Portsea - Culture and History

European visitation of the bay dates back to 1802 when Lieutenant Murray spent over three weeks exploring its features. He named Point Nepean and, at Point King, just to the east of Portsea, he thrust the Union Jack proprietorially into native soil. A cairn now marks the spot. Soon afterwards Matthew Flinders entered the bay, thinking it to be Westernport.

When a French scientific expedition arrived to investigate the area in 1802 (see entry on French Island) two men were sent by Governor King to examine the possibility of establishing a British outpost at Port Phillip Bay, thereby forestalling any potential French foothold in the colony. In 1803, a Lieutenant Collins was placed in charge of a convict settlement at Sullivans Bay (now Sorrento). It was abandoned the following year.

The first pastoral run at the western end of the peninsula was taken up in 1837. Other graziers followed, including James Sandle Ford who, in 1840, took up a parcel of land which he named Portsea after his home town in England. He had been transported to Van Dieman's Land in 1830 for 'machine-breaking' in the agricultural unrest that accompanied the industrial revolution in England.

As settlement at Melbourne got under way in the late 1830s there was a growing demand for lime which was used as a mortar in building. Limestone was plentiful on the Mornington Peninsula and a number of kilns were set up by men such as Ford. The remnants can be seen at Point King. Between them the graziers and lime-burners devastated the original vegetation, thus permitting today's dense tea-tree scrub to take over.

In the early 1850s a ship entered the bay carrying passengers stricken with yellow fever. Consequently a quarantine station was set up in 1852, just west of the present townsite. Some of the original limestone buildings remain.

A fort with barracks was built at Point Nepean in 1882 to defend the headlands of Port Phillip Bay during a period when there were pervasive fears of a Russian invasion. Local limestone proved ideal for the construction of underground passages and, by the end of the 19th century, the fort was allegedly the most heavily armoured outpost in the Southern Hemisphere.

In 1967 Point Nepean earned significant notoriety when the incumbent Australian prime minister Harold Holt went missing while spearfishing off Cheviot Beach. His body was never recovered. The offshore waters are now known as the Harold Holt Marine Reserve.

Today Portsea is a an up-market holiday spot (with rather up-market accommodation) and a dormitory area for wealthier Melbourne employees.