ROSEBUD AND GEELONG.
A connection between the two areas goes back to the first (brief) settlement of Victoria by the British Government near Sorrento in 1803. David Collins was in charge and used lack of fresh water as an excuse to relocate to Hobart where he would be less under the thumb of the Governor in Sydney.

One convict who was not relocated was William Buckley who had escaped and walked through Rosebud and around the Bay. The aborigines near Geelong thought he was a ghost, as their belief was that dead aborigines were white, and took him in as one of their own.

The next white men that Buckley saw, 32 years later, were lookouts posted at Indented Head near Portarlington by John Batman, including Jemmy Gumm (after whom Gumm's Corner at Keilor was named.) Some of the aborigines were plotting to murder them and Buckley's warning (in a language almost forgotten) saved their lives.

The next two connections involve the Cairns and Jennings families, original purchasers of Hindhope Estate lots.

In 1852, Boneo pioneer, Robert Cairns came out with his wife Mary (nee Drysdale) and her family. No prizes for guessing where the Drysdales settled. Some of Robert's relatives appear (from trove) to have also been involved on the west side of the bay. Two of Robert's relatives gained their nicknames because of their involvement at Rosebud, Back Road Bob of Fernvilla near Bayview Rd and Rosebud Ted.

George Jennings (Dod) was born at Drysdale in 1857 and playedfooty for Geelong in the 1870's. He married Hannah Wiffen in 1879 and they had seven children. Affected by the 1890's depression he lost his land as so many did and the family became nomads, farming at Flinders (where his son married Catherine Tuck), Cranbourne and Camperdown, before settling at Kariah in 1914. This 212 acre farm fronted Dundas St, Browns Rd and Weeroona St. After onion growing failed, the family changed to dairying, later expanding into Rosebud. The wooden statue on the east corner of Rosebud Pde (outside the former dairy) gives some extra detail mentioning the later dairy site at Jennings Court (Melway169 K7.)

Other connections between the two sides of the bay involve the wooden boat building Laccos, William Ferrier (hero of the La Bella tragedy at Warrnambool in 1905), both subjects of my journals, the east side fishermen dispatching their catches to Melbourne by rail from Queenscliff and several pioneer fishermen at Flinders coming from Queenscliff.

Joe Peters the black fiddler, a native of the Cape Verde Islands off the westernmost point of Africa also moved across the bay from Rosebud. Many natives of this Portugese territory were involved in lime burning on both sides of the bay.