Flinders - Culture and History

Prior to European settlement the Boonwurung Aborigines occupied the area. Westernport was noted and named by George Bass on January 4,1798, during a trip from Sydney in which he discovered the Strait which bears his name. Bass chose the title 'Western Port' as it was then the most westerly point of the Australian coast explored by the English. James Garnet and Lieutenant John Murray explored Westernport on separate voyages in 1801 and a French party visited it the following year. The presence of the French was a major motivation for the establishment of the first British colony on the Mornington Peninsula (see entry on Sorrento) in 1803 but it did not last long and it was not until the mid-1830s that Europeans gained a permanent foothold in the area (see entry on Melbourne).

Squatters began to move into the Mornington Peninsula late in the 1830s and Henry Tuck settled in the immediate district in the mid-1840s. James Smith took up land now occupied by the Flinders Golf Course in the late 1840s. Farming later emerged in the hinterland. Fishermen were working on the foreshore of West Head (originally known as Black Head) by the 1850s.

During the goldrush days of the 1850s Chinese immigrants disembarked at Flinders to avoid paying the 10-pound immigration tax levied at official ports. In 1856 110 were living on Flinders Beach, approximately where the yacht club is now situated. They fished and established market gardens.

Post office services commenced in 1863 and a pier was constructed in 1864-65 which facilitated interchange between local producers (of bacon, dairy products and railway sleepers) and the Melbourne markets. A school was established in 1865 and church services commenced in the school in 1867. The first town allotments went on sale in1866 and a general store was established on the first block to be sold. A village of fishermen's huts later emerged on the foreshore.

In 1869, Flinders became the site of a telegraph station which connected Tasmania and the mainland via an underwater cable. In the 1880s Flinders began to promote itself as a health and recreation resort and guesthouses started to emerge, along with the Flinders Hotel, established in 1890. Fishing, farming and tourism have remained the focus of the local community which supplies large quantities of abalone, crayfish and mussels.

The Flinders Art Show is held annually on the Queen's Birthday weekend.