Port Philip History

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Port Phillip April 20, 1770 – First recorded European sighting of the Victorian coast. 1789 – This was the second year of settlement by the Europeans. Also, a Small Pox epidemic wiped out about half of the Aboriginal population around Sydney and spread north to the Hunter Valley. The epidemic also traveled from tribe to tribe down into possibly the whole of Victoria, except for the less accessible regions such as Gippsland and the Southern Alps. 1798 – George Bass explored the Western Port 1802 – Distrust between Europeans and Ab. February 15, 1802 – First European vessel to enter Port Phillip Bay. October 9, 1803 – British settlement…show more content…
• The Squatters believed they had first claim on land that they were developing, Some disputed the Crown’s declared Ownership, and some forgot that the Aboriginals had any rights. • Squatting was a rough life of Grubby men, dirty Sheep and crude slab huts. • A man by the name of Thomas Walker actually mentioned how he had never come upon any other person who lived like a squatter. They had discomfiture; the living style was crude and rough but noted that the squatters only saw it as a temporary inconvenience. • Drinking led to Burglaries and Violence. • Most settlers carried guns because it would be unsafe not to. • Immigrants found Port Phillip not only unruly, but also unfamiliar. Their senses were assaulted with strange colours, smells, texture, they saw strange, foreign animals, the trees were dark and ugly, the bird were raucous, the animals bizarre, and the landscape marked by a grandeur and raw newness that was unsettling. • As the months and years passed, most immigrants adapted to the…show more content…
• Diseases had descended upon the Aborigines before they had even set eyes on the Europeans. • The Victorian Aboriginal death rate was around about 40-60 percent of the exposed population. • The Chief Aboriginal Protector, George Robinson, noted that around 1841 there was a heavy Aboriginal population loss. • George Robinson also noted that some of the tribes were completely wiped out or banded themselves with other tribes to survive. • Foster Fyans was the Portland Bay Commissioner of Crown land. • Syphilis reduces the ability to produce live-born children. • Gonorrhea reduces the ability to fall Pregnant. • The difference between Small Pox and Venereal disease: One kills and One sterilizes. • Major Mitchell’s wagon tracks puzzled the Jaadwa tribe who apparently had never seen anything like it before. • The Europeans at first sight appeared to be Spirits of the dead because they were pale and the Aborigines knew that a corpse turns pale after a while. After a while though, disagreements formed between the Aborigines and the Europeans and the Aborigines claim that the Europeans were able to fire lightning from their
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