. / 1 "A TR. I L ASIA ILL I r S Tk. I TED. 



and received the name of William James Hobart Thome. The first wedding took place 

 on the jSth >f that month, the contracting parties being Richard Garratt, a convict, and 

 Hannah Harvey, a free woman; and the first death was that of John Skilhorne, a 



settler, on the loth of October. 



For twenty years the interior of Victoria remained 'untrodden by the foot of the 

 white man. and tin- first to penetrate the virgin 'territory were Hamilton Hume, who 

 was a native of New South Wales, and Captain Hovell. The former had previously 

 distinguished himself as a good bush traveller-energetic, resolute and intrepid ; and had 

 l,een consulted in Sydney by Sir' Thomas Brisbane on the subject of an overland expedition 

 to the south coast of New South Wales. With this Governor's approbation a party of 

 ei-ht men was organized for" that purpose by Mr. Hume, and a start was made on the 

 3rd of October, 1824. Taking a south-westerly direction the explorers crossed the 

 Murray on the i ;th of November, and on the 24th discovered and named the Ovens 

 River after Major Ovens, who had been private secretary to Sir Thomas Brisbane; 



struck the head-waters 

 of the Goulburn on 

 the 3rd of December ; 

 discovered King Parrot 

 Creek on the ;th ; and 

 reached the shores of 

 Corio Bay, near the 

 site of the present city 

 of Geelong, on the i /th 

 of that month. They 

 commenced their home- 

 ward journey on the 

 day following and ar- 

 rived in safety at their 

 starting-point near 

 Lake George, on the 

 1 8th of January, 1825. 



As there was some danger of the French founding a settlement in Western Port 

 an expedition was dispatched thither from Sydney by Governor Darling, in December, 

 1826, under the command of Captain P. R. Wetherall, of H.M.S. Fly, who was 

 accompanied by Captain Wright, of the brig Dragon. Their reports were not unfavourable 

 on the whole, but Captain \Vright declared the situation to be unsuited to the forma- 

 tion of a penal settlement, and the expedition was recalled. 



Tin-: FIRST SKTTI.KMKXT THE HENTVS. 



Passing over Captain Sturt's exploration of the Murray, which belongs to the history of 

 geographical discovery in Australia generally, we come to the first permanent settlement 

 in Victoria by a little colony of Englishmen, who had previously tested and had been 

 disappointed with the capabilities of Western Australia and Van Diemen's Land. These 

 were the brothers Henty Edward, Stephen, Frank and John two of whom, Edward and 



HKMV's WOOL-STORK, THE FIRST BUILDING ERECTED 

 IN VICTORIA. 



