VICPlanned settlement
Sorrento
Victoria’s first British settlement lasted only a few months.
1803Collins settlement lands at Sullivan Bay
WHAT STARTED IT
Britain sent a convict expedition to Port Phillip in 1803 to forestall the French and serve Bass Strait sealing, and it camped at Sullivan Bay just inside the heads. The site lacked fresh water, and the party moved on to the Derwent in early 1804.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The peninsula’s limestone was later quarried for Melbourne’s building trade, especially after the gold rushes. From 1870 George Coppin turned Sorrento into a resort, bringing holidaymakers by bay steamer to a new pier and later running a steam tram to the back beach.
TURNING POINTS
1803HMS Calcutta and the Ocean land more than 450 people, almost 300 of them convicts, at Sullivan Bay.
1804Lieutenant Governor David Collins abandons the site and moves the settlement to the Derwent in Van Diemen’s Land.
1870George Coppin begins developing Sorrento as a resort, with bay steamers calling at a new pier.
1890A steam tram starts carrying visitors from the pier to the back beach; it runs until 1921.
1942Regular bay steamer services to Sorrento end.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A Mornington Peninsula resort town with limestone hotels, a car ferry to Queenscliff and the reserved 1803 settlement site. Most of the town is now subdivided for housing.