THE NEW COLONY 315 



former, on taking charge a few weeks after the sale, reported to 

 Mr. Latrobe that the township consisted of one good house, six 

 decent cottages and a few huts, which amongst them accommodated 

 a population of at least one hundred ! 



Remote as it was from the seat of Government, Portland was 

 early recognised as the proper outlet for the produce of the stations 

 that were being continuously formed between the lake district and 

 the Wannon and Glenelg Eivers. Even in 1841 ships loaded wool 

 there direct for London, and the local stores were supplied from 

 Van Diemen's Land by quite a small fleet of brigs and schooners. 

 Since the town lived only to meet the requirements of the squatting 

 interest, its growth was not rapid, but it justified its existence by 

 reaching a population of 1,025 at the date of the first elections in 

 Victoria. 



Somewhat later two other small towns were founded on the 

 south-western sea-board. That of Belfast, or Port Fairy, at the 

 mouth of the river Moyne, was laid out by a private speculator on 

 a portion of Atkinson's Special Survey. Despite some vigorous 

 quarrels between the original landowner and his tenants or pur- 

 chasers, the settlement grew with great rapidity, owing doubtless to 

 its close proximity to the richest agricultural land in the colony, 

 so that by the period just referred to the population was returned 

 at 900. The other town, Warrnambool, at the mouth of the river 

 Hopkins, had a later start, being a creation of the Government, 

 and therefore requiring a good deal of preliminary negotiation. As 

 early as 1844 there were a general store and a few huts at Lady 

 Bay, as the place was then known, and more than one regular 

 trader plied between there and Hobart Town, carrying away fat 

 cattle from the neighbouring stations to provide rations for the 

 soldiers and convicts across the Strait. In 1846 the Government 

 took the question of a town into consideration ; then they ordered a 

 survey and found a name, and finally, in the middle of 1847, they 

 offered by auction in Melbourne allotments in the newly planned 

 town of Warrnambool. The demand was not up to expectation, 

 for those sold only realised an average of 40 as against the 551 

 per acre given at Portland seven years before. But the conditions 

 were different, for the visions of the speculator had ceased to 



