*Portland
(including Narrawong)*
*Major port in Western Victoria*
Portland is an attractive and
scenic holiday centre situated on Portland
Bay 361 km west of Melbourne and 75
km east, by road, of the South
Australian border. As the only
deep-sea port between Adelaide and Port
Phillip it is a major exporting
centre for the produce of south-western
Victoria and south-eastern South
Australia - principally wool, grains
and secondary manufactures made in
Portland itself. Other contributions
to the local economy are made by an
aluminium smelter (employing 700
people), the fertiliser industry,
woolstores, and the fishing industry
(focusing particularly on crayfish,
lobsters, shark, abalone and
deep-sea trawling).
The city has a current population
of around 12 000 and is situated at an
elevation of 45 metres. Portland
features many historic buildings and
short stretches of beach fronting
safe still waters, ideal for family
recreation. Portland Bay is ideal
for boating, fishing and sailboarding
and there are many fine surfing
spots in the area. The district is also
profuse with outstanding natural
attractions.
The Portland district was once
occupied by the Kerrup-Tjmara people who
called the district 'Pulumbete'
meaning 'Little Lake' (a reference to
what is now called Fawthrop
Lagoon). Although there were thousands of
indigenous inhabitants in the 1830s
the usual sorry tale surrounding
white impact on Aboriginal
communities meant that virtually none
remained by 1885.
Matthew Flinders' reports of seals
on the Furneaux Islands of Bass
Strait in 1798 fostered the rapid
establishment of a sealing industry
along the southern coast. Although
there are few records it seems likely
that individuals engaged in sealing
did become acquainted with, and
probably even set up camp within,
the large sheltered confines of
Portland Bay. The only hard
evidence consists of two sealers' graves
(dated 1822 and 1828) on Julia
Percy Island at the entrance to the bay.
At any rate it is known for certain
that, in December 1800, Lieutenant
James Grant passed by the bay
aboard the Lady Nelson, naming it after
the British home secretary, the
Duke of Portland. In 1802 this section
of the coastline was scrutinized
more closely by French navigator
Nicolas Baudin.
In 1828 and 1829 William Dutton
visited the bay on two sealing
expeditions. He built a hut in 1829
and resided there between subsequent
sealing expeditions. The crucial
event for the emergence of a permanent
settlement at Portland Bay occurred
in March 1833 when Dutton, acting
for a Captain Griffiths of
Launceston, established a very substantial
and lucrative whaling fishery at
the bay for the extraction and shipping
of whale oil and whale bone
(previously processed at Launceston).
This industry employed not only
seasonal whalers (many from Cornwall in
England) but a permanent staff of
factory hands, shipwrights,
sailmakers, coopers, blacksmiths,
bricklayers and other artisans.
Buildings were erected and Dutton
grew potatoes and other vegetables.
Most importantly, the fishery
entailed the establishment of Portland Bay
as a port.
In 1833 Edward Henty undertook an
unsuccessful voyage to South Australia
in search of good land for the
family's rural enterprises. On the way
back he stopped in at Portland Bay
to pick up whale oil for the family
company in Launceston. He made a
favourable report of the immediate
environs to his father Thomas (who
had made his name as a merino sheep
breeder at Sussex in England) and
returned for a closer look.
After paying a visit himself Thomas
Henty decided the land at Portland
Bay was suitable for the
establishment of a branch of the family firm.
Thus Edward arrived with stock and
servants to manage this putative
enterprise in November 1834. He was
joined in December by his brother
Frank who brought with him the
first merino sheep in Victoria. They set
about whaling, sealing and cropping
and, in November 1835, sheared the
first sheep in Victoria. They also
planted Victoria's first grape vines.
The Hentys are widely regarded as
the first Europeans to establish a
permanent settlement in Victoria.
Consequently in November 1984
Victoria's 150th anniversary
celebrations commenced at Portland. The
Prince and Princess of Wales
visited Portland the following year.
However, there seems no doubt that
permanent European settlement
commenced with Dutton's large-scale
fishery in March 1833 which was not,
as some have assumed, a purely
seasonal enterprise.
