1834 : Settlement of Portland Bay, Victoria, Australia

Noel Learmonth in his 1934 book "The Portland Bay Settlement" provides some background on the the four Henty brothers - Edward, Francis, Stephen and John and their families who settled the south-western corner of what was to become the state of Victoria.

The Henty's are credited with establishing the first permanent settlement of this part of Australia and the the settlements of Digby (on Emu Creek) and Hotspur (on the Crawford River) are a direct result of their movement to the interior grasslands north of Portland in the late 1830's. Both of these settlements, like many other early settlements were established at creek or river crossings that provided significant obstacles for early travellers and their bullock drays and consequently the early travellers were looking for a resting place prior to or subsequent to making such a crossing.

Edward Henty himself is very emphatic on this point. On November 5, 1868, he wrote to Portland "Guardian":- "In a letter which appeared in "The Argus" of October 7, signed J. P. Falkener, M.L.C., relative to the early settlement of the colony, I find this gentleman states:- 'That if bringing sheep formed the first settlement of this colony, one of the Hentys, who had a whaling station at Portland Bay, brought over a few sheep in 1834.'. The facts are simply these. I had no whaling station in 1834. It was more than two years after that date that I fitted out a whaling party in connection with my brother S. G. Henty, at Portland. My pursuits were purely agricultural and pastoral."
In a recent article in "The Age," written by "J.M.R.," it is surmised that the Henty family contemplated settling at Portland Bay by means of a treaty with the blacks, because John Helder Wedge wrote from Campbell Town to Governor Arthur in Hobart on September 18, 1834, as follows: - "It has become known to me that a party has it in contemplation to take possession of a tract of country at Portland Bay, independent of His Majesty's Government, by virtue of a treaty with the natives. "

Now the first mention of natives by the Hentys occurs in Edward's diary December 2, 1834, at a spot many miles from Portland. It was not until after two months' residence that any natives appear to have been seen near Hentys' settlement; the sealers and whalers of former years had no doubt driven the aborigines back from the locality. The Hentys, finding that the Government was endeavouring to prevent them settling at Portland Bay, may have mentioned that they would make a treaty with the blacks. This would give Wedge the material for his letter, though it does not appear certain that the Hentys were the people referred to in that document, as Wedge writes: - "A party has it in contemplation, &c." It is all rather indefinite, and the main fact remains, viz., no treaty with the natives was made at Portland Bay by Henty or any other person.