Historical Records of Victoria

The official history of Victoria begins with the institution at Port Phillip of an arm of the colonial government of New South Wales. Early pioneering efforts had failed but later ones succeeded in establishing a pastoral industry from Van Diemen's land. The developing settlement asked for government supervision to prevent conflict between settlers and Aborigines and between settler and settler. The achievement of stability and the institution of law and order as a basis for Victorian society rests on the foundations laid under Captain William Lonsdale as Police Magistrate. Beginnings of Permanent Government describes how all aspects of the life of the Port Phillip District developed between 1836 and 1839. The papers, mainly from the holdings of the Public Record Office of Victoria, are arranged thematically to enable the pioneers to tell their own story through the records they created.