page_title: History of Melbourne
section_title: Foundation of town
hierarchical_section_title: History of Melbourne / Foundation of town
caption_attribution_description: English: scanned image of watercolor by W. F. E. Liardet (1830)
context_page_description: The history of Melbourne details the city's growth from a fledgling settlement into a modern commercial and financial centre as Australia's second largest city.
context_section_description: On 6 June 1835, Batman, as part of a Tasmanian business syndicate known as the Port Phillip Association, signed a treaty with eight Wurundjeri elders in which he purported to buy 600,000 acres (2,400 km²) of land around Melbourne and another 100,000 acres (400 km²) around Geelong on Corio Bay to the south-west. On 8 June he wrote in his journal: "So the boat went up the large river... and... I am glad to state about six miles up found the River all good water and very deep. This will be the place for a village." The last sentence later became famous as the "founding charter" of Melbourne.
  Batman returned to Launceston in Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) and began plans to mount a large expedition to establish a settlement on the Yarra. But John Pascoe Fawkner, by now a businessman in Launceston, had the same idea. Fawkner bought a ship, the schooner Enterprize, which sailed on 4 August, with a party of intending settlers. When Batman's party reached the Yarra on 2 September, they were dismayed and angry to find Fawkner's people already in possession.
  The two groups decided that there was plenty of land for everybody, and when Fawkner arrived on 16 October with another party of settlers, they agreed to parcel out land and not dispute who was there first. Both Batman and Fawkner settled in the new town.
  Batman's Treaty with the Aborigines was annulled by the New South Wales government (which at the time governed all of eastern mainland Australia) on 26 August 1835 (and the annulment confirmed by the Colonial Office on 10 October 1835), but provided for compensation to the Association. Although this meant the settlers were now trespassing on Crown land, the government reluctantly accepted the settlers' fait accompli and allowed the town to remain.
  In September 1836, Governor Bourke established the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, though the borders had still not been determined, with the settlement as its administrative centre. (Bourke was authorized by London to establish a settlement in April 1836) Bourke also appointed Captain William Lonsdale as police magistrate, chief agent of the government and commandant of the district. Captain William Hobson (later Governor of New Zealand) was instructed to accompany Lonsdale, his family and public officers to Port Phillip. The presence of a warship together with the Governor's agent indicated the Governor's intention to re-take control of the situation in Port Phillip. Lonsdale arrived at Port Phillip with his wife Martha, 7-month-old daughter Alice and his one assigned servant, on board HMS Rattlesnake, commanded by Hobson. They anchored at the south end of the Bay on 27 September 1836, where Hobson despatched a cutter for survey work, and by 29th had proceeded north and anchored off Point Gellibrand, Hobsons Bay, near the mouth of the Yarra River. Lonsdale landed unofficially, distributing the official proclamation of the establishment of the new settlement, and did the same the next day. On 1 October 1836 Lonsdale was formally rowed up the Yarra River and was met by John Batman and Dr Thompson and other assembled settlers.
  Bourke also commissioned Robert Hoddle to make the first plan for the town, completed on 25 March 1837, which came to be known as the Hoddle Grid. The surveys were intended to prepare for land sales by public auction. Bourke visited Port Phillip in March 1837, confirmed Lonsdale's choice of a site for the new town and named it Melbourne on 10 April 1837 after the then British prime minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who resided in the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire. The General Post Office opened under that name on 13 April 1837. Before being officially named, the town had several interim names – including Batmania, Bearbrass, Bareport, Bareheep, Barehurp and Bareberp. Public auctions for land began in June 1837. The compensation of the Port Phillip Association were only recognised to the extent of £7,000, allowed as a reduction on the purchase price of land bought by the association. Most of the members sold their entitlem
caption: Melbourne Landing,1840; watercolor by W. Liardet (1840)
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