Corinella is a town in Victoria, Australia, located 114 km south-east of Melbourne via the M1 and the Bass Highway, on the eastern shore of Western Port Bay. The town serves as a holiday destination with a focus on recreational fishing, and has a pier and boat ramp and provides access to French Island via a privately operated barge.

History

Just to the east of the present town, a settlement was founded in 1826 from Sydney in response to a concern for possible French territorial claims. In that year Dumont d'Urville in command of the corvette Astrolabe examined Westernport, aroused suspicion during his scientific voyage. Authorities in Sydney had also recently received reports from explorers Hamilton Hume

Hamilton Hume

Hamilton Hume was the first Australian born explorer. Along with Hovell in 1824, Hume was part of an expedition that first took an overland route from Sydney to Port Phillip near the site of present day Melbourne...

 and William Hovell

William Hovell

William Hilton Hovell was an English explorer of Australia.-Early life:Hovell was born in Yarmouth, Norfolk, England and went to sea as a boy, becoming a Royal Navy captain before settling in New South Wales, arriving in October 1813 aboard the Earl Spencer with his wife Esther née Arndell...

 who mistakenly believed they had reached Westernport in 1824 (when in fact they had arrived at Corio Bay

Corio Bay

Corio Bay is one of numerous bays in the southwest corner of Australia's Port Phillip, and is the bay on which abuts the City of Geelong. The nearby suburb of Corio takes its name from Corio Bay.-Name:...

 many kilometres to the west. A contingent of soldiers and 21 convicts under the command of Captain Wright was dispatched with William Hovell to assist. A small military settlement called Fort Dumaresq was established near the present-day site of Rhyll on the north coast of Phillip Island. Lack of fresh water proved a problem and the outpost was moved to Corinella then called Settlement Point.

Hovell's subsequent report claiming Westernport was unsuitable for agriculture, owing to poor soil and lack of fresh water, and the absence of any Frenchmen, led to the abandonment of the settlements in 1828. The buildings were burnt to prevent use by escaped convicts. A memorial cairn in Jamieson Street marks the site of the original settlement and another monument at the end of Smythe Street commemorates Paul Edmund de Strzelecki's exploration in 1840.

The 1826-8 Corinella was subject to extensive archaeological investigations in the late 1970s by the Victoria Archaeological Survey

Victoria Archaeological Survey

The Victorian state government established the Archaeological and Aboriginal Relics Office under the Chief Secretary's Department, following the enactment of the Archaeological and Aboriginal Relics Preservation Act 1972. One of the original aims of the Relics office was to compile a list of...

 led by Peter Coutts

Peter Coutts

Peter John Frazer Coutts was an Australian archaeologist who was first director of the Victoria Archaeological Survey , the precursor to the Heritage Branch of Aboriginal Affairs Victoria....

. Although equivocal in its conclusions about the location and remains of the settlement, the dig established the importance of the site to Victoria's history and European settlement.