A time-line of early Aboriginal history in Victoria

Cook's voyage aboard the Endeavour (possibly seen by the Gunnai people of Gippsland, eastern Victoria).

Shipwrecked crew of the Sydney Cove struggle overland from 90 Mile Beach (eastern Victoria) to Sydney.

Population thought to have been halved by smallpox.

though it is often reported that smallpox may have been deliberately introduced by colonists in New South Wales, historians have argued that that there is no evidence of this, but by contrast there are compelling arguments for it having been inadvertently introduced by Maccassan fisherman who began traveling to northern Australian coasts at about the time that Sydney was founded.

The Aboriginal population of Victoria is reduced to approximately 30,000.

George Bass explores down the coast from Sydney as far as Westernport, passing by the Gippsland Coast.

Lieutenant Murray is the first to cross Bass Straight, from Tasmania to Victoria, at the helm of the Lady Nelson.

Lieutenant David Collins disembarks at present day Sorrento, on the east side of Port Phillip Bay, with 467 people (including convicts).
Wada Wurrung warriors encounter survey parties from the Sorrento encampment.
Clash occurs between 200 warriors and a survey party (one warrior felled).
Colony fails and disembarks after 8 months leaving the convict William Buckley who has escaped.

Occasional contacts between sealers and Aboriginal people.
William Buckley lives with Wada Wurrung clans, travelling throughout the plains between Port Phillip and Lake Corangamite.

John Batman (on behalf of the Port Phillip Association of Tasmania) arrives at and surveys the future site of Melbourne. After a week he meets with representatives of the Kulin (presumably mostly Woi Wurrung and Bun Wurrung people). A ceremony is undertaken wherein the Kulin sign a treaty in which, according to the words on the document, they exchanged their lands for various items such as axes and blankets. (Clearly they understood the ceremony in a very different way.)
Batman writes of the area   "...The most beautiful sheep pasturage I ever saw in my life."
William Buckley rejoins white society after thirty years living with the Wada Wurrung.

Henty family settles in Portland (far west Victoria)

John Pascoe Fawkner lands at the Yarra with his wife, servants, farm and household stock.

Joseph Gellibrand traverses the 'purchased' land with William Buckley.
    "The Kulin were a fine race of men, many of them handsome in their person and well
    made. They are strong, athletic, very intelligent and quick in their perceptions."

Population of Port Phillip district = 177 settlers + 800 Aborigines.

Port Phillip Settlement (Melbourne) officially proclaimed.

First government mission opened in Melbourne.

Buntingdale mission opened south of Birregurra by Wesleyan missionaries.

A. Russel (a traveler) writes that the Aboriginal people are on the "best of all possible terms with
    settlers families having regular visits from some one or other of them, who perform at
    times little services, getting clothing etc. in return."

John cotton: "I have seen some of the Blacks walking the streets of Melbourne who might have
    been termed the native dandies of the town. Their walk is usually very stately & in general they
    are animated and always ready to smile and laugh. There is great beauty in the well-molded
    limbs & forms of the young native."

George Angus Robinson arrives to become "Chief Protector of the Aborigines'.
To herald his arrival, the government sponsors a feast for approx. 300 Aborigines on the banks of the Yarra.

Dr P. Cussens (chief medical officer of the settlement) notes that the Aborigines are suffering high rates of European sicknesses.

Woi Wurrung population = 139, Bun Wurrung = 83
A great deal of fighting occurs among the Aborigines as their situation become increasingly dire.

Settler population = 4,000
Sheep population = 700,000

Loddon / Mt Franklin Station opened.

"Loddon River region in greatest confusion and threatening to descend into a war of extermination on both sides."

Government school for Aborigines opens in Melbourne (closes 1843)

Native police corps established

Sheep population = 1,400,000
Cattle population = 100,000

200 Kulin camped in Melbourne

Ceremonies still being held at Birrerung Mar (beside the Yarra near present day Federation Square), beside the Merri Creek etc.

Billberri (a noted leader of the Woi Wurrung) says
    - "Blackfellas all about say no good have them pickaninnies [children] now, no country
       for blackfellas like long time ago."

Derrimont (a clan head of the Bun Wurrung)
     - "All along here Derimont's once ... you have all this place, no good have children, no
       good have lubra [wife] me tumble down die now soon."

A complaint by an Aboriginal woman to William Thomas (assistant Aboriginal Protector)
    - "The bush one big one hungry, no belly-full likeit Melbourne."

Merri Creek school for Aboriginal children opened.

160 Aborigines in Melbourne

Isaac Battery of the Sunbury District writes that the Murnong gathering had ceased ...
     "... for the all-sufficient reason that livestock seemingly has eaten out all that form of
    vegetation."
Note: The tuber of the Murnong daisy was the staple source of starch to Aboriginal people prior to settlement. It was also a favoured fodder to sheep and cattle. Within several years of the introduction of livestock to an area of the plains, Murnong was eliminated and along with it the foundation of the Aboriginal economy. The historical records reveal that this dire situation was further compounded by i) the occupation by settlers of the best camping and fishing spots, ii) settlers delighting in shooting out game such as kangaroo and emu, iii) when in the absence of wild game Aborigines killed stock for food, settlers responded with harsh and often brutal and indiscriminate reprisals. (See the publications listed in the Resources section of this kit for publications that include the relevant historical records.

Aboriginal Protectorate is closed.

The Aboriginal population of Victoria is approximately 1,900
(An estimate by the historian Beverley Blaskett.)