Cairn above Deep Rock (WARNING: CURSED OBJECT)

This monument memorialises early European settlers, and their keen interest in exploiting water and grass. Let’s call them the water guys and the grass guys.

The main water guy memorialised here is Charles Grimes, head of the first European mission to assess the suitability of the Narrm region for white settlers in 1803. The mission was unable to navigate further upstream, but the discovery of the Yarra, a reliable fresh water source, led Grimes to recommend the locality for a settlement, duly established in 1835 by John Batman as “Batmania” (later “Melbourne”).

The grass guys are John Gardiner, Joseph Hawdon, and John Hepburn, who crossed the river here in December 1836 with cattle, moving to appropriate the fertile grasslands in the basalt plains to the north and west of Victoria as cattle grazing land. (Batman was also a grass guy, just not as keen on hiking.) The colonial government of the day, based in New South Wales, was not pleased by what they saw as land theft – from the Crown. Nevertheless, they opted to recognise the new unauthorised settlement rather than risk a potential breakaway state.

These graziers, dubbed the “squattocracy”, amassed huge economic and political power – and came into violent conflict with many First Nations people, who relied on the same grazing lands as a source of foods such as grains, tubers, and kangaroo. As graziers came to dominate the politics of Victoria, colonial policy towards Aboriginal people became harsher and more overtly violent. The consequences were devastating and far reaching.