Portland Bay

Portland, about 225 miles west of Melbourne, was the first permanent European settlement in what became Victoria with a whaling station established here in 1833.

The settlement grew and, in 1840, the town of Portland was surveyed and crown lands sold to colonists the same year. It grew rapidly as a result of the gold rush in the 1850s and was an important destination for assisted emigrants under the HIES scheme and others, 11,000 arriving at the harbour during the 1850s.

Voyages