By Alesha Capone
Werribee District Historical Society secretary Lance Pritchard is calling for signs to be installed in Point Cook and Werribee South to acknowledge the historic Hume and Hovell expedition travelled through the area.
Mr Pritchard has submitted a suggestion to public consultation on Wyndham council’s 2022-2023 budget, which closed during February, asking for an obelisk be erected near Point Gellibrand and a sign at the K Road cliffs.
In 1824, Hamilton Hume and William Hovell led an expedition from Sydney to Port Phillip Bay to find new grazing land.
The widely held view of the expedition is that it ended at Corio Bay.
But Mr Pritchard has penned a report challenging this view, concluding the Hume and Hovell expedition actually terminated at the Werribee River.
Mr Pritchard said decided to research the topic in 2018, after seeing a map at the State Library of Victoria which indicated the expedition finished at the river.
Working from Hovell’s journal, transcribed by Dr William Bland, Mr Pritchard set about trying to figure out how far the expedition could have travelled across its last three days.
The journal showed that after crossing the Great Dividing Range and camping in the Wallan/Beveridge area on December 13, 1824, Hume and Hovell reached Port Phillip Bay on December 16.
Mr Pritchard said assuming that their party walked for nine hours per day for two days and seven hours on December 15, this only gave them only 25 hours in which to reach Geelong, which he described as “absolutely impossible”.
“Additional proof of a Werribee River termination are the observations that were made from Point Cook, which match extremely well with Hovell’s journal,” Mr Pritchard said.
“On the first day of their return journey 18 December at 4pm, a description of a point of land describes very well Point Gellibrand.”
He has requested Wyndham council install an obelisk at this site, recognising Hume and Hovell were there.
As well, Mr Pritchard said that signage should be erected at the K Road cliffs explaining that the area below, the golf course, is where the explorers rested on December 17.
Wyndham council’s draft 2022-2023 budget is expected to be placed on public exhibition in April or May.
Details: www.humehovellexpedition.com
