Western District
Encyclopedia
The Western District is a region of Australia
located in the south-west corner of the state of Victoria
, extending to Ballarat in the east and as far north as Ararat
where it borders the Wimmera
region. To the south, the district extends to Bass Strait
and the Southern Ocean
and to the west it extends to the South Australia
n border. The district is well-known for the production of wool
.
The principal centres of the district are: Warrnambool
, Hamilton
, Colac
, Portland
, Casterton
, Port Fairy
, Camperdown
, and Terang
. Other cities and towns in or on the edge of the district include:
Coleraine
, Merino
, Heywood
, Dunkeld
, Penshurst
, Macarthur
, Koroit
, Allansford
, Ararat
, Willaura
, Beaufort
, Learmonth
, Ballarat, Snake Valley
, Skipton
, Moyston
, Linton
, Derrinallum
, Lismore
, Mortlake
, Noorat
, Cobden
, Timboon
, Beeac
, Cororooke, Birregurra
, Apollo Bay
, and Lorne
.
It consists of a nearly flat volcanic plain created by a number of quite recently active volcano
es, the best known being Mount Eccles
, Mount Richmond and Mount Gambier. Whilst some of them (eg. Mount Richmond) have given rise to cemented pyroclastic rocks that do not produce fertile soil
s, others have given rise to fertile Andisols
that make the region the best grazing land in Australia, as well as highly suitable for the production of vegetable crops. Away from the volcanoes, soils are of moderate to low fertility and many are sandy, supporting heathland flora like the Grampians
. Drainage is very poor and most rivers flow only after prolonged periods of steady rain, resulting in remarkably variable flow when the low variability of the climate is taken into account. The major mountain range is the Otway Ranges, which are an ancient sedimentary range rising to over 600 metres.
to 14 to 26 °C (57.2 to 78.8 F) in the northern part of the plain. Rainfall in summer is not uncommon but is only rarely heavy; though in March 1946 astonishingly heavy rains of up to 300 millimetres (12 inches) in a week constitute easily the heaviest falls in the region. In winter, temperatures typically range from minima of around 5 °C (41 °F) to pleasant maxima of 14 to 15 °C (57.2 to 59 F), and rainfall is very frequent and reliable, averaging from 55 millimetres (just over 2 inches) in the driest area around Lake Bolac to 110 millimetres (4.4 inches) near Portland and Port Campbell
. In the Otway Ranges, summers are mild, averaging around 20 °C (68 °F), whilst winters are cold and very wet, with maxima averaging around 9 to 10 °C (48.2 to 50 F) and rainfall averaging about 225 millimetres (8.9 in) with extremes in June 1952 as high as 538 millimetres (21.2 in) at Weeaproinah and a Victorian record 891 millimetres (35.1 in) at nearby Tanybryn.
See also: Gunditjmara
People
The Western District was well-populated and owned by Victorian Aborigines
at the time colonisation began. For example, the ancestors of the Gunditjmara
people lived in villages of weather-proof houses with stone walls a metre high, located near eel
traps and aquaculture ponds at Lake Condah and elsewhere - on just one hectare of Allambie Farm, archaeologists have discovered the remains of 160 house sites.
In the early 19th century, whalers operating along the coast occasionally grew crops for their own use. Edward Henty
settled Portland Bay
in 1834. Henty had "...little contact with the Aborigines even though the country inland from Portland Bay seems to have been thickly populated (one village
Henty saw had fifty huts)." Nevertheless, in December 1834, shortly after arriving from Tasmania, Henty (aged 24 yrs) set off for country inland from Portland
, with resident whalers, an Aboriginal woman abducted by one of them and 14 hunting dogs (a cross between greyhound
s and wolfhound
s). On spotting a single Aboriginal man, as Henty recorded "...the Men set the Dogs on" him.
Both the Henty brothers and Captain Griffiths (who settled at Port Fairy
in 1836), combined whaling and farming. The district was explored by Thomas Mitchell in 1836 who identified the area's potential for grazing. Charles Tyers
was the first to survey the area in 1839. Sheep were first brought to the district in 1836 by Thomas Manifold at Port Henry, near Geelong, and rapidly occupied the whole district. By 1840 squatters occupied almost all the district.
fully allocated to colonists, John Batman
turned his attention to mainland land speculation at the vast grasslands of Port Phillip Bay, which began in 1835 without the consent of the British Crown and at an enormous cost in the lives and livelihoods of its Aboriginal land-owners. With no legal recognition or protection of the Aboriginal land-owners, violence ensued. For example, in August 1836, Aborigines killed the squatter Charles Franks and an unnamed shepherd, at Franks' station on the Werribee River
(near Melbourne). In response, Henry Batman (John Batman's brother) led an indiscriminate punitive expedition against 70–80 Aborigines (men, women & children) living in 9 large huts on the Werribee River
, killing an unrecorded number. In spite of this, in May 1837, Henry Batman "...was appointed acting Commissioner of Crown Lands, the official charged with overseeing the squatters." Earlier, on 4 March 1837, Governor Bourke in his visit to Melbourne addressed 120 Aborigines, "...whom he exhorted...to good conduct and attention to the Missionary.' The Kulin
were given blankets and four favoured men, who had been recommended for 'honorary distinctions' by [Police Magistrate Captain William] Lonsdale, were awarded brass plates."
