Native Aborigines lived in the area of present-day Melbourne for thousands of years before British Captain James Cook became the first European to observe the Victorian coast in his 1770 voyage. In 1803 British lieutenant David Collins tried and failed to found a settlement on the shores of Port Phillip Bay. More than three decades later, in 1835, British explorers John Batman and John Fawkner crossed Bass Strait from the colony of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) with the intention of settling Port Phillip Bay. Batman struck a deal with local Aborigines in which he traded tomahawks, blankets, knives, mirrors, flour, and other articles for about 243,000 hectares (600,000 acres) of land.
At the time, the colonial government of New South Wales in Sydney was trying to keep squatters from spreading to unsettled parts of the continent, but one year after Batman's deal, a police magistrate recorded a settlement of 13 buildings on the left bank of the Yarra in present-day Melbourne. With more squatters arriving, the government was forced in 1836 to create the Port Phillip District of New South Wales and allowed the district to be administered locally. In 1837 the town adopted the name Melbourne in honor of the British prime minister at the time William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. Melbourne grew rapidly thereafter.
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Melbourne Information info
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