Early Exploration & Settlement

Up until 1840, there was negligible settlement in the area that would become known as Gippsland. Mountains and large areas of swamps were physical barriers, preventing any real interest in exploration from the Port Phillip [Melbourne] direction. In the meantime, graziers and others were content to develop other areas of Victoria. Although there had been some earlier settlement around Ensay and Omeo, the real beginning of discovery and development in Gippsland was activated by a series of events that happened at much the same time, namely:

      1. Drought for several years in the Monaro area of south-east New South Wales

      2. Exploration by Angus McMillan and Count Paul Strzelecki

      3. The steamer “Clonmel” being shipwrecked, and passengers/crew rescued, at Corner Inlet

      4. The subsequent events that followed these occurrences.

 

Drought. Graziers in southern New South Wales were suffering from the effects of a prolonged drought in the late 1830s. This motivated some of them [mostly Scots] to consider seeking land further south, with more reliable rainfall. This group included Lachlan Macalister and James Macarthur.

 

Exploration. Angus McMillan emigrated to N.S.W. from Scotland, with a ‘letter of introduction’ to Macalister, who quickly appointed him as an Overseer. The wealthy Macalister soon gave McMillan the task of searching for new grazing land to the south and, hopefully, a location for a port suitable for shipping stock and receiving supplies.

 

McMillan made several trips from 1839 until 1841, each trip going further than the previous one.. Over this period, McMillan named most of the rivers, and several locations, from east of the present town of Bairnsdale through to the Sale district. McMillan had discovered new grazing land, but in February 1841 he reached Corner Inlet, succeeding in the second objective of finding an area suitable as a likely port. He had first seen the sea from the top of ‘Tom’s Cap’ [south of Rosedale], the hill named because of its similar shape to the headgear of Tom Macalister, a member of McMillan’s party.

 

Polish born Strzelecki arrived in the Colony of New South Wales in 1839, when he was 42 years of age. He left again in 1845, so his stay was relatively short, but he certainly left his mark on the development of what is now the State of Victoria, and Gippsland in particular. [The “Count” title was considered to be false, created only to help acceptance of him by influential members of ‘society’]

Strzelecki’s expedition was commissioned by another New South Wales grazier named James Macarthur. Strzelecki first started by climbing Mt. Kosciusko, Australia’s highest mountain [2,173m], and naming it after a leading Polish identityThe trail McMillan had marked well from the Omeo district, was followed by Strzelecki for part of the way, when he set off on his exploration in 1840. Somewhere near the Sale district, Strzelecki’s party [including James Macarthur] diverted further west than McMillan had done. They crossed a river, not realising that, due to the long distance between each crossing, it was the same river that McMillan had previously named Glengarry. Strzelecki consequently gave it the name of La Trobe River, after the Superintendent of the Port Phillip District [based at Melbourne]. C. J. La Trobe subsequently became the first Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria, when it officially separated from New South Wales in 1851. There is a monument erected on the side of the Princes Highway [approximately 5 km. East of Traralgon], at the point it is believed Strzelecki’s party travelled. They reached what is now Traralgon, and turned south to tackle the Ranges, that were subsequently named the ‘Strzelecki Ranges’. This proved to be a more formidable task than anticipated, with horses and most of the provisions being left behind, before tackling the dense and highest parts of the Ranges. Although Strzelecki also planned to reach Corner Inlet, the difficulties his group encountered, slowly hacking their way through the thick rain forest, tree- ferns and sword grass, made it necessary to forget this objective and aim for the populated Westernport. The group were lucky to escape starvation, by their aboriginal member, Charlie Tarra, [Tarraville, Tarra River & Tarra Valley] catching koalas for eating. They reached Westernport after 22 days struggling through the Ranges, with their clothing torn to shreds by the sword grass, and the group close to complete exhaustion and starvation. Despite the hardships, Strzelecki was glowing in his reports of the flat land his party had crossed.