By 1839, large numbers of homeless, dispossessed Aborigines, refugees from surrounding pastoral districts, were "....surviving whenever and however they could on the geographic, social and economic margins of the town [ie, Melbourne]." When Chief Protector of Aborigines George Augustus Robinson
arrived in the town in the winter of 1839, "four to five hundred blacks of the Port Phillip
tribes" were gathering at a camp site on the south bank of the Yarra River
, suffering hunger and disease. By 1840, Robinson still "....had no stores allocated to him..." by Captain William Lonsdale (colonist)
, the Police Magistrate in Melbourne
, even though "...it was patently obvious that the Aborigines were starving, and many were ill and near death,..." With land in the hinterland overrun by "...vast numbers of sheep and cattle.." and "...conditions in the countryside becoming intolerable, the blacks swarmed into Melbourne looking for food and blankets."
Clendinnen describes the picture painted in 1841 by George Augustus Robinson
on the grasslands of the Western District
to the west of Melbourne
(two years after John Batman
's death), during a field trip from Melbourne
to Portland
via the Grampians:
Between 1836 and 1842, Victorian Aboriginal groups were largely dispossessed of territory bigger than England
.
See also Murdering Gully massacre
on Mount Emu Creek
in the Western District.
region in the 1840s, the Gunditjmara
fought for their lands in a series of clashes known as the Eumerella Wars, in which both they and colonists experienced violent deaths. The Gunditjmara resistance became overwhelmed by the colonisers who brought in the Native Police. The historian Jan Critchett has documented this conflict in her 1990 book, A distant field of murder: Western district frontiers, 1834-1848.
. Although the British Colonial Office
appointed 5 "Aboriginal Protectors" for the entire Aboriginal population of Victoria, arriving in Melbourne in 1839, they worked "...within a land policy that nullified their work, and there was no political will to change this." "It was government policy
to encourage squatters to take possession of whatever [Aboriginal] land they chose,....that largely explains why almost all the original inhabitants of Port Phillip
's vast grasslands were dead so soon after 1835". By 1845, fewer than 240 wealthy Europeans held all the pastoral licences then issued in Victoria and became the patriarchs "...that were to wield so much political and economic power in Victoria for generations to come."
With the Aboriginal population dispossessed of their lands and their management of fire having been disrupted for almost 15 years, the Colony experienced for the first time its largest ever bushfires, burning about 25% of the land area of Victoria on Black Thursday (1851)
on 6 February 1851.
people of the west to a mission established further east near Purnim in 1861, however, the Gunditjmara refused because of tension with Aboriginal people from the eastern boundary of Gunditjmara country and beyond the Hopkins River
. Five years later in 1866, 2,043 acres of Crown land at Lake Condah was set aside for use as an Aboriginal mission
. This land was gazetted as a reserve in 1869 and an Anglican mission was established. In 1951, the Lake Condah reserve, with the exception of three small areas was revoked and the land was handed over to the Soldiers Settlement Commission.
launched legal action in the Supreme Court of Victoria
to prevent Alcoa
of Australia Ltd from damaging or interfering with Gunditjmara cultural sites located on the same place as the proposed aluminium smelter at Portland
. The Supreme Court dismissed their subsequent application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court
. However, the Gunditjmara took the matter to the High Court of Australia
where they were successful. High Court Chief Justice Gibbs judged that: "The appellants have an interest in the subject matter of the present action which is greater than that of other members of the public and indeed greater than that of other persons of Aboriginal descent who are not members of the Gournditch-jmara people. The applicants and other members of the Gournditch-jmara [ie, the Gunditjmara] people would be more particularly affected than other members of the Australian community by the destruction of the relics."
On 30 March 2007, the Gunditjmara
People were recognised by the Federal Court of Australia to be the native title-holders of almost 140,000 hectares of Crown land
and waters in the Portland
region. On 27 July 2011, together with the Eastern Maar People, the Gunditjmara People were recognised to be the native title-holders of almost 4,000 hectares of Crown land in the Yambuk region, including Lady Julia Percy Island, known to them as Deen Maar.
was grown in the drier northern part of the region for some time until more easily managed soils in the Wimmera
were developed. Dairying was developed as a major industry in the wetter southern parts during this period, as was the cultivation of potato
es and onion
s on the best soils.
