A pictorial outline of the history of Port Melbourne, a land inhabited for over 20,000 years by the Aboriginal people of the Koolin Nation. They lived here through the final centuries of the ice age. In more recent times they observed the flooding of the great plain that we know as Port Phillip Bay.
The first group of white men visited here in 1802 when Charles Grimes was one of an exploration party who explored the northern end of Port Phillip Bay. Shortly afterwards the escaped convict William Buckley crossed the Lagoon and the Yarra River on his long walk from Sorrento to Corio Bay.
Click on an image below to continue to explore Port Melbourne decade by decade.
1830 – 1840 
1840 – 1850 
1850 – 1860 
1860 – 1870 
1870 – 1880 
1880 – 1890 
1890 – 1900 
1900 – 1910 
1910 – 1920 
1920 – 1930 
1930 – 1940 
1940 – 1950 
1950 – 1960 
