An Historical Account of Traralgon - Traralgon & District Historical ...
www.traralgonhistory.asn.au/rolf/chapter2.htm‎

Chapter 2 gives excellent detail about Edward Hobson and his medico brother Edmund and also the Meyricks who were involved near Traralgon as well as on the Boniyong and Coolort Runs on the Mornington Peninsula.

The history is a good read. There is one error however; the Rosebud was wrecked in 1855, not 1840 as stated in THE RIVER OF LITTLE FISH.

EXTRACT FROM:
'I Succeeded Once': The Aboriginal Protectorate on the ... - Spiffa
www.spiffa.org/uploads/2/6/7/5/2675656/i_succeeded_once.pdf‎
'I Succeeded Once': The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula,. 1839?1840. Marie Hansen Fels. THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY.

The Hobson family
Edward William Hobson and his brother Edmund Hobson are said to have been born in New South Wales:7
they were baptised in VDL:8
their father, also named Edward, was a schoolmaster in the VDL district of Clarence Plains.9
Edward William was a seaman in his youth in the coastal trade around Australia and
New Zealand, with his mother?s family the Lutterells. He arrived in Port Phillip
in 1837, taking up his first station on the Plenty River.
5 Bride 1983[1898]: 11?12. This is the mouth of Tassel?s or Brokil Creek, now developed as a marina.
6 Billis and Kenyon 1974[1932]: 83.
7 ?Hobson, Edward William (1816 ? 1890?)?, Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol 1: 544.
8 Register of Births, Deaths, Marriages, Archives Office of Tasmania.
9 Clark 2000, vol 5: 246.?I Succeeded Once?
176
Edmund, the much loved and respected doctor, was an heir to his grandfather,
Dr Lutterell, and was sent to Europe to obtain his medical qualification. He
accompanied Lady Jane Franklin on her overland journey from Port Phillip to
Sydney in 1839, and while on a stopover at Port Phillip, he visited Kangerong. In
1840 he returned permanently to Port Phillip with his wife Margaret, spending
time at Kangerong while he was convalescing from pulmonary disease. While at
Kangerong he travelled by gig to Wul-wul-a-bulluk, the station at Capel Sound,
for which he held the licence with his brother, and the place where a substantial
house was built by the time the McCrae family took up their run at Arthurs
Seat.10 The Index to Depasturing Licences, 1840 to 1851, shows him to have
taken out some licences in his own name, as well as other licences with his
brother Edward, and with Dr James Agnew, another connection from VDL, in
both the Western Port and Gippsland squatting districts.11
Robinson?s journal for 1847 records numerous mentions of visiting Dr Hobson,
taking tea with him, dining with him, showing interest in the fossil specimens
which Edmund, a distinguished naturalist, collected, and corresponding with
him while Robinson was away on field trips. When Robinson?s wife Maria lay
dying in the winter of 1848, Robinson sent a dozen roses to Mrs Hobson which
resulted in Mrs Hobson calling the next day: separately, Edmund Hobson called
and offered to pray for Mrs Robinson, an offer rejected by Robinson (Dr Godfrey
Howitt was Mrs Robinson?s physician, not Dr Edmund Hobson).12
The mother of Edmund and Edward Hobson, Melvina Hobson nee Lutterell, was known in Port Phillip as George Smith?s wife , though exhaustive searches
in Tasmanian, New South Wales and Victorian archives reveal no marriage, and
she was not buried as Melvina Smith but as Melvina Hobson, widow. She lived
with George Smith at Dr Edmond Hobson?s Melbourne house Carrencurrenalk,
on the south side of the Yarra, near the McCraes at Mayfield, opposite what is
now the Studley Park golf course. They had a house as well at Capel Sound.
George Smith had a son known in the records only as Mr Smith Junior (no given
name is ever mentioned), and it is not known whether he was Melvina Hobson?s son
by George Smith or George Smith?s son by a previous marriage.13 Edward Hobson was
the first squatter on the Mornington Peninsula, and the extended families, together
with their connections, were deeply engaged with the Bonurong.
10 Edmund Hobson to Margaret Hobson Ms 8457, Box 865/2B, SLV. This letter is undated but is possibly 1843 as Edmund enquires after ?little Jack?. Edmund and Margaret Hobson had twin boys born Melbourne 1843, one of whom John, died aged five in 1848 the same year as his father. This child is presumably little Jack, see Pioneer Index, Victoria, 1836?1888. In the same year 1848, Margaret Hobson had another set of twins.
11 Button Index, GMF 92/Box 38, SLV; Jane Franklin, GH, Hobart 18 February 1841 to my dear Dr Hobson, Ms 8457, Box 865/1/c, SLV.
12 Clark 2000, vol 5: 205. Mrs Robinson died on 10 August 1848.
13 For George Smith?s wife/Melvina/mother of Edward and Edmond, see George Gordon McCrae, Ms 2523/4/c, SLV; for Carrencurrenalk, see Kerr?s Melbourne Almanac for 1841.5 . Kangerong, Protectorate second station177
Kangerong was the principal encampment on the Mornington Peninsula and the run
functioned for Europeans as well, as the hub of the district. Edward Hobson was
helpful to the new chums Alfred and Maurice Meyrick at Boniong; later, he facilitated their brother and cousin Henry Howard Meyrick onto Colourt. Edward Hobson is the pivotal figure in the early history, and it is highly likely that this Bonurong speaking young man, with his good relations with the Bonurong, together with George Smith, his mother?s partner, set the tone of the peaceful interactions on the Mornington Peninsula . It is fatuous to dismiss these good relationships as attributable to the fact that the Bonurong were a mild and inoffensive race (a judgement sourced from Henry Howard Meyrick and repeated endlessly in local histories). The Bonurong were no different from any other nation in the Kulin Confederacy in terms of their culture and lifestyle. That there was no conflict at all on the Mornington Peninsula is to be explained in the same terms as conflict is explained in other regions of Victoria, that is, in terms of individual leaders, of social and political agendas of groups, of the tone of relationships both Indigenous and European. It is patronising to label such powerful and distinguished leaders as Old Mr Mann, Koolloorlook, Kurborough, Old Doctor, Bobbinary, Budgery Tom, to name but a few, as ?a mild and inoffensive race?.
Fig 27. ?Tommy Hobson?
Carl Walter photograph, 1866, at Coranderrk; possibly related to Edward Hobson?s Tommy. Reproduced with the permission of the State Library of Victoria.?I Succeeded Once?

As can be seen from the records of their relationships with the Bonurong in this
chapter and in the next, Edward Hobson and George Smith seemed genuinely
to like them and to respect them; more importantly, these day-to-day records
demonstrate that the Bonurong men and women observed Europeans keenly,
interpreted European reactions accurately, judged them, criticised them, defied
them, manipulated them to get what they wanted, all the while giving precedence
in their decision making to their prior tribal relationships: they also retained
their freedom of movement throughout their country (except Melbourne).

'I Succeeded Once': The Aboriginal Protectorate on the ... - Spiffa
www.spiffa.org/uploads/2/6/7/5/2675656/i_succeeded_once.pdf‎
'I Succeeded Once': The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula,. 1839?1840. Marie Hansen Fels. THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY.