Victoria is one of 6 states and 2 Territories of Australia. It is located on south east coast of Australia. Initially part of the colony of New South Wales, the area was known as the District of Port Phillip between 1836 and 1851. In 1851, the District of Port Phillip was declared the Colony of Victoria. After Federation in 1901, it became the State of Victoria. Victoria has a population of over 6.5 million people, of which about 1% recognise as Indigenous Australians. The capital of Victoria is Melbourne, home to over 5 million people.
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History of Victoria
Indigenous Settlement
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There is archaeological evidence of human habitation going back over 40,000 years in the area of modern day Victoria. When Europeans arrived, Victoria was home to around 40 distinct Indigenous language groups. Archeological sites such as Bidj Bide heritage area include ancient eel traps and other evidence of farming by the indigenous inhabitant.[1]
Sacred to the Gunditjmara people, the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape provides evidence of a system of channels and weirs constructed from the abundant local volcanic rock to manage water flows from nearby Lake Condah to exploit eels as a food source.[2]
European Settlement
On 14 February 1802, Lieutenant John Murray, entered Port Phillip Bay aboard The Lady Nelson. That same year frenchman Nicholas Baudin, aboard the Geographe and Englishman Matthew Flinders, aboard the Investigator, crossed each other’s paths at Encounter Bay in South Australia, as they traveled westward and eastward respectively, charting the south eastern coastline of Australia.
[Flinders’] survey of Port Phillip is the first detailed examination of the bay and surrounding country. In six days Flinders climbs Arthurs Seat, lands at Mornington and Indented Head, crosses Corio Bay to climb the You Yangs and examines Swan Bay and Queenscliff.[3]
In 1803 a British convict settlement was established at Sullivan Bay near Sorrento, but it was soon disbanded due to lack of water. It wasn’t until November 1834 that the first permanent European settlement was established at an old whaling station at Portland Bay.
In 1835 John Batman signed two treaties with the local Aborigines to claim large tracts of land near modern day Melbourne and Geelong, but New South Wales Governor, Sir Richard Bourke, considered Batman's treaty invalid. Despite being considered trespassers by the governor, people move onto the lush, fertile plains south of the Murray River. In January 1837, Governor Bourke granted “squatters grazing rights beyond the "Limits of Location" subject to a £10 licence fee. In December that year plans for the settlement of Melbourne wasapproved and the first mail service between Sydney and Melbourne began[3].
Melbourne grew quickly and It wasn’t long before residents began to lobby for separation from NSW. At a Public meeting on 28 November, 1844 the separatists appointed a representative to take a petition to England. On 5 August, 1850, the Australian Colonies Government Act received royal assent.
On July 1, 1851, the Port Phillip District of NSW became the Colony of Victoria.
The Gold Rush in Victoria
With the discovery of gold in NSW in 1850, men began to dessert the nascent colony. The newly formed government offered a reward of £200 to anyone who found gold within 200km of Melbourne. Within 6 months gold was discovered near Clunes, 40km north of Ballarat in central Victoria. Almost instantly, the Victorian goldfields dwarfed those to the north, accounting for almost one third of the world’s gold production in the 1850s.
Mt Alexander (taking in the goldfields of Castlemaine and Bendigo) was one of the world's richest shallow alluvial goldfields, yielding around four million ounces of gold, most of which was found in the first two years of the rush and within five metres of the surface.[4]
At one stage an estimated 6000 miners were arriving every week, with migrants coming from all over the world. And it wasn’t just miners attracted to the fields[5]. Storekeepers, publicans and tradespeople came to support the diggers and relieve them of their hard won wealth.
The largest non-European group of miners were Chinese, most of whom were bonded labourers who suffered discrimination from the government and fellow diggers. It’s estimated that by 1855 there were 20,000 Chinese on the Victorian diggings.[6] [But] …from 1855-61 ship's captains had to pay poll taxes of up to £10 per head for each Chinese passenger they landed in Victoria. Word soon spread back home, and many young Chinese seeking their fortunes subsequently disembarked in South Australia and walked overland to the Victorian goldfields.[7]
The influx of immigrants also brought new ideas. Members of the Chartist movement came, hoping for less restrictive government oversight. This heady mix of entrepreneurialism and political idealism eventually led to what is considered one of the defining moments of Australian democracy. Commonly known as the Eureka Stockade, this short lived miners rebellion, while initially a colossal failure, eventually led to innovations such as the secret ballot, an 8 hour working day and the Australian Labor Party.
‘Australian democracy was born at Eureka.’ - Doc Evatt, former Leader of the Australian Labor Party and High Court judge[8]
By 1871 the population of Australia had quadrupled. By the end of the 19th century, Victoria was a prosperous, diverse community.
Post Federation Victoria
On January 1st, 1901, Victoria joined with the five other British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia to form the Commonwealth of Australia, establishing a system of federalism in Australia[9].