In the Otway Ranges, forestry became the major industry, especially after the building of the Great Ocean Road
which opened up these very wet regions. Because of the change in focus since the late 1960s to woodchipping
, many timber mills are now defunct as jobs have moved to Geelong. Tourism is the dominant industry in towns such as Lorne
and Apollo Bay
, which fill up during the summer as Melburnians are drawn by the stunning scenery and milder weather. In towns like Heywood
and Nelson
, pine plantations have been the dominant industry since the 1950s but the industry, even as plantations mature, is under threat due to poor prices.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
located in the south-west corner of the state of Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, extending to Ballarat in the east and as far north as Ararat
Ararat, Victoria
Ararat is a city in south-west Victoria, Australia, about west of Melbourne, on the Western Highway on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera...
where it borders the Wimmera
Wimmera
The Wimmera is a region in the west of the Australian state of Victoria.It covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Australia border and north of the Great Dividing Range...
region. To the south, the district extends to Bass Strait
Bass Strait
Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland, specifically the state of Victoria.-Extent:The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bass Strait as follows:...
and the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...
and to the west it extends to the South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
n border. The district is well-known for the production of wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
.
The principal centres of the district are: Warrnambool
Warrnambool, Victoria
-Cityscape:The original City of Warrnambool was a 4x8 grid, with boundaries of Lava Street , Japan Street , Merri Street and Henna Street . In the nineteenth century, it was intended that Fairy Street – with its proximity to the Warrnambool Railway Station – would be the main street of...
, Hamilton
Hamilton, Victoria
Hamilton is a city in western Victoria, Australia. It is located at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway...
, Colac
Colac, Victoria
Colac is a small city located in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, situated approximately 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne on the southern shore of Lake Colac and the surrounding volcanic plains, approximately 40 km inland from Bass Strait. Colac is the largest city in and...
, Portland
Portland, Victoria
The city of Portland is the oldest European settlement in what is now the state of Victoria, Australia. It is the main urban centre of the Shire of Glenelg. It is located on Portland Bay.-History:...
, Casterton
Casterton, Victoria
Casterton is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Glenelg Highway, 42 kilometres east of the South Australian border, in the Shire of Glenelg. The Glenelg River passes through the town...
, Port Fairy
Port Fairy, Victoria
Port Fairy is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and 290 km west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the Southern Ocean.-History:...
, Camperdown
Camperdown, Victoria
Camperdown is an historically significant rural town in southwestern Victoria, Australia, south west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Camperdown had a population of 3,165.-History:...
, and Terang
Terang, Victoria
Terang is a small Australian town situated in Corangamite Shire in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, on the Princes Highway 212 km south-west of the state's capital, Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Terang had a population of 2256...
. Other cities and towns in or on the edge of the district include:
Coleraine
Coleraine, Victoria
Coleraine is a town in Victoria, Australia on the Glenelg Highway, west of the state capital, Melbourne and north-west of Hamilton in the Shire of Southern Grampians local government area. It was named after the town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland...
, Merino
Merino, Victoria
Merino is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. The town is located in the Shire of Glenelg Local Government Area, 363 kilometres west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Merino had a population of 400....
, Heywood
Heywood, Victoria
Heywood is a town on the Fitzroy River in the Australian state of Victoria. It is situated at an elevation of 27 metres amidst rolling green hills in an agricultural, pastoral and timbercutting district. Heywood is west of Melbourne at the intersection of the Princes and Henty Highways and north...
, Dunkeld
Dunkeld, Victoria
Dunkeld is a town in Victoria, Australia at the southern end of the Grampians National Park, in the Shire of Southern Grampians. It is approx 283 km west of Melbourne on the Glenelg Highway. The town's population is holding steady but ageing...
, Penshurst
Penshurst, Victoria
Penshurst is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is in the Shire of Southern Grampians local government area and is located at the foot of Mount Rouse, an extinct volcano. At the 2006 census, Penshurst had a population of 461...
, Macarthur
Macarthur, Victoria
Macarthur is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia on the Hamilton-Port Fairy Road. It is in the Shire of Moyne local government area and the federal Division of Wannon...
, Koroit
Koroit, Victoria
Koroit is a small rural town in western Victoria, Australia a few kilometres north of the Princes Highway, north-west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Moyne local government area located amidst rolling green pastures on the North rim of Tower Hill. At the 2006 census,...
, Allansford
Allansford, Victoria
Allansford is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. It is in the City of Warrnambool local government area. The Hopkins River flows through the town.-History:The Post Office opened on 1 January 1860...
