Letters from Pioneers to Governor La Trobe, 1853: No 50
Superintendent Charles Joseph La Trobe sent a circular letter to a number of early settlers in the Colony of Victoria, asking them to provide written accounts of their arrival and early activities in the district. He encouraged them to describe when and how they first occupied land, and to reflect—however selectively—on their interactions with the Aboriginal people of the region.
Although La Trobe’s original circular has not survived, 58 responses were received. These recollections, written by settlers who saw themselves as founders of colonial Victoria, are now an invaluable—if often self-interested—source on the early years of European colonisation. They were later published by Thomas Francis Bride, ‘Letters from Victorian Pioneers’ in 1898.
One of the more assertive replies came from Dr Alexander Thomson, a medical practitioner, pastoralist, religious lay leader, and politician. Thomson was among the earliest Europeans to settle at Geelong, arriving in 1836 and establishing himself at Kardinia, a homestead on the south bank of the Barwon River. In his letter, Thomson presents himself as a figure of moral authority and public leadership—presiding over worship, arbitration, education, and early pastoral expansion. He also includes detailed (and now highly problematic) observations on the Aboriginal population, whom he portrays as rapidly vanishing under the pressure of European contact.
Thomson’s account, however, did not go uncontested at that time. Captain William Lonsdale, the first official representative of the colonial government at Port Phillip, submitted a detailed commentary correcting or challenging several of Thomson’s claims. Lonsdale disputes the extent of Thomson’s leadership in early Melbourne, clarifies the timeline and roles of religious services and officials, and questions Thomson’s interpretation of Indigenous population numbers and settler-Indigenous relations.
Together, Thomson’s letter and Lonsdale’s annotations reveal not only contrasting memories of the same events, but also a deeper contest over who would shape the public narrative of Victoria’s beginnings. They offer a rare window into the politics of memory among the early settler elite—and into the silences and justifications that framed their relationship with the land’s original inhabitants.
Letter No 50.
March 20th 1854
SIR,
I would have replied long before this to your circular of date 27th July last, but waited expecting to find my journal, which was lent to Miss Drysdale and cannot be found, which will account for the meagre reply I now make.
1. In September 1835 I shipped per Norval, Capt. Coltish, the first cattle for Port Phillip.
2. In March 1836 I landed at Melbourne with my family. There being no constituted authority, I was requested to act as a general arbitrator. I did so by common consent, my tent being the police office. Many felt a pride in showing an example in upholding order, which was done without much trouble. The people were very quiet and attended every Sunday morning at my tent for public worship, where I read the Church of England service.
3. In April 1836 I built, by subscription, a house for a church and school — the old weatherboard lately removed from St. James’s.
4. The first clergyman who visited us was the Rev. Jos. Orton, Wesleyan, and afterwards the Revs. Messrs. Clow, Forbes, Grylls, and Waterfield.
5. In May 1836 Mr. Batman arrived with his family.
6. From that time we had weekly arrivals with stock from Van Diemen’s Laud, and many stations were taken up near Melbourne.
7. In July 183G we took the first census, numbering 149.
8. In December 1830, the first herd of cattle was brought from Sydney by Mr. Jno. Gardiner and Capt. Hepburn.
GEELONG.
9. In May 1836 I landed my sheep at Point Henry, and occupied the present township of Geelong as a sheep station, and Indented Head as a cattle station for Capt. Swanston. Messrs. Cowie and Stead and myself had the whole Western district to ourselves for eighteen months, parties being all afraid of the blacks. We were afterwards joined by Roadknight, Darke, Derwent Company, Russell, Anderson, Brown, Read, McLeod, Steiglitz, Sutherland, Murray, Morris, Lloyd, Ware, Learmonth, Armytage, Raven, Pettett, Francis, Bates, and others.
10. In 1837 I built the present house of Kardinia, which I called after the aboriginal word for ” sunrise.” I built also a house for the Derwent Company, occupied afterwards by Mr. Fisher.
11. In 1838 Mr. Strachan built the first store in Geelong; he was followed by Messrs. Rucker and Champion.
ABORIGINES.
12. On my first journeys into the country I was very much surprised to find so few natives, and thought they were keeping out of the way. During our first visit to Buninyong we did not see one, and on our first journey to the west, when we discovered Colac and Korangamite, we saw about twenty at Pirron Yalloak, who fled on seeing us. On better acquaintance I found their number really very small. All within 100 miles had visited us.
