Foundation of Melbourne - Settlement

Settlement

In 1834 Edward Henty and his brothers established the first permanent settlement in Victoria at Portland Bay.

When news of the Hentys' actions reached Launceston, John Batman and a group of investors founded the Port Philip Association, a grouping of Tasmanian bankers, graziers and East India Company retirees, with the intention of settling at Port Philip. In April 1835, Batman hired a sloop called the Rebecca and sailed across the Strait and up Port Philip to the mouth of the Yarra. He explored a large area in what is now the northern suburbs of Melbourne, as far north as Keilor, ascending Mt Kororoit. As the land he travelled through was mostly treeless, and covered in dense swards of Kangaroo grass (Themeda australis), 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."

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