, Ararat
Ararat, Victoria
Ararat is a city in south-west Victoria, Australia, about west of Melbourne, on the Western Highway on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera...
, Willaura
Willaura, Victoria
Willaura is a small town in the Rural City of Ararat Local Government Area in western Victoria, Australia. At the 2006 census, Willaura and surrounding area had a population of 467.-History:...
, Beaufort
Beaufort, Victoria
Beaufort is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Western Highway midway between Ararat and Ballarat, in the Pyrenees Shire local government area. It is 387 metres above sea level. At the 2001 census, Beaufort had a population of 987...
, Learmonth
Learmonth, Victoria
Learmonth is a town in western Victoria, Australia. The town is located on the Sunraysia Highway, west of the state capital Melbourne, near the regional centre of Ballarat. At the 2006 census, Learmonth had a population of 289.-History:...
, Ballarat, Snake Valley
Snake Valley, Victoria
Snake Valley is a town in central Western Victoria, Australia, on Carngham-Linton Road, west of Ballarat and west of Melbourne, in the Shire of Pyrenees. At the 2006 census, Snake Valley had a population of 329. A post office was opened on 1 March 1859....
, Skipton
Skipton, Victoria
Skipton is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. The town is situated on the Glenelg Highway 166 kilometres west of the state capital, Melbourne and 52 kilometres south west of the regional centre, Ballarat. Part of Corangamite Shire Local government area, Skipton is on the banks...
, Moyston
Moyston, Victoria
Moyston is a town in the Western District region of Victoria, Australia, near the Grampians mountain range. The town is located in the Rural City of Ararat Local Government Area, north west of the state capital, Melbourne...
, Linton
Linton, Victoria
Linton is a town in Victoria, Australia off Glenelg Highway. It was first settled about 1840. The town was named after a pioneer family in an area. At the 2006 census, Linton had a population of 355. The Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary lies to the south-east of the township, near Springdallah Creek.-...
, Derrinallum
Derrinallum, Victoria
Derrinallum is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Hamilton Highway, in the Corangamite Shire. The town is the centre for the surrounding farming community and lies at the foot of Mount Elephant....
, Lismore
Lismore, Victoria
Lismore is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Hamilton Highway west of Melbourne. It is part of the Corangamite Shire local government area.The town is located at a point equidistant from Geelong and Warrnambool....
, Mortlake
Mortlake, Victoria
Mortlake is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia on the Hamilton Highway, north-east of Warrnambool. It is in the Shire of Moyne local government area and the federal Division of Wannon...
, Noorat
Noorat, Victoria
Noorat is a small town in southwestern Victoria, Australia. Noorat is located approximately 240km west of Melbourne. The township is located at the base of Mount Noorat, a dormant volcano, which is considered to have Australia's largest dry crater...
, Cobden
Cobden, Victoria
Cobden is a town located 210 kilometres southwest of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia named in honour of Richard Cobden. At the 2006 census, Cobden had a population of 1813. At the 2001 census, Cobden had a population of 1419.- History :...
, Timboon
Timboon, Victoria
Timboon is a town in Victoria, Australia approximately south-west of Melbourne. The main industries are dairying, forestry, and the production of lime.At the 2001 census, Timboon had a population of 787...
, Beeac
Beeac, Victoria
Beeac is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. The town is located on the shore of the hyper saline Lake Beeac in the Colac Otway Shire Local Government Area, 160 kilometres south of the state capital, Melbourne...
, Cororooke, Birregurra
Birregurra, Victoria
Birregurra is a town in Victoria, Australia approximately 130 km south-west of Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Birregurra had a population of 688....
, Apollo Bay
Apollo Bay, Victoria
Apollo Bay is a coastal town in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the eastern side of Cape Otway, along the edge of the Barham River and on the Great Ocean Road, in the Colac Otway Shire. The town has a population of 1380....
, and Lorne
Lorne, Victoria
Lorne is a seaside town on Louttit Bay in Victoria, Australia. It is situated about the Erskine River and is a popular destination on the Great Ocean Road tourist route...
.
Geology
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
es, the best known being Mount Eccles
Mount Eccles
Mount Eccles is an inactive volcano in southwestern Victoria, Australia near Macarthur. It is composed of scoria hill from a series of volcanic vents. The Gunditjmara name for the mountain is Budj Bim meaning High Head...
