Frontier History in Colonial Early Victoria
History of Colonial Geelong: Fyans, the Barwon, and the Building of a Frontier Port
Geelong—today a thriving regional city on Victoria’s southern coast—began in the 1830s as a frontier outpost on Wadawurrung Country. Its early growth was led by settlers such as Captain Foster Fyans, whose administrative, military, and punitive actions shaped the colony’s expansion. Set beside the Barwon River, Geelong became a gateway for pastoralism, policing, and trade.
But this growth came at enormous cost to the Wadawurrung people, whose lands, fisheries, and sacred sites along the Barwon and Corio Bay were transformed by colonial occupation. The making of Geelong thus represents both the birth of a port town and the onset of dispossession and environmental change across Victoria’s western plains.
Wadawurrung Country Before Settlement
Before colonisation, Wadawurrung Country extended from the Bellarine Peninsula through Geelong, the You Yangs, and up to Ballarat and Skipton. The Barwon River (Parwan), Moorabool, and Leigh Rivers sustained rich wetlands, eel fisheries, and yam-daisy fields managed through seasonal fire regimes and kin-based stewardship.
The river was central to Wadawurrung identity, ceremony, and subsistence. Families camped along its banks through the warm months, harvesting shellfish, fish, and edible plants, while stone fish traps and middens marked ancient patterns of habitation (Clark, 1990; Presland, 1994).
These landscapes were not wilderness, as colonists assumed, but carefully managed ecosystems—refined through millennia of ecological knowledge and cultural law.
The Arrival of Fyans and the Founding of Geelong (1837–1839)
Captain Foster Fyans (1790–1870) arrived in the Port Phillip District in 1837 after a military career in Ireland and penal administration in Van Diemen’s Land. Appointed Police Magistrate for Geelong, he was tasked with maintaining order among settlers, convicts, and Indigenous peoples as colonial frontiers pushed westward (Cahir, 2012).
Fyans established his base at Point Henry, later shifting to the Barwon River near the current city centre. His encampment included police barracks, a magistrate’s office, and stockyards—all constructed by convict labour. From here, he administered licenses, settled land disputes, and coordinated punitive expeditions against Indigenous resistance (Clark, 1995; Boyce, 2011).
The Geelong settlement quickly expanded under his control:
By 1838, more than 50,000 sheep grazed on nearby runs.
Wool exports began via small jetties at Corio Bay.
A rough grid of streets was surveyed by Lieutenant Henry Smythe, marking the start of the colonial town.
Though officially an administrative outpost, Geelong functioned as a military base for consolidating British control over Wadawurrung Country.
Conflict and Resistance on the Barwon
The establishment of Geelong triggered immediate Wadawurrung resistance. The Barwon River, a life source for Indigenous communities, became a contested frontier.
Records from 1836–1840 describe repeated skirmishes between Wadawurrung families and settlers who fenced off waterholes and yam grounds. Fyans reported “trouble with natives” at the Barrabool Hills and Moorabool River, where shepherds and squatters were attacked in retaliation for killings and encroachments (Clark, 1995).
Fyans’ response was severe. He led mounted parties and authorised reprisals described as “dispersals”—colonial euphemisms for armed attacks. Oral histories recall massacres near the You Yangs, Barwon River, and Bellarine Peninsula, which decimated local clans (Broome, 2005; Clark, 1995).
The conflict on the Barwon reflected a broader pattern across Victoria: Indigenous defence of Country met by militarised suppression disguised as policing.
Building the Frontier Port
Under Fyans, Geelong transitioned from a police outpost to a colonial port within five years. Its growth was driven by pastoral exports and convict labour:
Convict Chain Gangs (1838–1842): Fyans oversaw the construction of wharves, bridges, and stock routes connecting Geelong to inland stations. Labourers were often punished soldiers or convicts from Hobart.
The Barwon River Bridge (completed c.1840): built near present-day Moorabool Street, it linked the port with inland routes to Buninyong and Ballarat.
Barwon Flood Protection Works: early settlers re-engineered the riverbanks, destroying Indigenous fishing places and wetlands.