Surveyor and explorer Thomas
Mitchell visited Portland Bay during his
search for good pasturage south of
the Murray River in August 1836. He
was amazed to find the settlement
in existence. Indeed when an
Aboriginal guide asserted that he
could see houses and a ship at anchor
Mitchell was disbelieving. However,
when a boot print and broken bottle
were found in the sand, and cattle
tracks nearby, he was convinced and
so named the beach area the
'Convincing Ground', by which name it is
still known today. As the explorer
approached the settlement both
parties initially suspected the
other of being bushrangers. Mitchell
noted some 200 people at Portland.
At the Hentys' request he named the
nearby river the Surry after the
family benefactor Lord Surry.
Inspired by Mitchell's reports of
good land to the north of Portland,
the Henty family moved inland in
1837, marking the start of European
settlement in the Western district.
In this respect the Henty dynasty
was important to the history of the
state. The port served as the point
of export for their produce.
There were at least seven whaling
establishments at Portland Bay by
1838. 5000 tons of oil and five
thousand hundredweight of whalebone were
exported from Portland between 1833
and 1843. The enterprise peaked in
1838 when 40 boats were whaling in
the bay. After 1840 the industry went
into rapid decline as numbers
declined. Only twelve whales were killed
in the bay between 1851 and 1868.
Dutton himself was involved in the
last such episode. Like Edward
Henty he died in 1878 and his grave is
marked by a cenotaph outside the
main enclosure at Narrawong Cemetery.
In 1839 police magistrate Foster
Fyans was sent by Governor Gipps to Portland Bay as the
Hentys were believed to have
first-hand knowledge of an Aboriginal
massacre in the area. Fyans sent no
report of the massacre but wrote
much to recommend Portland Bay as
the site of a port and township. A
survey was carried out from
November 1839 and land sales proceeded in
1840, despite the objections of the
Henty family. A police magistrate
was also appointed at this time. A
building boom ensued with six hotels
and four churches appearing. The
Portland Mercury (Victoria's
second-oldest newspaper) and the
Guardian were established in 1842. The
first trading bank appeared in 1846
and the first savings bank the
following year.
As the hinterland was more closely
settled, pastoral and agricultural
produce underscored the importance
of the port. The first jetty was
built in 1846. Shipping activity
was further intensified by the
goldrushes of the 1850s and 1860s.
A National School appeared alongside
earlier denominational schools in
1856 and a new pier was built in 1859.
The settlement was declared a
borough in 1863.
Mary MacKillop, declared a saint in
1995 for her tireless work in the
fields of education, social reform
and assistance to the poor and
disadvantaged, arrived at Portland
in 1862 to act as governess to the
daughters of Mrs Duncan Cameron, a
relative of the family. She became
sacristan at All Saints Catholic
Church. In 1863 she obtained her first
formal teaching position at a local
common school (now All Saints
Primary School). She rented a house
owned by Stephen Henty and there
reunited her scattered immediate
family. In 1864 she set up a seminary
for 'young ladies', teaching school
subjects, as well as drawing,
singing and music, in addition to
her work at the common school.
However, her seminary struggled,
she lost her position at the common
school and family tensions emerged
in the household. Although she left
Portland in January 1866 to return
to Penola, she took
with her the experience she had
garnered in the fields of education and
administration.
By the end of the 1860s Portland
had become a thriving commercial
centre. A meat-preserving works
opened in 1869 and, in 1873, a
fish-preserving company and a
wool-selling operation were established.
They joined a flour mill, a
brick-and-tile company and the Portland
Steam Navigation Company.
The 1870s were to prove a boom
period. The railway from Hamilton
which
arrived in 1878, provided a further fillip to trade.
However, when a system of
preferential rail rates was introduced
it made it just as cheap to
transport produce to Melbourne as Portland
and the trade quickly declined.