, Mount Richmond and Mount Gambier. Whilst some of them (eg. Mount Richmond) have given rise to cemented pyroclastic rocks that do not produce fertile soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
s, others have given rise to fertile Andisols
Andisols
In USDA soil taxonomy, Andisols are soils formed in volcanic ash and defined as soils containing high proportions of glass and amorphous colloidal materials, including allophane, imogolite and ferrihydrite...
that make the region the best grazing land in Australia, as well as highly suitable for the production of vegetable crops. Away from the volcanoes, soils are of moderate to low fertility and many are sandy, supporting heathland flora like the Grampians
Grampians National Park
The Grampians National Park is a national park in Victoria, Australia, 235 kilometres west of Melbourne. The Park was listed on the Australian National Heritage List on 15 December 2006 for its outstanding natural beauty and being one of the richest indigenous rock art sites in south-eastern...
. Drainage is very poor and most rivers flow only after prolonged periods of steady rain, resulting in remarkably variable flow when the low variability of the climate is taken into account. The major mountain range is the Otway Ranges, which are an ancient sedimentary range rising to over 600 metres.
Climate
The climate is mild to warm and generally humid to sub-humid. Summer temperatures are warm, ranging from 13 to 22 °C (55.4 to 71.6 F) at PortlandPortland, Victoria
The city of Portland is the oldest European settlement in what is now the state of Victoria, Australia. It is the main urban centre of the Shire of Glenelg. It is located on Portland Bay.-History:...
to 14 to 26 °C (57.2 to 78.8 F) in the northern part of the plain. Rainfall in summer is not uncommon but is only rarely heavy; though in March 1946 astonishingly heavy rains of up to 300 millimetres (12 inches) in a week constitute easily the heaviest falls in the region. In winter, temperatures typically range from minima of around 5 °C (41 °F) to pleasant maxima of 14 to 15 °C (57.2 to 59 F), and rainfall is very frequent and reliable, averaging from 55 millimetres (just over 2 inches) in the driest area around Lake Bolac to 110 millimetres (4.4 inches) near Portland and Port Campbell
Port Campbell, Victoria
Port Campbell is a coastal town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Great Ocean Road, west of the Twelve Apostles, in the Corangamite Shire.-History:...
. In the Otway Ranges, summers are mild, averaging around 20 °C (68 °F), whilst winters are cold and very wet, with maxima averaging around 9 to 10 °C (48.2 to 50 F) and rainfall averaging about 225 millimetres (8.9 in) with extremes in June 1952 as high as 538 millimetres (21.2 in) at Weeaproinah and a Victorian record 891 millimetres (35.1 in) at nearby Tanybryn.
History
Gunditjmara
Gunditjmara, or Gundidj for short, are an Indigenous Australian group from western Victoria . Their neighbours to the west were the Buandig people, to the north the Jardwadjali and Djab wurrung peoples, and in the east the Girai wurrung people.The name may also be spelt Gournditch-Mara...
People
The Western District was well-populated and owned by Victorian Aborigines
Victorian Aborigines
The Indigenous Australians of Victoria, Australia occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. According to Gary Presland Aborigines have lived in Victoria for about 40,000 years living a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farming...
at the time colonisation began. For example, the ancestors of the Gunditjmara
Gunditjmara
Gunditjmara, or Gundidj for short, are an Indigenous Australian group from western Victoria . Their neighbours to the west were the Buandig people, to the north the Jardwadjali and Djab wurrung peoples, and in the east the Girai wurrung people.The name may also be spelt Gournditch-Mara...
people lived in villages of weather-proof houses with stone walls a metre high, located near eel
Eel
Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...
traps and aquaculture ponds at Lake Condah and elsewhere - on just one hectare of Allambie Farm, archaeologists have discovered the remains of 160 house sites.
In the early 19th century, whalers operating along the coast occasionally grew crops for their own use. Edward Henty
Edward Henty
See also Western District Edward Henty ,was a pioneer and first permanent settler in the Port Phillip district , Australia....
settled Portland Bay
Portland Bay
Portland Bay is a small Bay off the coast of Victoria, Australia. It is about 360 km west of Melbourne. The main town on the bay is also named Portland....
in 1834. Henty had "...little contact with the Aborigines even though the country inland from Portland Bay seems to have been thickly populated (one village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
Henty saw had fifty huts)." Nevertheless, in December 1834, shortly after arriving from Tasmania, Henty (aged 24 yrs) set off for country inland from Portland
Portland, Victoria
The city of Portland is the oldest European settlement in what is now the state of Victoria, Australia. It is the main urban centre of the Shire of Glenelg. It is located on Portland Bay.-History:...
, with resident whalers, an Aboriginal woman abducted by one of them and 14 hunting dogs (a cross between greyhound
Greyhound
The Greyhound is a breed of sighthound that has been primarily bred for coursing game and racing, and the breed has also recently seen a resurgence in its popularity as a pedigree show dog and family pet. It is a gentle and intelligent breed...
s and wolfhound
Wolfhound
Wolfhound can refer to various breeds of dogs that have been bred to hunt wolves or to established lines of wolf-dog crosses that retain significant characteristics of wolves. Wolf-dog hybrids crossed in recent generations are often referred to as wolfdogs, wolf-dog hybrids or wolf crosses, but...
s). On spotting a single Aboriginal man, as Henty recorded "...the Men set the Dogs on" him.