Melbourne was the seat of the Australian Government until 1927, when the capital moved to Canberra. One of the first national laws introduced to the new Australian Parliament was the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, which favoured British immigrants over those from any other country. This so called "White Australia" policy entrenched deeply racist beliefs in Australian society, with many Australians of British descent resentful of non-white migrants who would work for lower wages.
Between 1906 and 1923 the state government was responsible for administration of assisted British immigration and nomination schemes for Victoria[10]. After 1923 immigration became a federal responsibility. The government incentivised British migrants, but was not able to attract enough people to maintain population growth.
From 1947 to 1983 substantial numbers of migrants were brought to Victoria under the provisions of various immigration schemes and agreements, including the United Kingdom Free and Assisted Passenger Agreements 1946, Child Migration Scheme from 1947, Empire and Allied Ex-Servicemen's Scheme from 1947, a 1947 agreement between the Commonwealth Government and the International Refugee Organisation facilitating the settlement of European displaced persons and later agreements between the Commonwealth and various European countries.[10]
With an influx of refugees after World War 2, the rules were relaxed to allow migrants from Northern Europe, and eventually Southern Europe, with large influxes of Baltic, Greek and Italian migrants bringing exotic food and drinks like espresso, which Melbourne in particular is known for. The White Australia edifice finally collapsed in the 1970s, with the passage of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 under the Whitlam Government[11]. Since then the country has welcomed waves of refugees and skilled migrants from all over the world. Today Victoria is a vibrant and diverse state of 6.5 Million people, 30% of whom were born overseas.
Government of Victoria
Victoria is divided into seats represented by state parliamentarians. The Victoria State government is responsible for areas of public administration such as schools, hospitals and public transport. They also manage the State Library of Victoria and PROV - the Public Records Office of Victoria, which holds the state archives.
Local Government Areas (LGA's), also known as local councils, are responsible for issues that relate to a local area, sometimes referred to as the 3-Rs - Roads, Rubbish and Recreation[12]. Councils are also responsible for local libraries.
Demographics of Victoria
30% of people in Victoria were born overseas. The 2021 Census included a question on ancestral background. The top ancestral backgrounds in Victoria are:
- English 33%
- Australian 29.9%
- Irish 9.5%
- Scottish 8.6%
- Chinese 5.5%
The top countries of birth of residents in Victoria were:
- Australia 65%
- India 4%
- England 2.7%
- China 2.6%
- New Zealand 1.5%
After English the most common languages used are Mandarin (3.4%), Vietnamese (1.8%), Greek (1.6%) and Punjabi (1.6%)[13].
Most popular surnames in Victoria
Researching family history in Victoria
The Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria (BDM) website has historical indexes of births, baptisms, marriages, burials and deaths dating back to as early as 1836. You can order PDF or hard copy certificates through the website.
Melbourne was the centre for federal government activity from Federation in 1901, up until the 1960s. The National Archives of Australia holds a large collection of administrative records in their Melbourne reading room.
Notable subject areas include:
- army and navy correspondence
- immigration correspondence and case records
- shipping and navigation
- courts and tribunals.
While most records date from Federation in 1901 onwards, they do have some records dating as far back as the 1850s, which were inherited from the Victorian colonial government.
Public Records Office Victoria (PROV), is the archive for Victorian State and Local Government. It holds records related to early census collections, passenger lists and immigration, land and property, and wills and probate.
Museums Victoria manage a group of collections including the Immigration Museum located in the old Customs House building on the banks of the Yarra River. This museum charts the history and social impact of immigration to Victoria and showcases the stories of the state’s diverse communities.
The State Library of Victoria has a large collection of research guides, to help you navigate their enormous collection. Trove, managed by the National Library of Australia, is an extraordinary free resource that aggregates content, including digitised newspapers, magazines, images, diaries and letters, and other material, dating from the establishment of the colony, from collections around Australia. Military Archives from around the country are predominantly held at the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra. The collection includes millions of items relating to individuals, units and conflicts, including digitised service records.
In regional areas and small country towns, local history and genealogical societies are a great source of local records. Many regional towns in Victoria have a local history society, and/or a local library and museum. The Federation of Australian Historical Societies has a searchable index where you can find contact details for a society in a specific town or locality, or simply do a web search for the town name plus historical society.
And of course, MyHeritage holds a large number of records for Victoria.
Search MyHeritage for records from Victoria
See also
Explore more about Victoria
- Victoria - Collection Catalog at MyHeritage
- My Top 5 Websites for Victorian research in Australia - webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
References
- ↑ Wikipedia - Aboriginal Victorians
- ↑ DCCEEW- Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 State Library of Victoria - Early Victorian History Timeline
- ↑ Visit Melbourne - goldfields
- ↑ Resources Victoria
- ↑ National Museum of Australia - Gold Rushes
- ↑ Immigration Museum - Journeys to Australia
- ↑ National Museum of Australia - Eureka Stockade
- ↑ Wikipedia - Federation of Australia
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 PROV - Immigration
- ↑ NMA - White Australia Policy
- ↑ Parliamentary Education Office
- ↑ ABS Snapshot - Victoria