Family Locations: James William Izzard
(c1813-1895)
Victoria
The first successful European settlement in what is now Victoria was at Portland in 1834 by the Henty family, farmers from Tasmania. Previously much of the south-western region was home to a large tribe of Australian natives called the Wathaurong, however, whose numbers began to decline with the arrival of the settlers.
In August 1850 the Port Phillip District was separated from New South Wales, followed by further legislation passed by the New South Wales Legislative Council on 1 July 1851, which was formally the founding moment of the Colony of Victoria.
The creation of the Colony of Victoria coincided with the discovery of gold, firstly near Ballarat in 1851, then at Bendigo and subsequently at many other sites.
This triggered one of the largest gold rushes the world has ever seen. The colony grew rapidly in both population and economic power. In ten years the European population of Victoria, Australia increased seven-fold from 76,000 to 540,000 because of the Victorian Gold Rush.
In 1901 Victoria ceased to be an independent colony and became a state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Victorian and Tasmanian politicians were particularly active in the Federation process.
Geelong
In 1850 Geelong was the fifth largest town in the Colony of Victoria, but with the onset of the gold rush its importance grew and the population expanded dramatically from 8,000 in 1851 to 22,000 in 1853. However, the importance of Geelong in the gold rush declined because a false map was commissioned by Melbourne traders to give the impression Melbourne was closer to the Ballarat gold fields than Geelong; this encouraged gold diggers to use Melbourne as their staging post.
Subsequently though Geelong became the wool capital of Australia, with its busy ports and waterfront wool stores and on 8 December 1910 the town of Geelong officially became a city.
Melbourne
John Batman from Tasmania founded Melbourne, named after the British Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, in 1835. It's importance grew with the gold rush in the early 1850s as gold diggers from all over the world travelled via the city to the gold fields.
As a result of the gold rush, Melbourne became the financial centre of Australia and New Zealand and by the 1880s Melbourne was the largest city in Australia and the second largest city in the British Empire.
From 1901 Melbourne was temporarily the capital of Australia until the Australian parliament transferred to the new city of Canberra in 1927.
