Edward Davy Wedge brother of John Helder Wedge

John Helder Wedge

John Helder Wedge was a surveyor, explorer and politician in Van Diemen's Land .Wedge was the second son of Charles Wedge of Shudy Camps, Cambridge, England. John Wedge learned the basics of surveying from his father...

, became a colonist in Van Diemen’s Land

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

 and the Port Phillip District

Port Phillip District

The Port Phillip District was an historical administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales, existing from September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria....

 of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

The Wedges imported sheep and a saw mill into the Van Diemen’s Land colony. Mr Wedge obtained a 2,000 acre (8 km²) grant, which he called Forton, but at first he tried to establish the saw mill at Oyster Cove, just south of Hobart

Hobart

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

 Town. The mill was not a success financially, and was eventually abandoned at a loss of £2,000. He then turned to agricultural pursuits, and established Forton with the assistance of convict labour.

After the settlement of Port Phillip

Port Phillip

Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...

 in 1835, he and his bother John established a squatters run at Werribee, near Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, and in the 1840s Davy and his wife left Forton for the Werribee run.

In May 1852 the Werribee River

Werribee River

The Werribee River is located on the plain west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The headwaters of a tributary, the Lerderderg River, are north of Ballan near Daylesford and it flows across the basalt plain, through the suburb of Werribee to enter Port Phillip. A linear park follows the Werribee...

 flooded and the Wedge house was engulfed. The family was forced onto the roof, which collapsed during the night, and the family was washed away. Davy and his wife Lucy both died, as did their eldest daughter, Lucy. Davy, his wife and daughter Lucy were all buried at the Williamstown

Williamstown, Victoria

Williamstown is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8 km south-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Hobsons Bay. At the 2006 Census, Williamstown had a population of 12,733....

cemetery.

External links

• J. Uhl, 'The Men from East Anglia: the Wedge Family an early pioneering family in Van Diemen's Land and Port Phillip', reprinted from the Victorian Historical Magazine Vol XXXVII No 1 (Melbourne 1966);