Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria

Personal Recollections of Early
Melbourne and Victoria

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Title: Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne & Victoria
Author: William Westgarth
Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5789] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 1,

2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY
MELBOURNE AND VICTORIA ***

Produced by Sue Asscher [email protected]

EARLY MELBOURNE AND VICTORIA
BY
WILLIAM WESTGARTH.

(PLATE: EDWARD HENTY. Died August 14th 1878. George
Robertson & Co. Lith.)
(PLATE: JOHN PASCOE FAWKNER. Died September 4th 1869.
George Robertson & Co. Lith.)

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
OF
EARLY MELBOURNE AND VICTORIA
BY
WILLIAM WESTGARTH.
"Oh, call back yesterday, bid time return." --Richard II.
"A story of the mount and plain, The lake, the river, and the sea; A
voice that wakes to life again An age-long slumbering melody."
--GEORGE GORDON McCRAE.
"Ah! who has ever journeyed, on a glorious summer night, Through the
weird Australian bushland, without feelings of delight? The dense
untrodden forest, in the moonlight cold and pale, Brings before our
wondering eyes again the dreams of fairy tale." --A. PATCHETT
MARTIN.

"The genius of Australia now uprears Her youthful form, like hope
without hope's fears; While o'er her head our Cross, with loveliest rays,
Heralds the brightness of her future years." --R.H. HORNE.
CONTENTS.
AN INTRODUCTORY MEDLEY.
MR. FROUDE'S "OCEANA".
NEW ZEALAND.
UNITY OF THE EMPIRE.
EARLY PORT PHILLIP.
MY FIRST NIGHT ASHORE.
INDIGENOUS FEATURES AROUND MELBOURNE.
THE ABORIGINAL NATIVES IN AND ABOUT TOWN.
EARLY CIVILIZING DIFFICULTIES.
"THE BEACH" (NOW PORT MELBOURNE).
EARLY MELBOURNE, ITS UPS AND DOWNS--1840-1851.
THE MELBOURNE CORPORATION, 1842.
EARLY SUBURBAN MELBOURNE.
THE EARLY SQUATTING TIMES.
EARLY WESTERN VICTORIA ("AUSTRALIA FELIX").
SOME NAMES OF MARK IN THE EARLY YEARS.
THE HENTY FAMILY, AND THE FOUNDATION OF VICTORIA.
SOME INTERJECTA IN RE BATMAN, PIONEER OF THE PORT
PHILLIP SETTLEMENT.
JOHN PASCOE FAWKNER, FATHER OF MELBOURNE.
JAMES SIMPSON, FIRST MAGISTRATE OF "THE
SETTLEMENT".
DAVID CHARTERIS McARTHUR, FATHER OF VICTORIAN
BANKING.
CHARLES JOSEPH LA TROBE, C.B.
SIR JOHN O'SHANASSY.
WILLIAM KERR, FOUNDER OF "THE ARGUS".
WILLIAM NICHOLSON.
CHARLES HOTSON EBDEN, ESQUIRE.
EDWARD WILSON, CHIEF PROPRIETOR OF "THE ARGUS",
"THE TIMES" OF THE SOUTH.
EARLY SOCIETY: WAYS, MEANS, AND MANNERS.
"GOVERNMENT HOUSE".

CHEAP LIVING.
RELIGIOUS INTERESTS.
THE GERMAN IMMIGRATION.
THE GERMAN PRINCE.
BLACK THURSDAY.
EARLY VICTORIA, FROM 1851.
EARLY BALLARAT.
MOUNT ALEXANDER AND BENDIGO.
EARLY VICTORIAN LEGISLATION.
POSTCRIPT.
MELBOURNE IN 1888.
ALBURY.
SYDNEY.
BRISBANE.

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY MELBOURNE AND
VICTORIA.
AN INTRODUCTORY MEDLEY.
"Pleasure and action make the hours seem short."--Othello.
I had long looked forward to one more visit to Victoria, perhaps the last
I should expect to make, and the opportunity of the opening of the great
Centenary Exhibition at Melbourne on 1st August of this year was too
good to be lost. Accordingly, having been able to arrange business
matters for so long a holiday, I took passage, with my wife and
daughter, by the good steamship "Coptic" of the "Shaw, Savill New
Zealand Line," as it is curtly put. She was to land us at Hobart about
27th July, in good time, we hoped, to get across by the Launceston boat
for the Exhibition opening, and she bids fair, at this moment, to keep
her engagement. We would have taken the directer route, with its
greater number and variety of objects, via Suez and Colombo, but we
feared the sun-blaze of the ill-omened Red Sea in summer. We purpose,
however, to return that way towards the coming winter.
More than thirty-one years have elapsed since I left Melbourne, after a
residence there of seventeen years, broken, however, by two
intermediate visits "Home." I think with wondering enjoyment of what
I am to see in the colony and its capital after such an interval.
Previously, when I returned after only a year or two's absence, I was

wont