The oiled pig
On 11 November 1850 Victoria woke to some great news- they would no longer be part of New South Wales. In fact, Victoria didn’t exist it was known as the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. Whereas the many, many Aboriginal tribes, groups, clans and nations just called it home, as they had done for thousands of years before the colonists came to plant their flags.
The Australian Colonies Government Act or more formally the Act for the Better Government of Her Majesty’s Australian Colonies (August 1850) gave effect to the demand of Victorian pastoralists that they not be ruled from Sydney but instead from the Victorian capital, Melbourne.
The people of Port Phillip wanted more public works, better representation for their taxation, and the end of convict labour, so Victoria was created to appease them and Melbourne put on the mother of all parties to celebrate.
When news broke were given a three day public holiday to celebrate. Crowds gathered around the decorated flag staff on Signall Hill (known to us know as the Flagstaff Gardens) to give Queen Victoria three cheers. Presumably to thank her for naming the colony after herself.
The Melbourne Morning Herald ran headlines of GLORIOUS NEWS SEPARATION AT LAST! The Argus newspaper reported that “The depressing influence of our connection with Sydney is at an end”
Bonfires, beacons, and fireworks were lit. Balloons with banners that read SEPARATION were released. The balloons were pretty lacklustre though, they were really flimsily made and instead of rising as balloons are meant to do, they just kind of fizzled out.
That didn’t stop the party.
Crowds congregated around a sweeping red river gum tree to hear Superintendent Latrobe’s speech on separation in what is now the Royal Botanic Gardens to celebrate. This tree would become known as the Separation Tree. The Separation Tree died after being vandalised in 2015, it was 400 years old.
There was a Royal Salute from Flagstaff Hill (now the Flagstaff Gardens) which was returned by all the vessels in Port Phillip Bay at the time. There were also huge fireworks displays unlike anything the colonies had ever seen. There was also a public parade of thousands of people that started on William Street and made its way through the Princes Street Bridge which had just been opened.
Some of the celebrations were truly unhinged and also very Melbourne. Fanny Anstey and Maria Spiggot were declared joint winners of the most impressive bunion. The Mayor of Melbourne wanted to parade a six-foot wide meat pie in a parade through Melbourne except he couldn’t find an oven big enough to bake the pie. People put candles on their windows in an event called “the illumination”, there were all sorts of sporting events and competitions including a pig chase.
A pig was greased with fat, painted red and chased through the streets of inner Melbourne before being taken into custody by police on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.
Fitzroy is still weird. Some things change, some things stay the same.
The separation was well and truly done when the Victorian Legislative Council was established on 1 July 1851.
Officially, the people of Port Phillip wanted to manage their own affairs and not be controlled by Sydney and the rivalry between the two cities continues to this day. Having said that there are rumours that Latrobe knew that there was gold in the rich soil of Victoria but didn’t announce it because he didn’t want New South Wales to find out.
So the fact that gold was “found” in Victoria not long after finalising its separation from New South Wales seems a little… convenient, no?
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