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Sullivan Bay, Victoria

 

 
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Sullivan Bay, Victoria
 
 
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Sullivan Bay lies 60 km due south of Melbourne
Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
 on Port Phillip Bay, one km east of Sorrento, Victoria
Sorrento, Victoria

Sorrento is a township in Victoria , Australia, located on the shores of Port Phillip on the Mornington Peninsula, about one and a half hours south of Melbourne....
. It was established as a short lived convict settlement in 1803 by Lieutenant David Collins
David Collins (governor)

David Collins was the inaugural Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Van Diemens Land, founded in 1804, which in 1901 became the state of Tasmania in the Commonwealth of Australia....
. The site was chosen because of its strategic location near the entrance of the Bay. The settlement is significant because it was the first attempt to settle Europeans permanently in what is now Victoria and is a key link in the expansion of the colony of New South Wales
New South Wales

New South Wales is Australia's oldest and most populous States and territories of Australia, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria and south of Queensland....
 into Tasmania
Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and States and territories of Australia of the same name. It is located south of the eastern side of the continent, being separated from it by Bass Strait....
 and Victoria
Victoria (Australia)

File:Map Victoria Aboriginal tribes .jpgVictoria is a States and territories of Australia located in the southeastern corner of Australia. It is the smallest mainland state in area but the most Population density and urbanised....
, and the control of Bass Strait
Bass Strait

Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland specifically the state of Victoria ....
 as a trade route. In the early 1800s the British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 government decided to establish a settlement on the shores of Port Phillip Bay in order to protect British interests and a lucrative sealing industry in Bass Strait
Bass Strait

Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland specifically the state of Victoria ....
.






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Sullivan Bay lies 60 km due south of Melbourne
Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
 on Port Phillip Bay, one km east of Sorrento, Victoria
Sorrento, Victoria

Sorrento is a township in Victoria , Australia, located on the shores of Port Phillip on the Mornington Peninsula, about one and a half hours south of Melbourne....
. It was established as a short lived convict settlement in 1803 by Lieutenant David Collins
David Collins (governor)

David Collins was the inaugural Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Van Diemens Land, founded in 1804, which in 1901 became the state of Tasmania in the Commonwealth of Australia....
. The site was chosen because of its strategic location near the entrance of the Bay. The settlement is significant because it was the first attempt to settle Europeans permanently in what is now Victoria and is a key link in the expansion of the colony of New South Wales
New South Wales

New South Wales is Australia's oldest and most populous States and territories of Australia, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria and south of Queensland....
 into Tasmania
Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and States and territories of Australia of the same name. It is located south of the eastern side of the continent, being separated from it by Bass Strait....
 and Victoria
Victoria (Australia)

File:Map Victoria Aboriginal tribes .jpgVictoria is a States and territories of Australia located in the southeastern corner of Australia. It is the smallest mainland state in area but the most Population density and urbanised....
, and the control of Bass Strait
Bass Strait

Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland specifically the state of Victoria ....
 as a trade route.
Sullivanbig
In the early 1800s the British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 government decided to establish a settlement on the shores of Port Phillip Bay in order to protect British interests and a lucrative sealing industry in Bass Strait
Bass Strait

Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland specifically the state of Victoria ....
. David Collins
David Collins (governor)

David Collins was the inaugural Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Van Diemens Land, founded in 1804, which in 1901 became the state of Tasmania in the Commonwealth of Australia....
, the former judge advocate in Sydney
Sydney

Sydney is the List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million . It is the List of Australian capital cities of New South Wales, and was the site of the first British Empire colony in Australia....
 was appointed lieutenant Governor of the Sullivan Bay settlement.

Overview


In April 1803, two vessels, the transport ship 'Ocean' and the HMS Calcutta
HMS Calcutta

Five ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Calcutta, after the Indian city of Calcutta .* The first HMS Calcutta was a 54-gun fourth-rate ship, originally the East Indiaman Warley and purchased in 1795, captured by the French in 1805 and destroyed by British ships in 1809....
, were sent, from England via the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headlands and bays on the Atlantic Ocean coast of South Africa. There is a very common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Oceans, but in fact the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about 150 kilometres t...
, carrying officers, a marine detachment, free settlers and convicts to Sullivan Bay near the entrance to Port Phillip Bay. They arrived on the 10 October 1803 with Collins naming the bay after the Under-Secretary for War and the Colonies, John Sullivan.

The settlement of 467 people, of whom 299 were convicts, arrived in October 1803. Of these, 43 were women and 33 were children, including six convicts 12 years and under.

The seven months at Sullivan Bay witnessed the first European
European ethnic groups

The European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
 birth, christening, funeral, marriage service, school lesson, stonemasonry, postal service, public hospital, magistrate's court, water supply and printing press in what is now Victoria.

During the brief occupation of the area by the British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927....
 in 1803-1804 a number of convicts escaped. One of these was William Buckley
William Buckley (convict)

William Buckley was an England convict who was Convictism in Australia, escaped, was given up for dead and lived in an Indigenous Australian community for many years....
 who lived in the area around Geelong for 33 years before meeting with John Batman
John Batman

John Batman was an Australian farmer and businessman who was one of the first settlers of the Melbourne area and known for founding Victoria ....
's party in 1835.
Sullivanbaymap2
An eleven year old John Pascoe Fawkner
John Pascoe Fawkner

John Pascoe Fawkner was an early pioneer, businessman and politician of Melbourne, Victoria , Australia. In 1835 he financed a party of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land , to sail to the mainland in his ship, Enterprize ....
, who later became a founder of Melbourne
Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
 in 1835, was also present accompanied by his convicted father and mother.

The new colonists quickly discovered that water was scarce, and suitable timber could not be found. The treacherous entrance to the bay made the site unsuitable for whaling and with few marines, the settlement was vulnerable to attack. Collins decided to abandon the settlement and move to Van Diemens Land (now Tasmania
Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and States and territories of Australia of the same name. It is located south of the eastern side of the continent, being separated from it by Bass Strait....
) in January 1804 where John Bowen
John Bowen

John Bowen may refer to:* John Bowen , bishop of Sierra Leone*John S. Bowen , American advertising executive*John S. Bowen, American Confederate general...
 had established a settlement at Risdon Cove
Risdon Cove

Risdon Cove was the site of the first United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland settlement in Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, the smallest Australian state....
 in 1803. They were moved as two parties, the second group leaving on 20 May, just over seven months after the settlement had been established.

Little evidence of the settlement exists. Four graves on the eastern headland, and parts of barrels, leg irons, bottles and other pieces are all that remain.

The Collins Settlement Historic Reserve is protected under the Victorian Heritage Register
Victorian Heritage Register

The Victorian Heritage Register lists places of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 1995 which establishes Heritage Victoria as the permit authority....
 and the Mornington Peninsula
Mornington Peninsula

The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south-east of Melbourne in Victoria , Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north....
 Planning Scheme.

Further reading

  • Marjorie Tipping. Convicts unbound : the story of the Calcutta convicts and their settlement in Australia South Yarra, Vic. Viking O'Neil, 1988


  • Crook, William Pascoe, (1983), An Account of the Settlement at Sullivan Bay, Port Phillip 1803,(ed John Currey) The Colony Press, Melbourne.
  • Bonwick, James, (1883), Port Phillip Settlement, Samson, Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington Publishing, London.
  • Angell, B, (1984), Voyage to Port Phillip 1803, Neapean Historical Society, Sorrento.


  • Cotter, Richard (2001) No place for a colony: Sullivan Bay, Sorrento & the Collins Settlement.


  • Coutts, J. F. (1981) Victoria's first official settlement: Sullivan Bay, Port Phillip. Victoria Archaeological Survey, Ministry for Conservation.