13. In December 1836 I was at great pains to muster all that were in the Geelong district, and gave each a blanket ; they were Buckley’s tribe, and he assured me I had mustered the whole of them, amounting to only 279. They were always friendly ; I was well known amongst them, and wherever I went they received me kindly. But, alas ! the decrease has been fearful, chiefly from drinking, and exposure to all weathers bringing on pulmonary complaints. Since their connexion with the whites there has been little increase. When I first numbered them they had several children amongst them, but they decreased every year, and now in this tribe we have only 34 adults and only two children under five years. The men now living were all children when I arrived, and are beginning to look old, so that in ten years more there will not be one alive.
Every attempt to civilize them has signally failed. I have had several in my family for years, and taught them to read and go to church with the family ; but after a time the other youths would threaten them and carry them off, when they again got fond of a savage life. I am convinced that no plan, except one based on entire isolation, will succeed with these poor degraded people.
A. THOMSON, M.C.
His Excellency C. J. La Trobe, Esq.
Addenda. — The Marrack (scrubby) Hills near Cape Otway form fifty miles by ten of dense scrub, exactly like the country you saw at Wilson’s Promontory, with immense trees towering to the height of 80 and 120 feet, and fern trees of 20 feet in the gullies, a rich black soil, and streams of water running into the sea every six or seven miles.
A. THOMSON.
LONSDALE’S NOTES ON DR. THOMSON’S STATEMENT.
2. Mr. Simpson was named by the persons interested in the formation of a settlement at Port Phillip, as arbitrator, &c. Dr. Thomson and another were, I understand, afterwards named to assist him, somewhat in the quality of assessors. Dr. Thomson may possibly, during the absence of Mr. Simpson in Van Diemen’s Land, have acted as arbitrator in some cases. As to the state of order among the people, I have no reason to doubt but that they were as peaceable as could reasonably be expected under the circumstances in which they were placed, but I know that repeated representations were made to the Sydney Government to the contrary, of so strong a nature, that Sir Richard Bourke thought there was a probability of some resistance being offered to his establishing authority in the place, and directed me to apply to Captain Hobson for the marines of his ship, should I find the detachment of troops I took with me insufficient.
This, however, was perfectly useless; the people were quite quiet; the only indication to the contrary was the simple circumstance of the printed proclamations which I had caused to be posted up being torn down. One of the first persons who made himself known to me was Dr. Thomson, who, with a formidable brace of pistols in his belt, told me he was very glad I had arrived, as they were in a most lawless state, and always in dread of being assaulted or something to that effect.
Dr. Thomson’s appointment by the Port Phillip people, was that of medical officer, and I think catechist. In the former capacity, he was afterwards for a short time in the employment of the Government. I dare say he performed the church service as he states, but on my arrival I did not understand it was performed. Mr. James Smith was the first I was aware of who read the service regularly on Sundays, for such of the people as chose to attend.
3. When I arrived in September this building was not near finished. I was given to understand that it was erected by general subscription, for Church of England service, and was handed over to me for this purpose. I afterwards collected further subscriptions to finish it, in the course of which I had some little altercation with Dr. Thomson, who was supposed to be unconnected with it, but he claimed to be a member of the church.
4. The Rev. Mr. Orton was here after I arrived, as a passing visitor. I was not aware that he had been here previously. Mr. Waterfield, an Independent minister, was the first clergyman who arrived to perform service permanently. Mr. Naylor had paid the settlement a visit, and had performed service and some of the rites of the Church of England.
8. It was Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Joseph Hawdon who brought over the first herd of cattle from Sydney.
12. This is a very uncertain and indefinite statement, and appears in some measure to be contradicted by the next paragraph, where a tribe belonging to a small tract of country is represented’ to be 279, and which I can say is correct from what I saw of the other tribes at that time.
Source: Thomas Francis Bride (Ed), ‘Letters from Victorian Pioneers – being a series of papers on the early occupation of the colony, the aborigines etc’, Trustees of the Public Library, Melbourne, 1898, Letter from Dr. A. Thomson, 20th March 1854. Pp 250-253, https://archive.org/details/lettersfromvicto00publiala/page/250/mode/1up?view=theater
Image: An image of the Barrabool Hills sketched in 1856 by Joseph Masters.
