Collins Settlement, Sorrento, Victoria - Australian Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

King decided to place a convict settlement at Port Phillip, mainly to stake a claim to southern Australia ahead of the French. In October 1803 a party led by Lt-Col David Collins and consisting of about 400 people landed near the modern site of Sorrento, where they established a settlement at Sullivan Bay which they called Hobart. Lack of fresh water and good timber, however, led this, the first attempt at European settlement in Victoria, to be abandoned in May 1804. Collins and party sailed to Tasmania, where they established the modern Hobart. Prior to abandonment one convict, William Buckley, escaped from the settlement in a stolen canoe. Buckley later took up residence in a cave near Point Lonsdale on the western side of the bay's entrance, The Rip.

Port Phillip was then left undisturbed until 1835, when settlers from Tasmania led by John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner (who had been at the Sorrento settlement as a child) established Melbourne on the lower reaches of the Yarra. John Batman encountered William Buckley who then became an important participant in negotiations with the local indigenous tribesmen. In 1838 Geelong was founded, and became the main port serving the growing wool industry of the Western District. For a time Geelong rivalled Melbourne as the leading settlement on the bay, but the Gold Rush which began in 1851 gave Melbourne a decisive edge as the largest town in Victoria.

Britain was worried the French would beat them in the race to settle Port Phillip. So they dispatched Lieutenant Colonel David Collins and his party in two ships on 27 April 1803. On board were 19 settlers, 26 settlers' wives and children, 50 marines, civil officers, 299 male convicts and 29 convicts' wives and children.

They arrived in October and established the bay's first white settlement at Sullivan Bay, near what is now Sorrento. It was short-lived. Water was scarce, the narrow bay entrance was treacherous, timber was in short supply and they were vulnerable to attack. Collins abandoned the camp and went to Van Diemen's Land to establish Hobart. Today you can visit the Collins Settlement Historic Site at Sorrento and learn about his struggle to build a thriving settlement.

Age/Event Date: 1803 Type of Historic Marker: Monument Related Website: [Web Link] Historic Resources.: http://www.visitvictoria.com/displayobject.cfm/objectid.00063404-8229-1FCA-BE9F80C476A90000/ Type of Historic Marker if other: Not listed

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