Portland

Portland is the oldest European settlement in what is now the state of Victoria, Australia. It is the main urban centre of the Glenelg Shire. It is located on Portland Bay.

The bay was named in 1800 by the British navigator James Grant, who sailed in the Lady Nelson along the Victorian coast. "I also distinguished the Bay by the name of Portland Bay, in honour of His Grace the Duke of Portland," wrote Grant. The bay, the only deep sea port between Adelaide and Melbourne, offers a sheltered anchorage against the often wild weather of Bass Strait.

By the early 1800's, whalers and sealers were working the trecherous waters of Bass Stait and Portland Bay provided good shelter and fresh water which enabled them to establish the first white settlement in the area. William Dutton is known to have been resident in the Portland Bay area when the Henty clan arrived and is said to have provided seed potatoes for the Henty garden.

In 1834 Edward Henty and his family, who had migrated from England to Western Australia in 1829, then moved to Van Diemen's Land, ferried some of their stock across the Strait in search of the fine grazing land of the Western District.

After a voyage of 34 days the Thistle arrived at Portland Bay on 19 November 1834. Edward Henty was only 24 years old and early in December, using a plough he had made himself, he turned the first sod in Victoria. The next voyage of the Thistle brought his brother Francis with additional stock and supplies, and in a short time houses were erected and fences put up.

They established a landing place at Portland Bay which eventually became the town of Portland. There they were "discovered" by the explorer Thomas Mitchell in 1836. The settlement was illegal since Victoria had not yet been opened for settlement. The Hentys also farmed in areas known as "Australia Felix", around Casterton.

By 1838, land auctions had been authorised from Sydney and in Charles Tyers was the first to survey the Portland township in 1839.

Gunditjmara

The Gunditjmara are the traditional inhabitants of the south west, taking in what is now Portland. They were present when the early commercial sealers like William Dutton arrived and when the Henty family created what would become Victoria’s first permanent European settlement. It has been argued whether Dutton was first, but he was considered to be somewhat itinerant by the establishment of the era and not the discoverer of this deepwater bay and fertile hinterland. Henty sowed the first Victorian wheat crop on cliff top land, known today as ‘The Ploughed Field’. Footnote: Victoria was not proclaimed a colony until 1851.

While the Hentys landed ashore in Portland on November 19, 1834. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman. From settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, and this gained some administrative status prior to separation from New South Wales and declaration as the Colony of Victoria in 1851.

Gunditjmara still reside in and around the district; they are renowned in scientific circles for their early aquaculture development at nearby Lake Condah. Physical remains such as the weirs and fish traps are to be found in Lake Condah, which is to the south of Hamilton.

The Gunditjmara were the only settled Aboriginal people in Australia, living in small circular stone huts.

Many coastal towns have majestic Norfolk Pine trees planted and Portland is proudly among them.

Portland was proclaimed a city on Monday October 28, 1985, in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses, The Prince and Princess of Wales. Today, Portland is a pretty and prosperous tourist centre of over 10,000 residents.

Portland is in the Victorian Legislative Assembly South-West Coast electoral district, the Western Province of the Victorian Legislative Council and the federal Division of Wannon. Its postcode is 3305.

Through the 19th century Portland developed to become an important fishing port providing for the town and later, with the connection of the railway, to the region as far afield as Ballarat and eventually Melbourne. Couta, Australian salmon and crayfish (now southern rock lobster) were the main catches with many fishermen working the bay, around the Lawrence Rocks and in the season, Bridgewater Bay. Portland harbour enabled the development of the woolgrowing industry of the Western District, but has eventually it lost its primacy to facilities at Geelong. Even in western Victoria, Portland fell behind Warrnambool as the main commercial centre. In the 20th century Portland's role as a port revived, and its economy was also boosted by the tourism industry and an aluminium smelter.

The port of Portland was sold in 1996 by the State Government to a group including the listed New Zealand company Infratil & the Scott Corporation (owned by Allan Scott), the first privatisation of port facilities in Australia. Since then, it has been traded a number of times and is now owned by two institutional investors - the publicly listed Australian Infrastructure Fund and Utilities Trust of Australia, a private infrastructure fund - both of which are managed by Hastings Funds Management.