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Postcards: Stories from the Mornington Peninsula
... Sorrento pier...Paddle Steamers at Sorrento...Postcard: 'The Pier, Sorrento', c. 1920...The Sorrento pier was constructed in 1870 mainly for vessels engaged in transporting lime to Melbourne. By 1886 the regular steamship service was capable of carrying well over 3,000 passengers a day on the paddle steamers Ozone, Hygeia and Weeroona...The Sorrento Tramway Company was established in 1889 and enabled passengers from the steamships to enjoy a comfortable ride through town to ocean swimming at the Back Beach. ...Stories of a time in history when holidaying was a grand pastime, and when special and unique places in Victoria began to be appreciated, celebrated and shared in that iconic mode of communication: the picture postcard.
Inspired by postcards in their collections, eight historical societies developed themes to explore the history of the Mornington Peninsula.
This story is based on a touring exhibition which was initiated by the Mornington Peninsula Local History Network and the Mornington Peninsula Shire.
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William Buckley
... convicted of receiving stolen goods (a roll of cloth) and sentenced to transportation for life in 1802. The attempt to settle Port Phillip Bay failed and the settlement at Sullivan Bay near Sorrento (Victoria’s first official European settlement ...After convict William Buckley’s escape from a Victorian settlement he was discovered by the Wathaurang people who thought this pale, 198cm giant carrying a spear was the ghost of one of their leaders.
Buckley had arrived at Port Phillip from England in 1803 with about 300 soldiers, settlers and convicts after being sentenced to transportation for life. Before the Port Phillip and Sullivan Bay (Victoria’s first official European settlement) settlement was abandoned, Buckley escaped. He wandered alone for weeks before he was befriended by the Wathaurang people.
Over the next 32 years Buckley lived with the Wathaurang, learnt their language and customs, married and had a daughter. In 1835 he finally emerged to meet Batman’s colonising party and tried to work as an intermediary between settlers and aborigines, but felt he wasn’t trusted by either.
His name lives on in Australian slang with the ironic saying “you’ve got Buckley’s chance” or “Buckley’s hope”.
Further material can be found at the State Library of Victoria's Ergo site:-
William Buckley's Escape
Buckley and the Aborigines
Buckley's return to European life
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Isaac Douglas Hermann & Heather Arnold
Carlo Catani: An engineering star over Victoria
... Checchi. From the late 1800’s, Carlo Catani in his capacity as the Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department of Victoria, was already envisioning a scenic Port Melbourne to Sorrento motorway, and took steps to ensure its development. Catani’s ...After more than forty-one years of public service that never ended with his retirement, through surveying and direct design, contracting, supervision, and collaborative approaches, perhaps more than any other single figure, Carlo Catani re-scaped not only parts of Melbourne, but extensive swathes of Victoria ‘from Portland to Mallacoota’, opening up swamplands to farming, bringing access to beauty spots, establishing new townships, and the roads to get us there.