64 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



believe occupies a space of at least 10,000 acres. It was impractic- 

 able to form the settlement on this fine spot, because the mud flats 

 prevented the approach of the vessels within a mile and a half of 

 the shore ; but when, after Captain Wright's careful examination 

 of the whole shore of the bay, the site for the station was fixed 

 close to the point on which the village of Corinella now stands, 

 Captain Wetherall says that nothing could surpass the beauty of 

 the situation, nor the fertility of the soil on which the settlement 

 was formed; while of the climate too much could not be said in 

 its favour, for both in temperature and salubrity it was equal to the 

 finest he had ever met with. In one paragraph he speaks of a 

 range of very high mountains in a northerly direction which Messrs . 

 Hume and Hovell call the Australian Alps, and he goes on to say, 

 " but from a very careful examination of the northern shores of this 

 harbour, and the character of the country differing so materially 

 from the account given by these gentlemen, I feel confident that 

 the expedition undertaken by them, never could have reached 

 Western Port ". It is equally certain that in no known condition 

 of the atmosphere could the gallant captain have seen the Australian 

 Alps from Western Port Bay, though the outlying Dandenong 

 Ranges loom very large from Phillip Island, thirty miles away. 



With such favourable first impressions there was no reason to 

 delay a landing. The spot selected was at the mouth of a small 

 creek in the eastern passage, two miles east of what is now called 

 Settlement Point, though named Bed Point by Captain Wetherall, 

 six miles due north of the mouth of Bass Eiver. Here on the llth of 

 December the soldiers and convicts were landed, tents were pitched, 

 timber huts erected, and bricks were burned for the more substantial 

 edifices in contemplation. 



As soon as these arrangements had been completed, Captain 

 Wright returned to Sydney in the Dragon, and after reporting to 

 the Colonial Secretary the particulars of his examination, proceeded 

 to condemn the selection of this site in these unequivocal words : 

 " The very small quantity of good land in the neighbourhood of 

 the settlement that I have been able to discover, and the sterile, 

 swampy and impenetrable nature of the country surrounding 

 Western Port, to a great extent, lead me to believe that it does 



