In Search of a Title

Let's go back 200 years, to when the British discovered that the southernmost tip of their new southern land is actually an island. In 1803, two parties are sent out to establish settlements. 23 year old Lt Bowen takes his group of marines, convicts and free settlers to the southern part of the island, to a cove on the eastern shore of the Derwent. Lt-Col Collins goes to take control of the strait separating the island and the mainland by establishing a settlement at Port Phillip Bay, where Melbourne now is. The chosen site is not considered suitable though, and so they up and move down to the Derwent. Collins isn't very impressed by Bowen's choice of site either, so he moves them all over to Sullivans Cove on the other shore (and that obviously worked.)

Meanwhile, up north, there is still the worry that the French might settle in Bass Strait.

In May 1804 instructions were received from London that a new settlement should be founded at Port Dalrymple in Van Diemen's Land and that (Lt-Col William) Paterson should be put in charge of it. After an attempt made abortive by bad weather, Paterson sailed from Sydney on 15 October with a detachment of soldiers and seventy-five convicts to found this outpost.*

(From Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online edition)

At first they camped on the eastern side of the river, at Outer Cove, where George Town is today (which is why George Town sometimes claims to be the oldest town in Australia), but shortly after, the settlement moved to the other side of the river and a little town built.

( Which is where we're going now. )