The first Belfast thing that you encounter as you approach Port Fairy is Belfast Lough. It’s an expanse of water on a flat plain, that made the area so attractive to the original European invaders. It is nowhere close to as impressive as its original namesake.
Over In 1828, not 1810 as stated on the plaque, Captain Henry, not James, Wishart came ashore near the mouth of the, now, Moyne River in what is now Southwestern Victoria. He named the bay Port Fairy after his ship the cutter Fairy, a novel deviation from the practice of “honouring”, or currying favour with, the elite of the day.
Some years later, on 23 October 1843, one James Atkinson, was granted a Special Survey of eight square miles (21 square kilometres) near the same spot. This was one of only ten special survey grants made in the state of Victoria, usually for land calculated to occupy a strategic location or to be capable of yielding good profit for a subdivider. Atkinson paid £1 per acre and subsequently rented the land, over the next 54 years, for £6 per acre per annum!
Atkinson, who was born at Armagh and had emigrated to Australia in 1830, immediately laid out a town, which he named Belfast. The town was surveyed for subdivision in 1846, and in 1847 the Melbourne Argus described Belfast as ‘the capital of the Port Fairy district’.
An anecdotal story says that Atkinson also named the river when his manager William Rutledge asked “Who owns the river Jimmy?”; Atkinson allegedly replied, “Ah, to be sure Billy it’s moyne!”
Atkinson returned to Ireland in 1847, but the land remained in the family, managed by one William Rutledge until Atkinson’s son Nithsdale sold it at auction in 1885 for £150 per acre, a good profit indeed!
Belfast prospered under Rutledge’s entrepreneurship, and he became known as the town’s “leading merchant, magistrate, mayor and Alderman, all-in-one”. He was so well respected and trusted that he was able to print his own money in the form of promissory notes. Unfortunately, his competitors were able to use these notes to cause his financial downfall and in 1862 he became insolvent. The town never completely recovered, and its progress stagnated for many decades.
The experience of the original population of the area was, however, not so positive. When the British first claimed the East Coast of Australia they considered it to be “terra nullius” meaning “nobody’s land”. Britain neither recognised that the land was inhabited, nor sought permission to use or purchase the land from the indigenous people. Consequently, when the latter forcibly objected to the seizing of their land, the British felt entitled to deal with them in abhorrent ways, by shooting them or feeding them poisoned food during well documented massacres. In addition, when the first European settlers arrived in the region, they brought with them infectious diseases such as smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, amongst others, which resulted in the death of many indigenous people who had no immunity to them. In a very short space of time, the population was reduced from about 7,000 to 400!
These atrocities were acknowledged by the erection of a plaque to the memory of those massacred, but the lack of acceptance of responsibility, or maybe allocation is a better word, is evident in the wording; the making of a sacrifice suggests a voluntary act, but I doubt that the people sacrificed stepped up voluntarily.
As in America, Canada and New Zealand, inter alia, this is one more example of how Britian became “great”, and how those who, centuries later, still prosper from these events fail to acknowledge the true provenance of their prosperity. According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, as of July 2024 Australia is the only Commonwealth country that does not have a federal treaty with its indigenous peoples!
Whatever, 10 yeaars after the town’s foundation, in 1853 the Belfast Road District was proclaimed and on 1 July 1856, the town was proclaimed a municipal borough. The name was also given to the surrounding area creating Belfast Shire (1863-1994). On 27 May 1887 the name of the borough (town) was changed to Port Fairy, following the submission of a petition to the Minister of Public Works from a group of local residents. That year it was described in the Australian handbook:
The Shire was described in 1947 in the Australian Blue Book:
In 1994 Belfast Shire was amalgamated with others to form Moyne Shire.
Nowadays, Port Fairy is a bustling seaside town with, thanks in part to the arrested development mentioned earlier, many of its original buildings still standing and restored to something of their former glory.
Although the name was changed more than 130 years ago, the name Belfast is still occasionally evident.
So that’s it, the penultimate Belfast; only one more to go! Tonight I head back to Auckland and, tomorrow, start, in earnest, the process of getting back on the road. See you there! 😉
Belfast-2-Belfast-By-Bike 