VICMining
Portsea
Lime kilns came before the clifftop holiday houses.
1842James Ford settles at Point Nepean
WHAT STARTED IT
The limestone of the Nepean peninsula could be burnt into building lime and shipped up the bay to Melbourne. James Ford settled here in 1842, burnt lime and built the first pier, and the township grew around the kilns and the landing.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
By the 1880s Ford and Hughes ran the working kilns, their schooners carried lime to Melbourne, and two hotels served visitors. After the 1920s the wealthy built holiday homes on the clifftops, and postwar prosperity turned Portsea into an exclusive resort.
TURNING POINTS
1842James Ford settles at Point Nepean, later recalling that sheoaks were cut down to fuel the lime kilns.
1860Ford builds the first Portsea pier (about this year).
1883Lime-burning is the district’s industry, with kilns run by Ford and Hughes and two hotels in the township.
1927The Portsea Hotel and the Armytage family’s Delgany mansion are built.
1950sPostwar prosperity brings a wave of holiday homes.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A small, mostly holiday-home settlement at the tip of the peninsula, with a pier, hotel and ferry to Queenscliff. Most dwellings are empty on census night.