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| A brief HISTORY of Victoria |
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| Scroll down for information about the History of Aboriginal People in Victoria, European Settlement in Victoria |
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Semi-nomadic ‘Koories’ (Aborigines from south eastern Australia) have
lived in what is now Victoria for at least 40,000 years, and possibly for
much longer. It is thought that in Victoria there were around 38
different dialect groups who spoke 10 different languages and these groups
had numerous clans and sub clans, each claiming ownership of a distinct area
of land. Estimates as to just how many Aboriginal people lived
in Victoria before Europeans arrived in the area in the early 1800s, vary
from around 100,000 to under 20,000. What is certain is that
there were as few as 2,000 left alive by 1860, ravaged both by a bloody
guerrilla war against the settlers and by disease. Today around 20,000
people of Aboriginal extract live in Victoria, more than half of whom are in
Melbourne. For further information about indigenous people in Victoria
visit the website of the Koorie Heritage Trust Culture Centre
www.koorieheritagetrust.com
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In 1803 a group of soldiers,
settlers and convicts arrived at Sorrento on Port Phillip Bay but this
settlement was abandoned after a short period. In 1834 the Henty
family from Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania) established the first permanent
settlement in Victoria at Portland on the south west coast – this was 46
years after Sydney was first colonised. Melbourne was founded in
1835. Victoria won separation from New South Wales in 1851, the same year
that the abundant Victorian goldfields were discovered. |
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| Truly Australia have attempted to give an honest and objective description of the topics covered on this page and have deliberately avoided regurgitating tourist office media releases. The information shown has been compiled from a variety of reputable sources and our own experiences. We check and review this information from time to time, but we assume no responsibility for the absolute accuracy of the details given. |
The gold
rush attracted immigrants from all over the world and the boom led to some
superb building projects in towns like Ballarat, Bendigo and Beechworth
(pictured).
This mass voluntary immigration as opposed to the forced settlement of
convicts distinguished Melbourne from Sydney and set the stage for the
development of two very different cities. If the starting point for
the growth of Australia’s population and its sense of nationhood was the
gold rush, it also started a boom in highway robbers, or ‘bushrangers’.
These bushrangers were a mix of ex-convicts and poor settlers and they
quickly saw that to obtain gold you did not necessarily have to dig it up
yourself.
