'Meeting of Major Mitchell and Edward Henty, Portland Bay, 1836'

Educational value

• This asset depicts a significant meeting in Australian history, between Major Thomas Livingstone Mitchell and Edward Henty - Mitchell headed an official exploratory party of 23 men that left Sydney in March 1836; when the party reached Portland Bay on 29 August, the men were amazed to find the country occupied by non-Indigenous people.
• It portrays the early squatter Edward Henty (1810-1878) - Henty had travelled to Portland Bay from Tasmania with labourers, stock, potatoes and seed, and occupied the area on 19 November 1834, nearly two years before Mitchell's party reached the area overland; although Henty is credited with establishing the first permanent white settlement in what is now Victoria, the area had already been in use by whalers and sealers.
• It shows Major Thomas Mitchell (1792-1855), a famous British explorer of Australia, and Surveyor-General of New South Wales between 1828 and 1855 - Mitchell is credited with opening up large areas of land for settlement; on this, his third and most significant exploration, he followed the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and Darling rivers to where they join the Murray; his group then travelled on into what is now Victoria and reached the sea at Portland Bay.
• It illustrates the use of Indigenous Australian guides in early exploration - Mitchell held such guides in high esteem; in 1848 he said 'There is no subject connected with New South Wales, or Australia, less understood than the character and condition of the aboriginal [sic] natives. They have been described as the lowest in the scale of humanity; yet I found those who accompanied me superior in penetration and judgement to the white men composing my party'; Mitchell's attitude contrasts with that of many of his peers at the time.
• It depicts the original settlement of Portland - Portland is located 325 kilometres west of Melbourne, and is regarded as the birthplace of Victoria.
• It provides an example of the work of J Macfarlane, completed between 1890 and 1898 - during this time Macfarlane collaborated with C R Long from the Victorian Department of Education to produce images of Australian explorations, probably as part of a set of teaching aids; created more than 50 years after the actual meeting, the drawing is romanticised and inaccurate, particularly in its depiction of the buildings on the Henty farm.

Year level

1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12

Topics Resorts Photogravure Exploration