnong (Microseris lanceolata) and native grasses, while the Barwon and Moorabool river valleys provided freshwater ecosystems for eels, mussels, and birdlife.
The Wadawurrung moved seasonally across these zones, guided by the cycles of food, fire, and ceremony — a sustainable rhythm refined over tens of thousands of years (Pascoe, 2014; Gammage, 2011).
Sacred Geography
Prominent features such as the You Yangs (Wurdi Youang), Mount Buninyong, and Lal Lal Falls held spiritual and astronomical significance.
The Wurdi Youang stone arrangement aligns with solar events, functioning as a pre-colonial observatory that marks solstices and equinoxes (Norris et al., 2013).
Ceremonial gatherings at these sites reinforced law and kinship within the Kulin Confederacy, connecting the Wadawurrung with neighbouring Nations including the Woiwurrung, Boonwurrung, Taungurung, and Dja Dja Wurrung (Barwick, 1984).
The First Land Deals and Batman’s “Treaty” (1835)
In June 1835, John Batman, representing the Port Phillip Association, claimed to have “purchased” 600,000 acres from Woiwurrung and Wathaurong leaders in exchange for blankets, tomahawks, and flour. Part of this claimed area covered Wadawurrung Country around Geelong and the Barwon River (Reynolds, 1987).
The so-called Batman Treaty is sometimes described as Australia’s only treaty attempt, but Governor Bourke quickly declared it void under the doctrine of terra nullius. All land, he ruled, belonged to the Crown. Despite this ruling, Batman and other speculators used the agreement to justify grazing sheep and cattle on Wadawurrung Country (Critchett, 1990).
Scientifically, this was also the first major introduction of sheep onto volcanic plains, a species that would alter soil chemistry, hydrology, and biodiversity across south-western Victoria within years (Roberts, 1935).
Squatting and the First Runs (1835–1839)
Illegal Settlement
Even before Crown surveys or land licenses, squatters and ex-soldiers staked claims along the Barrabool Hills, Barwon River, and Ballarat highlands. Individuals such as Foster Fyans, Henry Batman, and the Learmonth brothers established huts, cleared trees, and drove flocks of sheep and cattle across Country.
They recorded runs averaging 20,000–30,000 acres — each carved out of long-inhabited Wadawurrung estates. With no authority present, land occupation became a race of endurance and aggression (Broome, 2005).
Environmental Impact
The sudden arrival of thousands of grazing animals destroyed murnong fields that Wadawurrung women had cultivated for generations. Hooves compacted the basalt soils, reducing water infiltration and killing tubers. Waterholes became polluted or fenced off, interrupting eel migrations. Sacred and burial sites were desecrated — sometimes intentionally — to assert settler dominance (Clark, 1995).
The ecological shift was immediate: dust storms, erosion, and a collapse of native food chains. These are early examples of anthropogenic landscape transformation, visible today in soil layers and sediment cores (Garden, 1984).
Violence and the Frontier
Early Conflicts
Wadawurrung groups resisted occupation through tactics of burning grass, driving off stock, and attacking huts. These acts were not random but part of defence of Country, aligned with customary law that protected ancestral estates (Attwood, 2003).
Settlers responded with organised reprisals. Foster Fyans’ reports from Geelong (1837–1839) describe armed patrols and summary shootings. The violence was systematic and often unrecorded, part of what historians now term the Silent War.
Massacres and Oral Memory
Oral traditions and scattered colonial accounts point to killings along the Moorabool, Leigh, and Barwon Rivers during the late 1830s (Clark, 1995). On the Bellarine Peninsula, entire camps were attacked after settlers accused Wadawurrung people of taking sheep. Few written investigations occurred, but later testimony and Protectorate reports confirm widespread bloodshed (Critchett, 1990).
These events decimated family groups and forced survivors toward the fringes of towns like Geelong, often seeking refuge with sympathetic settlers or missionaries.
Absence of Government and Opportunism
Before 1839, Port Phillip had no formal government or policing system. This legal vacuum allowed squatters to occupy land unchecked, forming syndicates that speculated on vast tracts they expected the Crown to later legitimise (Reynolds, 1987).
