VICPort & river
Mornington
Schnapper Point’s pier linked the peninsula to Melbourne by sea.
1854Town surveyed at Schnapper Point
WHAT STARTED IT
A small fishing settlement grew at Schnapper Point on the eastern shore of Port Phillip Bay. A town was surveyed in 1854, and its pier became the peninsula’s link to Melbourne by water.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Bay steamers brought holiday-makers from the 1860s, and wealthy Melburnians built seaside houses such as Beleura. The 1889 railway carried produce and visitors until services ended in 1981, while postwar housing spread the town towards Mount Martha.
TURNING POINTS
1840The Tinchingorourke pastoral run is taken up.
1854The town is surveyed.
1857Parliament votes money for a jetty at Schnapper Point; the pier is being completed in 1859.
1864Schnapper Point is renamed Mornington.
1889The railway from Frankston opens.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A large bayside town in the Mornington Peninsula Shire, with a main street shopping strip, harbour and bay beaches. Part of the old railway runs as a heritage line.
KEEP READING · SOURCESTrove · The Argus, 27 December 1855, ‘Mount Eliza and Snapper’s Point’ (letter)Trove · The Argus, 1 April 1856, ‘Snapper Point’Trove · The Argus, 25 June 1857, ‘Parliamentary Intelligence. Legislative Council’Trove · The Argus, 30 July 1859, ‘Last Night’s Gazette’Trove · South Bourke and Mornington Journal, 18 September 1889, ‘Opening of the Railway to Mornington’Mornington Peninsula News, 23 November 2015, ‘Good old days when Mornington had a train’Mornington Railway Preservation SocietyVictorian Places · Mornington