Frontier History in Colonial Early Victoria
The Founding of Melbourne (1835–1837): Survey, Settlement, and Cultural Transformation
The founding of Melbourne between 1835 and 1837 marked the transformation of Woiwurrung Country — a living landscape of deep-time knowledge, law, and ecology — into the colonial centre of Port Phillip. Emerging from John Batman’s unauthorised treaty and the actions of rival settler parties, the establishment of Melbourne symbolised the rapid consolidation of British authority in southeastern Australia.
This period, often described as “the birth of a city,” was in truth an act of dispossession, as pastoral expansion, town surveys, and imported legal systems overrode Indigenous sovereignty and reshaped Country forever.
Timeline: From Campsite to Colonial Capital
June 1835: John Batman’s Port Phillip Association lands near the Yarra River (Narrm) and claims to have “purchased” land from Wurundjeri elders.
August 1835: Governor Bourke of New South Wales declares Batman’s treaty void and asserts Crown ownership of all land.
August–October 1835: John Pascoe Fawkner’s separate expedition from Van Diemen’s Land arrives; both Batman and Fawkner’s groups establish rival camps on Woiwurrung Country.
1836: Captain William Lonsdale appointed as the first government representative; surveyor Robert Hoddle begins laying out the town grid.
1837: Governor Bourke formally names the settlement “Melbourne,” after the British Prime Minister, and land sales commence.
1838–1840s: Rapid urban growth attracts migrants, displaces Indigenous communities, and sets the foundation for the colony of Victoria.
Country Before Colonisation: Narrm and the Kulin Nations
Before 1835, the lands surrounding the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers were part of the Kulin Nation, home to five main language groups: Woiwurrung, Bunurong, Taungurung, Wadawurrung, and Dja Dja Wurrung.
These communities maintained Country through seasonal movement, ceremony, and sustainable resource use:
Narrm (the Yarra floodplain) was a meeting ground for trade and ceremony.
Merri Creek and Moonee Ponds Creek were sites of eel harvesting, stone tool production, and initiation.
Billabongs and wetlands supported kangaroo, emu, yam daisy (murnong), and freshwater mussel harvesting.
To the Kulin peoples, land was kin — held in trust through Bunjil’s Law — a sacred balance between people, place, and spirit (Broome 2005).
The Dual Settlements: Batman and Fawkner
Batman’s Party
John Batman’s Port Phillip Association landed at Indented Head in May 1835 before moving inland. His men erected a small base camp and claimed to act on behalf of eight Kulin leaders.
Fawkner’s Party
Meanwhile, Launceston businessman John Pascoe Fawkner outfitted his own expedition aboard the Enterprise. Arriving in August 1835, his group sailed up the Yarra and established a second encampment at the site of present-day Melbourne.
While Batman’s claim was tied to a void treaty, Fawkner’s group physically founded the township. Both men later quarrelled over credit, but their combined actions catalysed the settlement that became Victoria’s capital.
Colonial Survey and Town Planning
In 1836, the British Government sought to bring order to the chaotic squatter camps around Port Phillip. Captain William Lonsdale was appointed Police Magistrate and official representative of the Governor.
Soon after, surveyor Robert Hoddle was dispatched to design a town grid — now known as the Hoddle Grid — characterised by long, narrow streets and regular allotments. Governor Bourke approved the plan in 1837, naming the settlement Melbourne after Lord William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, the British Prime Minister.
This grid imposed a rational geometry over the floodplains of Narrm, transforming a living ecosystem into a marketplace of land sales, property boundaries, and speculative wealth.
The First Land Sales and Economic Foundations
The first official land sales took place in 1837.
Prices ranged from £5 to £25 per acre, attracting wealthy investors from Tasmania and Sydney.
Indigenous land was neither compensated nor acknowledged.
By 1838, over 2,000 Europeans occupied the Port Phillip settlement.
Agriculture, whaling, and trade with Van Diemen’s Land underpinned early growth. The settlement quickly became a logistical hub for the wider colonisation of Victoria, linking the interior pastoral frontier to imperial trade networks.
Dispossession and Frontier Impact
The founding of Melbourne intensified the displacement of Indigenous peoples throughout the Kulin region:
Loss of food sources: Livestock trampled murnong fields, polluted rivers, and disrupted hunting.
Violence and disease: Smallpox, influenza, and sporadic killings drastically reduced the population.
Cultural dislocation: Ceremonial and meeting grounds were fenced, built over, or restricted.
By 1840, Woiwurrung survivors were confined to small areas on the outskirts of the city, including the Naarm mission site at Merri Creek, later closed as settlement expanded (Clark 1995).
Governance and the Birth of a Colony
In 1839, Governor Gipps formalised Melbourne as part of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. By 1842, it was proclaimed a town; by 1847, a city.
The creation of municipal government cemented settler authority:
Police courts enforced British law.
Churches and schools spread Christianity and English language.
Property ownership became the basis of power, excluding Indigenous people entirely.
By 1851, when Victoria separated from New South Wales, Melbourne had become the colony’s capital — a city of wealth and influence built upon the unceded lands of the Kulin Nations.
Cultural Transformation and Memory
Urban Change
Melbourne’s rapid urbanisation erased much of the original landscape. Wetlands were drained, eels disappeared from the Yarra, and sacred sites were paved over.
Mythmaking
Settler narratives celebrated Batman and Fawkner as pioneers, yet ignored the violence and displacement that accompanied “progress.” Public monuments, place names, and civic anniversaries reinforced the myth of peaceful settlement.
Truth-Telling and Reclamation
In recent decades, Indigenous communities have reasserted cultural presence in Melbourne through:
Language revival projects (e.g., Woiwurrung words like Narrm and Birrarung used in public naming).
Ceremonies and Welcome to Country protocols.
Land return and joint management agreements, such as those recognising Wurundjeri and Bunurong Country.
Conclusion
The founding of Melbourne was not simply the birth of a city—it was the reconfiguration of an ancient landscape into the colonial heart of a new state. Between 1835 and 1837, the intersecting ambitions of Batman, Fawkner, and the British Crown transformed Country through land speculation, law, and force.
What emerged was a city of wealth and influence built on unceded land. Today, as Melbourne acknowledges its foundations through treaty processes and truth-telling, the story of its origin continues to reveal the enduring legacy of colonisation — and the strength of Indigenous survival.
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.
Reynolds, H 1987, The Law of the Land, Penguin, Ringwood.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (16 September 2025)
MLA
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