Map - Sullivan Bay, Victoria (Sullivan Bay)

Sullivan Bay (Sullivan Bay)
Sullivan Bay lies 60 km due south of Melbourne on Port Phillip, 1 km east of Sorrento, Victoria. It was established as a short-lived convict settlement in 1803 by Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins, who named the bay after the Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, John Sullivan.

The site was chosen because of its strategic location near the entrance of Port Phillip Bay. The settlement is significant because it was the first attempt to settle Europeans permanently in what is now Victoria and was a key link in the expansion of the colony of New South Wales into Tasmania and Victoria, and the control of Bass Strait as a trade route.

In 1802, Lieutenant John Murray discovered Port Phillip Bay and claimed it for the British Crown, and Matthew Flinders further explored the area that same year. The British government was impressed with their positive reports, and were also worried that the French might try to establish colonies there.

They decided to get in first. In April 1803 HMS Calcutta (1795) and the transport ship Ocean sailed from England, via the Cape of Good Hope, carrying officers, a marine detachment, free settlers, and 301 convicts to Port Phillip, and some wives and children. They arrived on 10 October 1803.

Shortly after arriving, a party led by James Tuckey was dispatched to explore Port Phillip Bay. They reported that the land was poor and there was little fresh water even though the Yarra and Marybyrnong Rivers had been discovered on 2 January 1803 by Charles Grimes' party, months before the arrival of the Sullivans Bay colonists. They also reported that suitable timber could not be found. The treacherous entrance to the bay made the site unsuitable for whaling and with few marines, the settlement was vulnerable to attack.

Collins asked Governor King for permission to abandon the site, and was eventually given permission to do so. On 30 January 1804, Collins and some of the convicts left in Ocean and Lady Nelson for Van Diemens Land (now Tasmania,) where John Bowen had established a settlement at Risdon Cove in 1803. They were moved as two parties, the second leaving on 20 May, just over seven months after the settlement was established. Records show 30 people died at the settlement.

During the brief occupation, 21 convicts escaped. One of these was William Buckley who lived in the area around Geelong for 33 years before meeting with John Batman's party in 1835.

Little evidence of the settlement remains. Four graves on the eastern headland, and parts of barrels, leg irons, bottles and other pieces are all that exist. The Collins Settlement Historic Reserve, comprising about 2 km of coastline, is protected under the Victorian Heritage Register and the Mornington Peninsula Planning Scheme.

 
Map - Sullivan Bay (Sullivan Bay)
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7617930 km2, Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
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