Work on a breakwater was abandoned
in 1873 and, instead, prisoners were
employed in opening up the creek to
form an inland fishing basin
(completed in 1891). However,
siltation proved a problem and it was
feared the harbour was doomed. The
construction of a deep-water pier
from 1898 to 1901 (extended in
1914) provided a new lease of life making
Portland a centre for the export of
West Victorian produce. However,
trade again declined when
bulk-handling facilities were established at
Geelong.
Portland was declared a town in
1949. That same year a major harbour
development program was organised.
As a result two breakwaters now
enclose 100 hectares of sheltered
water. There are bulk grain
facilities, shipping berths, an oil
wharf, an all-purpose bulk berth and
a fishing berth.
The ALCOA aluminium smelter was
built, amidst controversy, in the late
1970s and early 1980s. Portland won
an award in 1984 for its innovative
work in harnessing geothermal
energy from the artesian basin and it is
now a major source of energy to
Portland's municipal buildings. It
became a city in 1985.
Annual events include a foreshore
carnival in January, a fishing
competition in February, the Dahlia
Festival in March, a jazz festival
and Pioneer Week in November and a
surfboat marathon in December.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Things to see:
*The Portland Maritime Discovery
Centre, Tourist Information and Sundry
Activities*
The Portland Maritime Discovery and
Visitors' Centre is located on the
foreshore of Portland, adjacent Lee
Breakwater Rd. It functions as the
local information centre and it
also has displays concerning aspects of
local maritime history whaling,
navigation, rescue, shipwrecks, marine
life, marine exploration and the
story of European immigration and
settlement. It is open from 9.00
a.m. to 5.00 p.m. daily, tel: (03) 5523
2671 or free-call (1800) 035 567.
The centre also has a souvenir shop
and a restaurant with fine views of
the bay.
You can make accommodation bookings
here, organize itineraries and
enquire about organizations
operating harbour cruises, fishing trips,
diving tours, abseiling,
mountain-bike excursions, canoeing, caving, joy
flights, horseriding, tours of Cape
Nelson Lighthouse, and free bus
tours to the aluminium smelter
which takes in the wetlands and the
smelter's extensive nursery. They
are conducted on Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays at 10.00 a.m. and 1.00
p.m. Maps are also available
concerning the Historic Shipwrecks
Trail which follows a series of
signposts around the coastline to
wreckage sites, and the Wood Wine and
Roses Forest Drive which heads
north-west through the Cobboboonee State
Forest to Heywood. A Volcanic Trail
is also being developed which takes
in the area's volcanic sites.
The Centre can also provide
information about the opportunities for
whale watching between June and
September when the whales sometimes
visit the harbour.
*Harbour Foreshore*
The harbour foreshore features a
playground area and pedalsteamers
operate on weekends and in the
summer school holidays (weather
permitting) at Henty Beach, tel:
(03) 5526 5360. There is a considerable
fee.
*Lookout Tower Museum*
The World War II Memorial Lookout
Tower in Wade St (which runs off the
northern end of Bentinck St) offers
fine panoramic views of Portland and
the surrounding district. This
25-metre structure was built as a water
tower in the 1930s. In the 1990s it
became a lookout and museum with
displays relating to Portland's
involvement in World War II. It is open
daily from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.
There is an admission fee for adults,
tel: (03) 5523 3938.
*Burswood Gardens*
At the southern end of Bentinck St
is a bridge which spans the canal
that adjoins the ocean to Fawthrop
Lagoon. On the far side of the
bridge, to the immediate left, is
Burswood, a fine bluestone
Regency-style mansion built in the
early to mid 1850s for pioneer
settler Edward Henty. His third
home, it is said to be a copy of a Henty
family home in Sussex. He brought
the framework, 18 000 hardwood
shingles and 2500 bricks from
Tasmania. It is now a bed-and-breakfast.
For a fee visitors can explore the
fine 12-acre gardens which feature
330 species, including a geometric
rose garden.
*Fawthrop Lagoon*
The Canal Bridge is one point of
access to Fawthrop Lagoon which was
named after Portland's first
harbour master. It is a permanent wetland
offering 5 km of gentle walking
tracks and birdwatching opportunities
(there is a birdhide). Another
point of access is from Glenelg St.
