Melbourne 1800-1820

The area around Port Phillip Bay has been occupied by the indigenous people for many thousands of years. Here are some of the most significant events that lead to establishing the settlement that became Melbourne.

1798 - Bass and Flinders, in the sloop Norfolk, circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land, proving that a strait exists between the mainland and the large island to the south, known as Van Diemen's Land.

1800 December - Lieutenant James Grant was the first known European to pass through Bass Strait from west to east in HMS Lady Nelson. He was also the first to see, and crudely chart, the south coast from Cape Banks in South Australia to Wilsons Promontory in Victoria.

1802 February 14 - Our earliest record of European visitation to enter the Port Phillip area was when Lieutenant John Murray commanding HMS Lady Nelson was the first European party to enter the Bay on the 14th February 1802, and Murray named it Port King in honour of the Governor of New South Wales at the time, Philip Gidley King.

1802 April 26 -  While Matthew Flinders surveyed the southern coastline of Australia, he entered Port Phillip Bay on that date.

1803 February - A more detailed survey of the Bay, including the Yarra, was conducted by Charles Grimes in 1803, when he sailed up the Yarra on 2nd February 1803. 

1803 October 16 - Captain David Collins established a settlement at present-day Sorrento, but that proved unsatisfactory and was abandoned a few months afterwards.

1803 December 27 - William Buckley, a convict who was part of the Sorrento settlement, escaped along with five other convicts. Buckley lived amongst the native population for the next 32 years, and eventually came out of the wilderness in 1835 when he encountered John Batman's party camped on the Bellarine Peninsular.

1804 - 1824 - Further mapping of Victoria's coastline continued, but there was no exploration of the inland area.