History
- According to Aboriginal tribal songs, the Bunarong Tribe lived and hunted on French Island, until they were massacred by a warring Gippsland tribe.
- April 1802 - First discovered by Europeans when a French expedition from the ship La Naturaliste explored the area, naming it Île de Françoise, since anglicised as French Island.
- 1847 - First settled by William and John Gardner.
- 1880s - Koalas introduced to the island.
- 1890s - Establishment of several village settlements, under Government settlement programs. Planting of chicory and establishment of some 30 chicory kilns.
- 17 July 1916 McLeod Prison Farm opens.
- 1967 - The SECV proposes the island as the site of the first Nuclear power plant in Australia.
- 1975 - McLeod Prison Farm closes.
- July 1997 - about 70 per cent of the island declared as part of the French Island National Park.
- May 2002 - waters directly north of French Island declared as French Island Marine National Park.
Tankerton Post Office opened on 3 September 1890 and closed in 1994. It reopened in 2001 under the name French Island. A Fairhaven office was also open from 1911 until 1957.
Read more about this topic: French Island (Victoria)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In every election in American history both parties have their clichés. The party that has the clichés that ring true wins.”
—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)