126 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



After full consideration of the course to be adopted towards the 

 " trespassers," Wedge decided that it was necessary for the pro- 

 tection of the interests of the Association to move his camp to the 

 Yarra, and he accordingly availed himself of the presence of the 

 Mary Ann to facilitate the transport. Adverse winds prolonged 

 the journey now performed by excursion steamers in a couple of 

 hours to as many days, but on the 14th of September the little 

 craft entered the Yarra, and in a few days the whole party, Batman 

 and his family, the uncouth Buckley and the white and black re- 

 tainers of the Association were housed in various shanties clustered 

 together about the spot where Bourke and William Streets now form 

 their junction. A house of rough-hewn logs, the crevices plastered 

 with clay, was soon afterwards commenced for Batman on the 

 slope of the hill which bore his name until it was levelled to 

 make a railway-station yard and this house later on acquired the 

 additional dignity of a brick chimney built by William Buckley, 

 who had learned the trade of a bricklayer about half a century 

 before. And so the contending claimants for the soil sat down 

 together and waited further developments. The various sod huts 

 and temporary shelters in which they were domiciled were all on the 

 high land, within a hundred yards of where St. James's Cathedral 

 was afterwards built, but their juxtaposition did not lead to any 

 breach of the peace. Wedge anticipated that when Fawkner 

 arrived in person, he would be able to persuade him to transfer his 

 party to the other side of the river, which the Association did not 

 claim to possess, and Lancey and Evans were probably equally 

 confident that Fawkner would be the bearer of the news that the 

 Government declined to take any notice of the aboriginal grant. 

 In the meantime, in presence of the greater danger which threatened 

 them in the shape of several hundred stalwart and occasionally 

 bellicose savages, the junction of their small forces was doubtless 

 not unpleasing to either of the parties. How little this contending 

 handful of white men imagined what a vast superstructure was to 

 rise on their poor and squalid foundations, and how absolutely they 

 must have underrated the value of their discovery in cherishing 

 the belief that either party could hold it against the inrushing tide 

 of earth-hungry immigrants ! 



