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Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
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Before Separation was proclaimed and Victoria created on 1 July 1851, the area south of the Murray River as far as the coast (including the area of the failed 1803 Sorrento settlement) and west past Portland Bay, where the Henty brothers had settled illegally in 1834, was officially known as the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. A town council was incorporated in 1842 (the Melbourne City Council from 1847), but in its foundation and early years, Melbourne was effectively governed from Sydney. Captain William Lonsdale, the first police magistrate responsible for law and order, was appointed in 1836, while Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe was appointed in 1839.