PORT PHILLIP SURVEYS

I was trying to find an article about a Flinders family, which had settled first on Jamieson's Special Survey when they came to the Mornington Peninsula, when I found this excellent article by a respected historian* which contradicts several claims that Mount Eliza was named after some relative of Captain William Hobson**. Just yesterday, I was examining articles about the lake that existed in the plain known by the Boon wurrung as Nerm which flooded, according to dreamtime stories and is now known as Port Phillip. In one of the many diagrams published in Dr.Holgate's report on the seabed a channel near the heads was called Symonds Channel and I wondered if the name was due to the pioneering family of "Westward Ho" at Flinders. It wasn't; it was named after one of the surveyors. Rarely do I read an historical article which does not have me thinking, "Hang on," but there are many indications in this article (such as Bulla being surveyed in 1847)that this article is extremely accurate. The nonsense about the Cottier family being responsible for Tootgarook being renamed as Rye has already been disproved but it is interesting that Rye township reserve was surveyed in 1841, two decades before the town was proclaimed. Surveyor Foot made one mistake that I have noticed, in his parish of Tullamarine map, in regard to the junction of the stream called Arundel Creek in some sources and the Maribyrnong River at Melway 14 J2.

* The foregoing article is based upon part of a paper read before the Historical Society by Mr. A. S. Kenyon
recently. (P.4, The Australasian, 18-7-1932.)

** Mount Eliza, Victoria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
History[edit]
Mount Eliza was named in 1836 by Captain William Hobson after either Eliza Elliott, his wife, or Elizabeth Callaghan, the wife of John Batman.[2]
La Trobeana - Journal of the C J La Trobe Society Inc. (PDF), retrieved 14 January 2017

BACK TO MT. MARTHA AND MT ELIZA. (An extract from the article.)
On September 29, 1836, H.M.S. Rattlesnake, having on board Captain William Hobson and Lieutenants Thomas Symonds, Peter Frederick Shortland, and Henry, arrived in Port Phillip Bay. After landing Captain Lonsdale, his family, and retinue, a survey was made in October of the bay by Shortland and Symonds, of Corio by Henry. Shortland, whose Christian names were Peter Frederick, must not be confounded with Lieutenant John Shortland, the discoverer of Newcastle, or Willoughby Shortland, afterwards with Hobson in New Zealand. He named Mounts Martha and Eliza after Mrs. Lonsdale and Mrs. Batman respectively, probably at the instigation of, and certainly with the approval of, Lonsdale himself, who, a few weeks earlier, had described Batman and Thomson as the only persons of any respectability in the settlement. There was no Mrs. Thomson.

Hobson became the first Governor of New Zealand, Symonds blossomed forth as Sir Thomas Matthew Charles Symonds,
admiral of the fleet, Frederick Shortland became a vice-admiral, and Willoughby Shortland, Governor of New Zealand and of several West Indian islands.

JAMIESON'S SPECIAL SURVEY AND HODDLE'S REVENGE.
"Hoddle, with that foresight which distinguishes so much of his work, had always instructed his surveyors to keep 100 yards above high-water mark. In Jamieson's case Latrobe specially intervened, and directed, against Hoddle's protests, that in the survey in that and similar cases no reservation should be made. Later Hoddle got
a little back. He directed surveyors not to include in one lot any watercourse capable of forming a boundary."

TRIVIA.
Robert Hoddle and the original Sage were not only sons in law of Benjamin Baxter but also grantees of land around Baxter's pre-emptive right on the Carrup Carrup run, at the south east corner of the parish of Frankston.(Google FRANKSTON, COUNTY OF MORNINGTON to see the map.) In the Mornington Peninsula Souvenir in The Argus in 1954, two elderly Sage descendants, whose most prized possession was Uncle Robert's measuring chain, are pictured.

Ray Holmes, descendant of a pioneering family at Red Hill near Dromana became Victoria's Surveyor-General.
RAY HOLMES

Many streets in Dromana Township, that part of Dromana west of McCulloch St, were named after surveyors. A street in Franklinford Township was also named after CHARLES WHYBROW LIGAR

D'ARCY AND DE LITTLE HAVE HAD TO BE WRITTEN AS DARCY AND DELITTLE ON THE SURNAMES LIST.