166 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



settled, it only remained to find names for the thirteen streets indi- 

 cated on the plan. 



The greater number of the existing buildings, such as they 

 were, converged upon the neighbourhood of William Street, and 

 running up as it did direct from the then landing-place on the 

 Yarra bank, it seemed to promise to be the principal avenue of 

 trade. Consequently it was named after His Majesty, and the 

 street next to it on the east was called after the Queen. Having 

 thus satisfied the demands of loyalty, the next street, now the 

 centre avenue of Melbourne, then a thickly timbered gully down 

 which a small rivulet flowed to join the Yarra, was called Elizabeth 

 Street, in memory of the Governor's deceased wife. The one 

 beyond was devoted to perpetuating the name of Captain Swans- 

 ton, the Hobart Town banker who had done so much to forward 

 the interests of the Port Phillip Association ; and ascending the 

 Eastern Hill, Eussell Street was named after Lord John Eussell, 

 Stephen Street after a Colonial Office official, and Spring Street 

 after Mr. Spring Eice, a former Colonial Secretary, but then 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer. Of the two streets to the west of 

 William Street, the first was named after the Governor's com- 

 panion, Captain King, and the boundary line in that direction was 

 subsequently called Spencer Street, after Lord Spencer, who had 

 been a member of Lord Melbourne's cabinet. 



The four main thoroughfares running east and west were named 

 respectively after Flinders, the early navigator of the bay ; Collins, 

 the unsuccessful coloniser of 1803 ; Bourke, the present sponsor, 

 and Lonsdale his local representative. A good night's work, well 

 done, but not without some inconvenient results to the settlers, if 

 we may accept the statement of the Cornwall Chronicle that the 

 alignment of the streets " left only one house, a public-house, to 

 stand. Every other house is to come down." A couple of days 

 later the Governor, accompanied by Hoddle, visited the site of 

 Williamstown, and caused some allotments to be surveyed and 

 prepared for sale. On his return to camp he conferred with Mr. 

 Hoddle as to the most suitable blocks to be cut up for disposal by 

 auction, and greatly gratified the settlers by deciding that the sale 

 should take place on the spot on the 1st of June following. He 