Land became a financial instrument — an asset to be seized and sold. The early squatters’ wealth laid the foundations of Victoria’s pastoral aristocracy, whose fortunes grew from the land taken during these unregulated years (Broome, 2005).
From a social-science perspective, this period represents the genesis of colonial capitalism in Victoria: profit derived from the conversion of Indigenous land into private property without consent or compensation.
Dispossession and Cultural Disruption
Food and Survival
With yam-daisy fields destroyed and kangaroo habitats reduced, Wadawurrung families faced famine. Many sought seasonal labour as shepherds, boundary riders, or domestic workers in exchange for rations of flour and sugar (Presland, 1994). Others moved along the Barwon estuary and coastal margins, adapting traditional fishing to new pressures.
Kinship and Ceremony
Loss of mobility across Country fractured the kinship networks that governed marriage, ceremony, and trade. Gathering places such as Wurdi Youang, used for astronomical ceremony and teaching, were fenced or desecrated. Ceremonial fires were banned under settler law.
These disruptions were not only cultural but scientific in consequence: Indigenous fire regimes that maintained grassland biodiversity were extinguished, leading to denser undergrowth and more severe bushfires (Gammage, 2011).
From Land Grab to Law
By 1839, British authorities extended the Protectorate system to the Port Phillip District, appointing George Augustus Robinson and assistants such as William Thomas to oversee relations with Indigenous communities.
However, by the time the Protectorate arrived, most fertile Wadawurrung Country had already been claimed. The introduction of pastoral licenses (1836–1847) merely legalised existing occupations, transforming theft into Crown-sanctioned tenure (Reynolds, 1987).
These licenses paved the way for the creation of reserves and missions, often on marginal land, where surviving Wadawurrung people were confined under strict control.
Science, Landscape, and Memory
From a geological perspective, the Victorian Volcanic Plain still bears the imprint of this early incursion — compacted soils, altered drainage lines, and changed fire regimes. Studies of pollen and sediment reveal a sudden decline in native Themeda grass and Microseris species after the 1830s (Williams et al., 2006).
Hydrologically, fencing and grazing along the Barwon and Moorabool altered the catchment system, accelerating erosion and silting. Archaeological surveys continue to uncover stone tools and hearths buried beneath colonial topsoil, evidence of a densely inhabited landscape long before the squatter invasion.
Culturally, the Wadawurrung maintain stories of Wurdi Youang and Lal Lal Falls as teaching places — reminders that astronomical, ecological, and spiritual knowledge are inseparable parts of Country.
Legacy and Truth-Telling
The early land grab set the pattern for Victoria’s later history: unlawful seizure, retrospective legality, and enduring resilience. It was the first phase of colonisation — executed before any law was written, yet forming the basis of every later title deed.
Today, truth-telling initiatives such as the Yoorrook Justice Commission and the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation are restoring voice to these histories. They highlight not only loss but survival — the continuation of Wadawurrung culture, language, and care for Country.
Scientific understanding of the land now aligns with traditional knowledge, confirming that Country is a living system that remembers disturbance and renewal. Through restoration, re-burning, and re-connection, the story of Wadawurrung Country continues — no longer silent, but spoken in truth.
Reference List
Attwood, B. (2003). Rights for Aborigines. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Barwick, D. (1984). Mapping the Past: An Atlas of Kulin Society and Territory. Aboriginal History, 8(1), 100–131.
Birch, W.D. (2003). Geology of Victoria. Geological Society of Australia (Victoria Division).
Broome, R. (2005). Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Clark, I.D. (1990). Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria, 1800–1900. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies 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.
Gammage, B. (2011). The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Garden, D. (1984). Victoria: A History. Melbourne: Nelson.
Norris, R.P., Hamacher, D.W., & Fuller, R.S. (2013). Astronomical Knowledge Traditions in Aboriginal Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 125(1).
Pascoe, B. (2014). Dark Emu: Black Seeds, Agriculture or Accident? Broome: Magabala Books.
Presland, G. (1994). Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People. Melbourne: Harriland Press.
Reynolds, H. (1987). The Law of the Land. Ringwood: Penguin.
Williams, N.J., et al. (2006). Vegetation Change on the Victorian Volcanic Plain since European Settlement. CSIRO Land & Water.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (22 October 2025)
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