Both the Henty brothers and Captain Griffiths (who settled at Port Fairy
Port Fairy, Victoria
Port Fairy is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and 290 km west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the Southern Ocean.-History:...
in 1836), combined whaling and farming. The district was explored by Thomas Mitchell in 1836 who identified the area's potential for grazing. Charles Tyers
Charles Tyers
Captain Charles James Tyers RN FRSV was a 19th century surveyor and explorer, and the Commissioner for Crown Lands for Portland and Gippsland...
was the first to survey the area in 1839. Sheep were first brought to the district in 1836 by Thomas Manifold at Port Henry, near Geelong, and rapidly occupied the whole district. By 1840 squatters occupied almost all the district.
Aboriginal dispossession
With pastoral land in the colony of Van Diemen's LandVan Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...
fully allocated to colonists, John Batman
John Batman
John Batman was an Australian grazier, businessman and explorer who is best known for his role in the founding of a settlement which became Melbourne and the colony of Victoria.-Life:...
turned his attention to mainland land speculation at the vast grasslands of Port Phillip Bay, which began in 1835 without the consent of the British Crown and at an enormous cost in the lives and livelihoods of its Aboriginal land-owners. With no legal recognition or protection of the Aboriginal land-owners, violence ensued. For example, in August 1836, Aborigines killed the squatter Charles Franks and an unnamed shepherd, at Franks' station on the Werribee River
Werribee River
The Werribee River is located on the plain west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The headwaters of a tributary, the Lerderderg River, are north of Ballan near Daylesford and it flows across the basalt plain, through the suburb of Werribee to enter Port Phillip. A linear park follows the Werribee...
(near Melbourne). In response, Henry Batman (John Batman's brother) led an indiscriminate punitive expedition against 70–80 Aborigines (men, women & children) living in 9 large huts on the Werribee River
Werribee River
The Werribee River is located on the plain west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The headwaters of a tributary, the Lerderderg River, are north of Ballan near Daylesford and it flows across the basalt plain, through the suburb of Werribee to enter Port Phillip. A linear park follows the Werribee...
, killing an unrecorded number. In spite of this, in May 1837, Henry Batman "...was appointed acting Commissioner of Crown Lands, the official charged with overseeing the squatters." Earlier, on 4 March 1837, Governor Bourke in his visit to Melbourne addressed 120 Aborigines, "...whom he exhorted...to good conduct and attention to the Missionary.' The Kulin
Kulin
The Kulin nation, was an alliance of five Indigenous Australian nations in Central Victoria, Australia, prior to European settlement. Their collective territory extended to around Port Phillip and Western Port, up into the Great Dividing Range and the Loddon and Goulburn River valleys. To their...
were given blankets and four favoured men, who had been recommended for 'honorary distinctions' by [Police Magistrate Captain William] Lonsdale, were awarded brass plates."
By 1839, large numbers of homeless, dispossessed Aborigines, refugees from surrounding pastoral districts, were "....surviving whenever and however they could on the geographic, social and economic margins of the town [ie, Melbourne]." When Chief Protector of Aborigines George Augustus Robinson
George Augustus Robinson
George Augustus Robinson was a builder and untrained preacher. He was the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Port Phillip District from 1839 to 1849...
arrived in the town in the winter of 1839, "four to five hundred blacks of the Port Phillip
Port Phillip
Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...
tribes" were gathering at a camp site on the south bank of the Yarra River
Yarra River
The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
, suffering hunger and disease. By 1840, Robinson still "....had no stores allocated to him..." by Captain William Lonsdale (colonist)
William Lonsdale (colonist)
William Lonsdale supervised the founding of the official settlement at Port Phillip from 1836 and went on to serve under the Superintendent La Trobe from 1839 to 1854.-Early life:...
, the Police Magistrate in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, even though "...it was patently obvious that the Aborigines were starving, and many were ill and near death,..." With land in the hinterland overrun by "...vast numbers of sheep and cattle.." and "...conditions in the countryside becoming intolerable, the blacks swarmed into Melbourne looking for food and blankets."
Clendinnen describes the picture painted in 1841 by George Augustus Robinson
George Augustus Robinson
George Augustus Robinson was a builder and untrained preacher. He was the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Port Phillip District from 1839 to 1849...
on the grasslands of the Western District
Western District
The Western District is a region of Australia located in the south-west corner of the state of Victoria, extending to Ballarat in the east and as far north as Ararat where it borders the Wimmera region. To the south, the district extends to Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean and to the west it...
to the west of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
(two years after John Batman
John Batman
John Batman was an Australian grazier, businessman and explorer who is best known for his role in the founding of a settlement which became Melbourne and the colony of Victoria.-Life:...
