A first-come best-served land rush on the pastures predictably followed. But a subsequent administration, headed by Lord Melbourne, not only sanctioned the squatter camp on the Yarra River, but abandoned any further attempt to control the bounds of settlement. This was unambiguous when it came – remove and prosecute the trespassers. The governor of the island colony, implicated in the invasion even while publicly upholding its illegality, brought time by seeking advice from distant London. The island’s small land-owning elite looked to the seemingly unlimited pasture to the north to expand their profitable flocks and had at their disposal an army of former convict warrior-bushmen, experienced at both living off the land and dealing with its owners.Ī depiction of John Batman making his way up the Yarra River in 1835. Meanwhile, by 1835 the conquest of the rich grasslands of lutruwita (Tasmania) was complete, with the last Aboriginal defenders exiled to Bass Strait. London sought to maintain social control by defining what were called limits of location, and these only extended about 130 miles (210 kilometres) from Sydney, and excluded all of what is now Victoria. What was holding the invasion back was no longer the balance of power but government policy. But 47 years later, the British had the knowledge and resources to conquer the vast Aboriginal-created grasslands of south-eastern Australia.

Initially, this slow pace of expansion was because the invaders were still adapting to a new and well-defended land. An exciting theme of early NSW history is the extent to which Sydney became an Aboriginal town, and the diversity of the cross-cultural encounter. This slow pace of expansion had not prevented violence and suffering, but it had provided a space for adaptation and accommodation. John Batman was one of the founders of Melbourne.

James boyce 1835