X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Foundation of Melbourne


Foundation of Melbourne

As the land he travelled through was mostly treeless, and covered in dense swards of Kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra), it was, he wrote, "Land of the best description, equal to any in the world... the most beautiful sheep pasturage I ever saw in my life."

Other members of the founding party included Launceston builder George Evans and his servant Evan Evans, carpenters William Jackson and Robert Hay Marr, ploughman Charles Wise and blacksmith James Gilbert and his pregnant wife Mary Gilbert.

In James Bonwick's 1856 history of the colony, Batman was given pride of place as the founder of Melbourne, and Henry Gyles Turner followed this in his 1904 History of the Colony of Victoria.

Both Batman and Fawkner settled in the new town, which had several interim names, including Batville, before being officially named Melbourne in honour of the British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, in March 1837.



see also