's death), during a field trip from Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
to Portland
Portland, Victoria
The city of Portland is the oldest European settlement in what is now the state of Victoria, Australia. It is the main urban centre of the Shire of Glenelg. It is located on Portland Bay.-History:...
via the Grampians:
Between 1836 and 1842, Victorian Aboriginal groups were largely dispossessed of territory bigger than England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
See also Murdering Gully massacre
Murdering Gully massacre
Murdering Gully, formerly known as Puuroyup to the Djargurd Wurrung people, is the site of an 1839 massacre of 35-40 people of the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan of the Djargurd Wurrung in the Camperdown district of Victoria, Australia...
on Mount Emu Creek
Mount Emu Creek
Mount Emu Creek is a long but small meandering waterway located in the west of Victoria. The total length of the Mount Emu Creek is over 250 kilometres. The creek forms near Trawalla, and Trawalla Creek flows to Mount Emu Creek , the quantity and quality of water from Trawalla Creek is of great...
in the Western District.
Eumerella Wars
In the PortlandPortland, Victoria
The city of Portland is the oldest European settlement in what is now the state of Victoria, Australia. It is the main urban centre of the Shire of Glenelg. It is located on Portland Bay.-History:...
region in the 1840s, the Gunditjmara
Gunditjmara
Gunditjmara, or Gundidj for short, are an Indigenous Australian group from western Victoria . Their neighbours to the west were the Buandig people, to the north the Jardwadjali and Djab wurrung peoples, and in the east the Girai wurrung people.The name may also be spelt Gournditch-Mara...
fought for their lands in a series of clashes known as the Eumerella Wars, in which both they and colonists experienced violent deaths. The Gunditjmara resistance became overwhelmed by the colonisers who brought in the Native Police. The historian Jan Critchett has documented this conflict in her 1990 book, A distant field of murder: Western district frontiers, 1834-1848.
Aftermath
The colonization of the Western District had huge impacts beyond the immediate region. By January 1844, there were said to be 675 Aborigines resident in squalid camps in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. Although the British Colonial Office
Colonial Office
Colonial Office is the government agency which serves to oversee and supervise their colony* Colonial Office - The British Government department* Office of Insular Affairs - the American government agency* Reichskolonialamt - the German Colonial Office...
appointed 5 "Aboriginal Protectors" for the entire Aboriginal population of Victoria, arriving in Melbourne in 1839, they worked "...within a land policy that nullified their work, and there was no political will to change this." "It was government policy
Policy
A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...
to encourage squatters to take possession of whatever [Aboriginal] land they chose,....that largely explains why almost all the original inhabitants of Port Phillip
Port Phillip
Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...
's vast grasslands were dead so soon after 1835". By 1845, fewer than 240 wealthy Europeans held all the pastoral licences then issued in Victoria and became the patriarchs "...that were to wield so much political and economic power in Victoria for generations to come."
With the Aboriginal population dispossessed of their lands and their management of fire having been disrupted for almost 15 years, the Colony experienced for the first time its largest ever bushfires, burning about 25% of the land area of Victoria on Black Thursday (1851)
Black Thursday (1851)
The Black Thursday bushfires were a devastating series of fires that swept the state of Victoria, Australia on 6 February 1851. They are considered the largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history, with approximately 5 million hectares, or a quarter of Victoria, being burnt...
on 6 February 1851.
Missions
Missionaries sought to relocate GunditjmaraGunditjmara
Gunditjmara, or Gundidj for short, are an Indigenous Australian group from western Victoria . Their neighbours to the west were the Buandig people, to the north the Jardwadjali and Djab wurrung peoples, and in the east the Girai wurrung people.The name may also be spelt Gournditch-Mara...
people of the west to a mission established further east near Purnim in 1861, however, the Gunditjmara refused because of tension with Aboriginal people from the eastern boundary of Gunditjmara country and beyond the Hopkins River
Hopkins River
The Hopkins River is a river in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It begins near Ararat, and enters Bass Strait at Warrnambool. It is one of two rivers flowing through Warrnambool, the other is the Merri River....
. Five years later in 1866, 2,043 acres of Crown land at Lake Condah was set aside for use as an Aboriginal mission
Mission
Mission may refer to:* Mission , variety of grape* Mission , base of missionary practice* Mission statement, a formal short written statement of an organization's value proposition...
. This land was gazetted as a reserve in 1869 and an Anglican mission was established. In 1951, the Lake Condah reserve, with the exception of three small areas was revoked and the land was handed over to the Soldiers Settlement Commission.
