The district of Portland Bay was created in 1840. It was bounded on the west by the border with the colony of South Australia, to the north by the Murray River and to the east by the boundary with the Western Port district. The first Commissioner of Crown Lands for this district was Foster Fyans, a Peninsula War and First Anglo-Burmese War veteran and ex-commandant of the Norfolk Island and Brisbane penal settlements. Fyans, as his background suggests, was a brutal disciplinarian and the twelve Border Police convict troopers that were assigned to him were subjected to extremely harsh punishments for insubordination. This ranged from 50 lashes for drunkenness, a month of solitary confinement, and 12 months hard labour in leg-irons for absconding. Some of his troopers he regarded as useless and sent them back to convict jails. He replaced these with free men and local Aboriginal people such as Bon Jon. Fyans established his initial Border Police barracks in South Geelong in 1841. His troopers were soon in conflict with Djab wurrung people later that year, killing several of these native inhabitants near Mount Napier. Fyans gave thanks to his troopers (two of whom were severely injured) for their "correct conduct on this occasion".