*Car Museum*
Adjacent the lagoon, at the corner
of Glenelg and Percy Streets, is the
Powerhouse Car Museum which is home
to a collection of veteran, vintage
classic cars and motorcycles,
stationary engines, antique signs, petrol
pumps, tools, model cars, tractors,
garage equipment and other
memorabilia. It is open weekdays
from 1.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. and
weekends and school holidays from
10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m., tel: (03)
5523 5795.
*Portland Battery*
Like many such structures, the
Portland Battery was built in 1889 during
a pervasive fear of Russian
invasion. It has been fully restored and
includes the original lamp passage
and powder magazine. One of the
canons dates back to 1811. Contact
the Visitors' centre for firing
times. It is located in Victoria
Parade.
*Point Danger*
Follow the Madeira Packet Rd south
out of town, along the coastline and
past the golf course. It leads by
Blacknose Point and Crumpets (both
noted surfing areas). Before you
get to the aluminium smelter take the
signposted left which leads to
Point Danger. There is a viewing area
(binoculars are recommended) which
overlooks Lawrence Rocks, just
offshore. This is the largest
nesting site of the Australasian gannet in
the Southern Hemisphere.
*The Smelter Nature Walk*
If you ignore this turnoff and
continue along the main road, it leads
past the smelter to a dead end
which is the start of the Smelter Nature
Walk, a 2.2-km paved track that
passes through coastal cliff-top
scenery. It is wheelchair friendly
and a motorised wheelchair is
available. A recent fire has
destroyed the numbered information posts
but it is still a very pleasant and
easy stroll, tel: (03) 5523 2671.
*The Great South Walk*
The Great South Walk constitutes
more than 250 km of circular walking
track which starts and finishes at
Portland. Constructed by community
groups it initially heads north
through farmland, veering westwards
through native forests and the
Lower Glenelg National Park, following
the southern bank of the Glenelg
River to its mouth near Nelson
<VICNelson.shtml>, then
returning eastwards along the coastline through
Discovery Bay National Park, with
optional detours past Lake Monibeong
and to Mt Richmond. It then leads
to Descartes Bay and around Cape
Bridgewater, past The Springs, the
Petrified Forest, the seal colony,
Bridgwater Bay, Cape Nelson, Point
Danger and back to Portland. Sections
are accessible by car to allow
shorter day or weekend walks. The best
times are from October to December
or late March to early June. A
detailed brochure is available from
Parks Victoria offices. There are
canoeing opportunities and numerous
camping spots.
*Portland Bay Lavender Farm*
Portland Bay Lavender Farm is
located on the Princes Highway, 10 km east
of Portland between Narrawong and
Allestree. It has a shop and cafe
selling products, gifts, plants and
refreshments and is open most days
from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m., tel:
(03) 5529 5316.
*Fishing*
Within the breakwaters of
Portland's harbour is a large area for safe
boating and sailing. As it is
protected from westerly winds, the bay may
be fished in nearly all weather
conditions. There are double concrete
boat ramps near the yacht club (on
the foreshore at Henty Beach) and at
the Henty Bay Caravan Park, along
with three jetties and a cleaning
table. Beach access is at Wally's
ramp (Fergusons Rd) for 4WDs and small
boats.
There are also boat ramps at
Narrawong (17 km to the north-east via the
Henty Highway), at the mouth of the
Fitzroy River near Tyrendarra East
(35 km east on the Princes
Highway), at Bridgewater Beach (see previous
entry), the Bridgewater Lakes
Aquatic Club (see previous entry) and from
seven landings along the Glenelg
River to the west of Portland.
For those without a boat, there are
rock ledges and plenty of spots for
surf and pier fishing. Bridgewater
Lakes and the Glenelg, Fitzroy and
Surry Rivers are also popular
spots. A fishing guide is available from
the Discovery Centre.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tourist
Information
Portland Maritime Discovery Museum
& Vistors Centre
Lee Breakwater Rd
Portland VIC 3305
Telephone: (03) 5523 2671, 1800 035
567
------------------------------------------------------------------------
