What, exactly, was the Port Phillip District?
Research Note
What, exactly, was the Port Phillip District?
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District of Port Phillip
“Her Majesty the Queen having been pleased to command that Charles Joseph La Trobe, Esquire, shall be appointed Superintendent of the Settlement and District of Port Phillip, His Excellency the Governor directs it to be notified that a Commission containing such Appointment has been issued accordingly, under the Great Seal of the Territory, and the prescribed oaths have been this day administered to his Honor in the presence of the Governor and the Executive Council.”
“The District of Port Phillip will comprise the portion of the Territory of New South Wales which lies to the south of the thirty-sixth degree of south latitude, and between the one hundred and forty-first and one hundred and forty-sixth degree of east longitude; with those limits his Honor the Superintendent will exercise the powers of a Lieutenant Governor, and all Officers of the Government and others are hereby required to render him obedience and respect accordingly.”
The definition of the district was based on latitude and longitude as most of the area was unexplored by Europeans and thus landmarks were not really known.
Electoral District of Port Phillip
The Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland passed “An Act for the Government of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land” on 30 July 1842.
Goveror-in-Chief Gipps followed this up on 1 July 1843, proclaiming:
“… that the boundary of the District of Port Phillip, in the Territory of New South Wales, on the North and North-east, shall be a straight line drawn from Cape Howe to the nearest source of the River Murray, and thence the course of that River to the Eastern boundary of the Province of South Australia; and that His Honor Charles La Trobe, Esquire, the Superintendent of the said District, shall exercise the powers of a Lieutenant Governor within such boundaries accordingly.”