Melbourne Awakening History

Pre-European settlement

• At least 30,000 years of settlement by various Aboriginal nations that were existing then

18th century

• 1797 – George Bass explores the south-east coast of Australia

19th century

• 1800 – James Grant explores the south-east of Australia
• 1801 – John Murray sails into Port Phillip in the Lady Nelson
• 1803 – Charles Robbins and Charles Grimes explore the entirety of Port Phillip and discover the Yarra River in the Buffalo
• 1803 – David Collins sent from Sydney to establish a settlement for the British Government. Unaware of previous discoveries, Collins settles near present-day Sullivan Bay on the Mornington Peninsula. This settlement is abandoned five months later.
• 1834 – The Henty family establish first long-term European settlement in Victoria at Portland
• 1835 – John Batman sails to the mouth of the Yarra from Tasmania in the Rebecca
• 1835 – John Batman 'buys' the 2,430km² that Melbourne would be founded on from the local Aboriginal nation, the Wurundjeri. The Batman Deed is now widely recognised to be more of a treaty than a sale.
• 1835 – Melbourne is founded by John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner
• 1836 – William Lonsdale built the first government block, declaring Melbourne the capital of the Port Phillip district
• 1837 – 28 March -The Hoddle Grid of streets for the central business district is surveyed by Robert Hoddle.
• 1837 – 1 June – First inner-city land sale
• 1838 – Melbourne is declared a legal port and administrative centre, opening the way for vastly increased immigration
• 1838 – Melbourne Cricket Club is founded
• 1838 – Second inner-city land sale
• 1839 – Third inner-city land sale. Quarrying of bluestone began out of the Melbourne Corporation Quarry at Clifton Hill.
• 1840 – First petition for the separation of Port Phillip District from New South Wales drafted by Henry Fyshe Gisborne and presented to Governor George Gipps.
• 1841 – First seaport and market are opened
• 1842 – Melbourne Municipal Corporation Act was passed in Sydney. Melbourne City Council is formed.
• 1842 - The First Concillium of Melbourne is formed, Known as the Concillium of Batman. Notably, this included an Apostate member from the Wurundjeri.
• 1845 – First Princes Bridge constructed connecting both sides of the Yarra
• 1846 - The Melbourne Botanic Gardens is founded
• 1847 – Melbourne declared a city by Queen Victoria on 25 June.
• 1847 – Melbourne Building Act was passed in 1847 based on Sydney act of 1833.
• 1848 – Melbourne Hospital founded (from 1935 the hospital is called The Royal Melbourne Hospital)
• 1851 – Beginning of the Victorian gold rush with discovery of gold at Buninyong
• 1851 – Victoria becomes a colony, separate from New South Wales
• 1851 – First Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe inaugurated
• 1852 – City's first gas works is opened
• 1842 - The First Concillium of Melbourne falls. Records are unclear as to what caused this.
• 1853 – The University of Melbourne is founded
• 1854 – The Melbourne Terminus (first Flinders Street Station building) is completed
• 1854 – First steam railway journey in Australia from Melbourne Terminus (on the current site of Flinders Street Station) to Sandridge (later Port Melbourne)
• 1854 – Melbourne Exhibition held in conjunction with Exposition Universelle (1855)
• 1854 – The State Library of Victoria is founded
• 1854 – First telegraph service, to Williamstown
• 1854 – The first Town Hall is completed
• 1855 – First state Governor Charles Hotham inaugurated
• 1855 – The Melbourne Museum is founded
• 1856 – Stonemasons win the Eight hour day
• 1857 – First reservoir water supply (at Yan Yean Reservoir) tapped outside city limits
• 1857 – Queen Victoria Market is founded
• 1857 – Australia's first country railway from Geelong to Melbourne is built
• 1857 – City streets first lit by gas lighting
• 1858 – 7 August – a game of football played between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College
• 1858 – First inter-city telegraph services, to Adelaide and Sydney
• 1859 – 14 May – Melbourne Football Club, Australia's oldest football club, is founded
• 1859 – Spencer Street Station (then Batman's Hill Station) and Princes Gate Station completed
• 1859 – Construction of the General Post Office begins