The port exported wool and tallow to Van Diemen’s Land and later London, laying the economic foundations of Victoria’s western district squattocracy (Cahir, 2012; Boyce, 2011).
By the early 1840s, Geelong had become the second major colonial town in the Port Phillip District after Melbourne—yet its prosperity depended on the occupation of Indigenous land and forced labour systems.
Life and Loss on Wadawurrung Country
The rapid growth of Geelong brought ecological and cultural devastation:
Displacement: Wadawurrung families were driven from riverbanks into marginal areas or missions.
Ecological Collapse: overgrazing destroyed yam grounds, while river dredging altered fish migrations.
Desecration of Sacred Sites: places such as Wurdi Youang, Lal Lal Falls, and burial grounds near the Barwon were fenced or quarried.
In the 1840s, government “Protectors of Aborigines” such as William Thomas and George Augustus Robinson recorded declining Wadawurrung numbers and pleas for food and safety (Clark, 1990). Many survivors were later relocated to Nerre Nerre Warren, and later Coranderrk and Framlingham (Barwick, 1998).
Despite this, Indigenous knowledge persisted—songs, place names, and stories continued through families, preserving connection to the Barwon and Corio Bay even as colonisation expanded.
Indigenous Labour and Adaptation
Indigenous people also played a role in Geelong’s formation. Fyans and other settlers employed Wadawurrung and neighbouring Kulin men as trackers, stockmen, and guides.
While often underpaid or exploited, their expertise in navigation and ecology was indispensable. Some women worked as domestic servants or vendors in the early township. Others traded fish, baskets, and crafts at Fyans’ Market Square, maintaining cultural exchange despite colonial control (Cahir, 2012).
This adaptation—working within the colonial economy while maintaining identity—demonstrates resilience and agency under oppressive conditions.
Geelong in the Wider Colonial Context
The making of Geelong mirrored imperial frontiers across the world. The British Empire often combined military administration, pastoral expansion, and Indigenous displacement to secure territory cheaply.
In India, Africa, and Aotearoa (New Zealand), similar tactics—licensing land, employing Indigenous auxiliaries, and building strategic ports—were used to entrench control (Belich, 1986). Geelong thus represents not only a local history but part of a global pattern of settler colonisation under Crown authority.
Legacy and Memory
By the mid-1850s, Geelong had become a centre of trade, education, and industry. Yet its foundations were built upon Indigenous dispossession and environmental transformation.
Today, the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation leads cultural renewal and truth-telling on Country. Language reclamation, heritage mapping, and river restoration projects—such as along the Barwon and Moorabool—are reconnecting the city with its pre-colonial past.
Truth-telling initiatives like the Yoorrook Justice Commission (2022) call for recognition of Geelong’s frontier history as part of Victoria’s broader reconciliation journey.
Conclusion
The making of colonial Geelong was both an act of construction and erasure—a frontier town rising on the ruins of ancient Indigenous landscapes. Under Captain Foster Fyans, the Barwon became a line of authority, trade, and control. But beneath its colonial story runs a deeper one: of Wadawurrung Country, whose rivers, plains, and people endure.
Today, acknowledging this intertwined history allows Geelong to be understood not only as a port of progress but as a place of ongoing truth-telling, healing, and Indigenous resurgence.
Reference List
Atkinson, J. (2002). Trauma Trails: Recreating Song Lines – The Transgenerational Effects of Trauma in Indigenous Australia. Melbourne: Spinifex Press.
Barwick, D. (1998). Rebellion at Coranderrk. Canberra: Aboriginal History Inc.
Belich, J. (1986). The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict. Auckland: Auckland University 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: Indigenous People on the Goldfields of Victoria, 1850–1870. Canberra: ANU E Press.
Clark, I. D. (1990). Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria, 1800–1900. Clayton: Monash Publications in Geography.
Clark, I. D. (1995). Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
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.
Victorian Government. (2022). Yoorrook Justice Commission Interim Report. Melbourne.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (22 October 2025)
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