Editing History of Victoria (section)

===Conflict over resources===
{{see also|Eumeralla Wars}}
With the dispossession of Aboriginal peoples from their lands with the establishment of sheep runs by squatters, conflict over resources and land use inevitably occurred. One highly notable incident called the [[Convincing Ground massacre]] occurred in Portland Bay in 1833 or 1834 in a possible dispute about a [[beached whale]] between whalers and the ''Kilcarer gundidj'' clan of the [[Gunditjmara]] people.<ref name="clark">Ian D. Clark, pp17-22, ''Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859'', Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995 {{ISBN|0-85575-281-5}} Excerpt also published on [http://museumvictoria.com.au/encounters/journeys/Robinson/convincing_ground.htm Museum Victoria website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120905130138/http://museumvictoria.com.au/encounters/journeys/robinson/convincing_ground.htm |date=5 September 2012 }}, accessed 26 November 2008</ref>

Melbourne was founded in 1835 by [[John Batman]], also from [[Van Diemen's Land]] and quickly grew into a thriving community, although at great human cost to the original inhabitants. Its foundation was the result of an invasion of wealthy squatters, land speculators and their indentured servants (including ex-convicts) who arrived from 1835, in a race with one another to seize an 'empty' country. The British Crown and colonial governments did not recognise prior Aboriginal ownership of their lands, waters and property, in spite of claiming that Aborigines fell within the protection of the law as British subjects.

Early in 1836, Mr Franks, one of the first immigrants to the region, and his shepherd were found dead as a result of steel hatchet wounds to the head. His station was near Cotterill's Mount, called the Sugarloaf, near the river Exe, now Werribee. Upon discovering the scene, and a nearby food store which appeared to have been ransacked, George Smith travelled to Point Gellibrand and formed an exploratory band. The party was sent out led by tour of the Melbourne tribe,<ref name="THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VICTORIA">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article67471508 |title=THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VICTORIA. |newspaper=[[Traralgon Record]] |location=Traralgon, Vic. |date=19 March 1915 |access-date=28 January 2012 |page=4 Edition: MORNING |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and encountered a camp from the Indigenous Wathaurong tribe, whereupon an unclear incident occurred. Port Philip Police Magistrate Captain William Lonsdale advised the Colonel Secretary that no harm was inflicted on the Aboriginal people, however Wathaurong histories report that 35 of their people were murdered in retaliatory violence.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Convincing ground : learning to fall in love with your country|last=Pascoe, Bruce, 1947–|date=2007|publisher=Aboriginal Studies Press|isbn=9780855756949|location=Canberra|oclc=671655666}}</ref> The ''Traralgon Record'' newspaper reported in 1915 that the party "took vengeance on the murderers" (referring to the untried Wathaurong people),<ref name="THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VICTORIA"/> while ''The Cornwall Chronicle'' of Tasmania reported with approval in 1836 that the band had scouted the Wathaurong camp overnight, and in the morning launched an attack with the intent of "annihilating them".<ref name=":2">{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65954558|title=PORT PHILIP.|date=30 July 1836|newspaper=[[The Cornwall Chronicle]]|access-date=1 November 2019|issue=31|location=Tasmania, Australia|volume=2|page=2|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The incident is today remembered as "[[Mount Cottrell massacre|The Mount Cottrell massacre]]".

Between 1836 and 1842, Victorian Aboriginal groups were largely dispossessed of territory bigger than England.<ref>James Boyce, 1835: ''The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia'', Black Inc, 2011, page 151 citing Richard Broome, 'Victoria' in McGrath (ed.), Contested Ground: 129</ref> Although the British Colonial Office appointed 5 "[[Aboriginal Protector]]s" for the entire Aboriginal population of Victoria, arriving in Melbourne in 1839, they worked "...within a land policy that nullified their work, and there was no political will to change this."<ref>James Boyce, 1835: ''The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia'', Black Inc, 2011, p.177</ref> "It was government policy to encourage squatters to take possession of whatever [Aboriginal] land they chose,....that largely explains why almost all the original inhabitants of Port Phillip's vast grasslands were dead so soon after 1835".<ref>James Boyce, 1835: ''The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia'', Black Inc, 2011, p.199</ref> By 1845, fewer than 240 wealthy Europeans held all the pastoral licences then issued in Victoria and became the patriarchs "...that were to wield so much political and economic power in Victoria for generations to come."<ref>James Boyce, 1835: ''The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia'', Black Inc, 2011, p.163</ref>

Regarding the infamous Trial of ''R vs Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener'', "Tragically two of these (Aboriginal) men, [[Tunnerminnerwait]] (known as Jack) and Maulboyheenner (known as Bob, or sometimes called Timmy or Jimmy), became the first people executed in the [[Port Phillip District]]. This took place in 1842, a mere seven years after John Batman's treaties with the Kuhn people, when the two Tasmanian Aboriginal men were publicly hanged for murder."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hunt them, hang them : 'the Tasmanians' in Port Phillip 1841–42|last=Auty|first=Kate|publisher=Melbourne Justice Press; Clayton : Legal Service Bulletin Cooperative|year=216|isbn=9780959472769|location=Melbourne}}</ref> The [[Tunnerminnerwait]] and Maulboyheenner public marker exists at the place of execution near the site of the [[Old Melbourne Gaol]], with artwork by [[Brook Andrew]] and [[Trent Walter]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/arts-and-culture/art-outdoors/public-art-melbourne/Pages/tunnerminnerwait-and-maulboyheenner-public-marker.aspx |title=Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner public marker |access-date=5 April 2019 |archive-date=3 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003195252/https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/arts-and-culture/art-outdoors/public-art-melbourne/Pages/tunnerminnerwait-and-maulboyheenner-public-marker.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A severe financial crisis took place in 1842–3, mainly due to the Government demanding from the banks the large rate of 7% for all moneys deposited with them, the result of land sales. The banks had to charge their customers from 10 to 12% for loans, very often on questionable securities. It was then accelerated by Lord John Russell's instructions that all lands out of town boundaries to be sold at only £1 per acre. Sheep that had been bought at from 30s to 40s per head are now sold at less than 2s. The Insolvent Court was rushed by all classes of the community.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}