Page 20 - 1978 NAB Calendar Early Australian Maritime Life Part Two

PORT PHILLIP HEADS
foreground onlookers in a rowing boat peer at the crowd of vessels. Portsea and
SEPTEMBER
Point Nepean on the opposite side of the Bay are visible in the distance.
This hand coloured steel engraving shows a view of Port Phillip Heads, Victoria, just
The lighthouse on the bluff, the first to be built at Queenscliff, was constructed
inside the Bay offshore from Queenscliff.
of local sandstone. It stood 45 feet above the 75 foot drop of the bluff and with
Queenscliff’s first white inhabitants were men who made a living from illegal salvaging
the lightkeeper’s cottage beneath was an important marker for shipping through
the not
from the numerous wrecks at the “Rip”, the dangerous narrow channel at the entrance orious “Rip”. By 1850 it had been encased in hardwood as the sandstone
to Port Phillip Bay. Once a lighthouse was built a small* settlement grew up known as
had weathered badly.
Shortland’s Bluff after Lieutenant Shortland, a surveyor. The year 1852 saw the town
Fort Queenscliff, which now dominates the bluff, was erected in the ■'880’s
surveyed and renamed Queenscliff to celebrate the separation of Victoria from New
following a Russian scare. The bluestone lighthouse, now within the Fort,
South Wales and with this development came an influx of government officials.
replaced the earlier one shown in the engraving. Its bluestone blocks were cut
in Scot
With the prosperity gold brought to the colony, many citizens chose Queenscliff as a land and shipped out to be assembled on the spot. The cupola was made
of Birm
site for their summer cottages and soon shops and a school followed. During its heyday ingham steel. Fort Queenscliff is now the home of the Australian Military
Queenscliff was a highly fashionable resort attracting visitors by bay steamer and from
Staff College. Tourism and fishing vie for the title of Queenscliff’s major industry,
1879 by the railway. though the quiet and elegance of earlier times sets the town apart from
neighbouring resorts.
This print depicts a scene of the late 1840’s showing an emigrant ship sailing towards
The en
Melbourne. On either side are two bustling paddle tugs full of holiday makers. In the graving of Port Phillip Heads first appeared in Australia illustrated’ by E.
C. Booth, London (1874-76). It is based on sketches made by John Skinner
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Prout (see April note) twenty five years earlier during his tour of Port Phillip Bay.