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INDEX
WHO DID DISCOVER AUSTRALIA?
COLONIAL EXPLORATION
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Colonial Exploration: 1803 - Collins, the first Settlement of Port Phillip The discovery of this large bay on the southern coast of Australia is largely tied up with a small brig Lady Nelson. When fully loaded, her freeboard was just under three feet. Lieutenant James Grant in 1799, had been commissioned by the then First Lord of the Admiralty The Duke of Portland, to survey the south and south west coast of Australia. He was given Lady Nelson with a crew of twelve and stored for a nine months voyage.
James Grant, again in Lady Nelson, set out from Sydney on a second voyage on 8 March in 1801. He sailed south, passed Wilson's Promontory, named Cape Patterson, then entered Western Port. On Churchill's Island he planted a garden, surveyed the coast between this inlet and the Prom, and retraced his steps to Sydney, arriving on the 14th. of May. Grant now sailed from the colony to return to England, and John Murray, his chief officer assumed command of Lady Nelson/ Lieutenant Murray now sailed Lady Nelson out of Port Jackson on 12 November 1801, to visit Western Port, here he reaped the grain sown by Grant earlier in that year, then tried to sail to the north west to explore that coast. Grant was thwarted by the prevailing winds, and was unable to enter what seemed to be an inlet leading perhaps to an estuary, but was really the narrow entrance to Port Phillip Bay. He sent off Bower, his first mate, with five sailors in a launch to examine this inlet, Bower rounded the promontory which Grant had named Point Nepean, and his launch was swept by the rushing tide of the rip through the narrow entrance into the wide expanse of this new waterway on 1 February 1802. Bower and his crew now viewed a great inland sea opening up before them, they stayed until the 4th. when they returned to Lady Nelson to report the exciting news. Now, on the 15th. of February, the brig sailed through the heads into this new found expanse of water.
On 12th. he sailed his ship through the rip, on an ebb tide, and returned to Port Jackson by 24 March 1802. Lady Nelson faded from history, the last heard of her was in January 1825, she was reported trading in Torres Straits, where she fell into the hands of the Malays, her crew massacred, and the ship seemingly destroyed, she was not heard of again. On 27 April 1802, Flinders sailed into Port Phillip Bay, at first he thought he was in Western Port, but soon found his mistake, and sailed towards its western arm , although impressed with the fine grazing possibilities of the country he failed to find fresh water, although he was actually but three miles from such a supply. On returning to Sydney his favourable report to Governor King found him urging the Duke of Portland to authorise the formation of a settlement at Port Phillip, as it appeared to have both good soil and a suitable climate, and also to stop the French from colonising this area. Before King could get a decision from the authorities in England, he told his Surveyor General Grimes, and Lieutenant Charles Robbins to survey the area around the harbour. Grimes now discovered the Yarra River, but his report on the suitability of the area for settlement was strangely negative. Meantime, the British Government had decided to go ahead with setting up a settlement at Port Phillip, and ordered Captain David Collins to proceed to Port Phillip and establish a settlement there.His choice was unfortunate, he seems to have come to Australia with a preconceived idea that his mission was bound to fail. Collins sailed on 24 April 1803, in Calcutta, with the storeship Ocean in company, on board were 299 male convicts, 16 married women, a few settlers, and 50 men and Petty Officers of the Royal Marines. Calcutta made the journey and entered Port Phillip Bay on 18 October, only to find that Ocean had already arrived. A landing was made just inside the heads at what is now Sorrento, and Lieutenant Tuckey and two assistants were sent off in Calcutta's launch to survey the harbour, this task occupied the next 9 days. Collins did not like what he saw, "The disadvantage of Port Phillip, and the unsuitability of the bay itself, when viewed in a commercial light, for the purposes of a colonial settlement" were strongly dwelt upon by Collins in his report to the Admiralty, he predicted that the harbour would never " never be resorted to by speculative men." Lord Hobart now ordered Collins to break up the settlement and proceed to the River Derwent, in Van Dieman's Land, Collins happily pulled up stumps and quit, leaving the area on 27 January, 1804. Although the settlement had only been in existence over 15 weeks, there had been 21 deaths, one birth, the first white child to be born in Victoria on 25 November 1803, was named William James Hobart Thorne, but the wedding did not take place until the 28th. of that month between a convince Richard Garratt and Hannah Harvey a free woman, the first deal was that of a settler, John Skilhorne on the 10th. of October. RELATED WEBSITES |
Lady Nelson (replica, right) sailed from Portsmouth on 17 March 1800, reaching the Cape of Good Hope on the 8th. of July, and stayed in that port until 7 October. By the 3rd. of December he raised a promontory which he called Cape Northumberland, and the two mountains behind it Gambier and Schank, he altered course to the south, passed two islands at the entrance of a bight which he now named Portland Bay after his First Lord. Grant coasted eastwards, passed the already named Cape Otway, until reaching Wilson's Promontory where he was unsuccessful in trying to go ashore there. He passed through Bass Strait and pressed on up the east coast to Sydney where he arrived on 16 December. Lady Nelson was the first ship to go "sounding on, a dim and perilous way" through the Strait named after the explorer Bass, and now used by all ships proceeding along the south of Australia to Sydney or other ports of the Pacific Ocean.
Lieutenant Murray was pleased with the landscape scenery of the "noble harbour" that unfolded before his eyes, and compared it with that of Greenwich Park and Blackheath. When he went ashore he found native huts, and several hundred acres which had been cleared by fire. An island sitting in the West channel he called Swan Island, and on the eastern shore a lofty rise was named Arthur's Seat (right), as it reminded him of the massive hill behind Edinburgh. Grant spent three weeks exploring the land adjacent to where his ship was anchored, and on the 9th. of March took formal possession of the country in the name of the King, hoisted a flag on Point Patterson, and discharged three volleys of small arms, and artillery.