Towards recognition of Aboriginal rights
In 1980, the GunditjmaraGunditjmara
Gunditjmara, or Gundidj for short, are an Indigenous Australian group from western Victoria . Their neighbours to the west were the Buandig people, to the north the Jardwadjali and Djab wurrung peoples, and in the east the Girai wurrung people.The name may also be spelt Gournditch-Mara...
launched legal action in the Supreme Court of Victoria
Supreme Court of Victoria
The Supreme Court of Victoria is the superior court for the State of Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 1852, and is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited jurisdiction within the state...
to prevent Alcoa
Alcoa
Alcoa Inc. is the world's third largest producer of aluminum, behind Rio Tinto Alcan and Rusal. From its operational headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alcoa conducts operations in 31 countries...
of Australia Ltd from damaging or interfering with Gunditjmara cultural sites located on the same place as the proposed aluminium smelter at Portland
Portland, Victoria
The city of Portland is the oldest European settlement in what is now the state of Victoria, Australia. It is the main urban centre of the Shire of Glenelg. It is located on Portland Bay.-History:...
. The Supreme Court dismissed their subsequent application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court
Federal court
Federal court may refer to a court of the national government in a country that has a federal system of government. Examples include:* United States federal courts** A particular federal court, such as the United States district courts....
. However, the Gunditjmara took the matter to the High Court of Australia
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...
where they were successful. High Court Chief Justice Gibbs judged that: "The appellants have an interest in the subject matter of the present action which is greater than that of other members of the public and indeed greater than that of other persons of Aboriginal descent who are not members of the Gournditch-jmara people. The applicants and other members of the Gournditch-jmara [ie, the Gunditjmara] people would be more particularly affected than other members of the Australian community by the destruction of the relics."
On 30 March 2007, the Gunditjmara
Gunditjmara
Gunditjmara, or Gundidj for short, are an Indigenous Australian group from western Victoria . Their neighbours to the west were the Buandig people, to the north the Jardwadjali and Djab wurrung peoples, and in the east the Girai wurrung people.The name may also be spelt Gournditch-Mara...
People were recognised by the Federal Court of Australia to be the native title-holders of almost 140,000 hectares of Crown land
Crown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....
and waters in the Portland
Portland, Victoria
The city of Portland is the oldest European settlement in what is now the state of Victoria, Australia. It is the main urban centre of the Shire of Glenelg. It is located on Portland Bay.-History:...
region. On 27 July 2011, together with the Eastern Maar People, the Gunditjmara People were recognised to be the native title-holders of almost 4,000 hectares of Crown land in the Yambuk region, including Lady Julia Percy Island, known to them as Deen Maar.
Primary production
WheatWheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
was grown in the drier northern part of the region for some time until more easily managed soils in the Wimmera
Wimmera
The Wimmera is a region in the west of the Australian state of Victoria.It covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Australia border and north of the Great Dividing Range...
were developed. Dairying was developed as a major industry in the wetter southern parts during this period, as was the cultivation of potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es and onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
s on the best soils.
In the Otway Ranges, forestry became the major industry, especially after the building of the Great Ocean Road
Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road is a stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool. The road was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and is the world's largest war memorial; dedicated to casualties of World War I...
which opened up these very wet regions. Because of the change in focus since the late 1960s to woodchipping
Woodchipping
Woodchipping is the act and industry of chipping wood for pulp, processed wood products, and mulch.-Papermaking:Timber is converted to woodchips and sold, primarily, for pulp production used in paper manufacture...
, many timber mills are now defunct as jobs have moved to Geelong. Tourism is the dominant industry in towns such as Lorne
Lorne, Victoria
Lorne is a seaside town on Louttit Bay in Victoria, Australia. It is situated about the Erskine River and is a popular destination on the Great Ocean Road tourist route...
and Apollo Bay
Apollo Bay, Victoria
Apollo Bay is a coastal town in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the eastern side of Cape Otway, along the edge of the Barham River and on the Great Ocean Road, in the Colac Otway Shire. The town has a population of 1380....
, which fill up during the summer as Melburnians are drawn by the stunning scenery and milder weather. In towns like Heywood
Heywood, Victoria
Heywood is a town on the Fitzroy River in the Australian state of Victoria. It is situated at an elevation of 27 metres amidst rolling green hills in an agricultural, pastoral and timbercutting district. Heywood is west of Melbourne at the intersection of the Princes and Henty Highways and north...
and Nelson
Nelson, Victoria
Nelson is a small fishing town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on at the mouth of the Glenelg River and on Discovery Bay, a few kilometres from the South Australian border, and west of Melbourne...
, pine plantations have been the dominant industry since the 1950s but the industry, even as plantations mature, is under threat due to poor prices.