182 Charles Fenner : 



In 1824-5, Hume and Hovell, in their overland journey from 

 Sydney, also crossed the river, and it would appear that they gave 

 the stream a name. Bonwick records in his book of 1883 (ref. 58, 

 p. 83) : *' Piercing the Dividing Range near Kilmore they reached 

 the Plains, crossed the Arn.dell, now the Werribee, and camped at 

 what the natives called Geelong." Labilliere (ref. 59, p. 196) 

 says : " Hume speaks of a stream he calls the Tweed. . . . The 

 Tweed was probably the Werribee or perhaps the Saltwater River." 



Having now mentioned two possible original names of the Wer- 

 ribee River, Ave find ourselves in the midst of a most confused 

 period, during which no less than seven names were applied to that 

 river whose name is now so firmly established as the Werribee. 

 While briefly following out this matter, we may also endeavour to 

 arrive at the origin of the present name. 



We pass on to the period about 1835-6, when settlement of the 

 Port Phillip District really commenced. Then came John H. 

 Wedge, the pioneer surveyor of Port Phillip; to this gentleman we 

 owe most that we know of the early settlement of the lower Wer- 

 ribee. He crossed the river, then in flood, on Sunday, August 30th, 

 1835 (ref. 58), and records: '* This river I have named the Peel." 

 (This was on the day that Fawkner's party landed on the site of 

 Melbourne.) 



Just about this time, also, the name of the River Exe was given 

 to the Werribee, while Hume and Hovell's '' Arndell " had become 

 '* Ardnell," and had been transferred to the more northerly stream 

 (later the Saltwater). Bonwick (ref. 58, p. 275) refers to a map 

 published by Arrowsmith, in 1837, giving ''' a river flowing south 

 to Hobson's Bay, as the Ardnell, now the Saltwater." He adds : 

 " Across the Exe and the Ardnell are written the words : Exten- 

 sive and beautiful downs, called Iramoo by the natives." 



Major Mitchell, viewing the Bay from the top of Mount Macedon, 

 on September 30th, 1836 (ref. 60), says: ''1 perceived distinctly 

 the course of the Exe and Arundell Rivers." Mr. F. G. A. Bar- 

 nard states, in a letter, that the Werribee is mentioned in Batman's 

 account of his settlement of Port Phillip, and is called the Exe. 

 Mr. Barnard also points out that this name is still perpetuated in 

 the village of Exford, situated where the Toolam Toolern Creek 

 enters the Werribee. 



We have thus had our stream as the Peel, Tweed, Exe, and 

 Arndell; from now on the names applied approximate more closely 

 to the present one. In 1856, Bonwick (ref. 57) reproduced an old 



