When visiting Port Fairy call in to the History Centre in Gipps Street a former Court House built in 1859 - 60 and now the home to many extensive local archives and a museum. Historic walking map tours of Port Fairy can be purchased from the Visitor Centre along with a great selection of books covering Port Fairy's History.
Brief History of Port Fairy
There is conjecture about the date of the first European visit to the district now know as Port Fairy. William Earl, in "Earl's Port Fairy" 1869 stated that the area was name by Captain James Wishart, who sailed into the bay and river in his cutter "Fairy" in search of fresh water in 1810. This is now discounted. J.W. Powling, in "Port Fairy - The First Fifty Years" (1980), states that the dates was more likely to have been 1827-28, but he also believed it was Wishart in the "Fairy" who named the district. (A plaque commemorating this is set into the wall opposite the end of Cox Street). What is beyond question is that there were sealers, whalers and various seamen in the area in the early part of the nineteenth century.
A bay whaling station was established on an island at the river mouth by Penny and Reiby and in 1835 it was purchased by John Griffiths. The island now bears his name. So many of the Southern Right Whales were taken in those years that the East Beach was littered with their great bones. Many years later these were collected, ground to powder and used for fertiliser. By the mid 1840's the supply of whales was exhausted and the whaling station closed.
In the 1830's some of the seamen, such as Griffiths, Charles Mills and Alexander Campbell began to settle the land, clearing and cultivating it and bring sheep and cattle from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), even though the Government of New South Wales was not yet ready to grant legal title to land in this remote corner of the Port Phillip District of the colony.
By 1839 John Cox, from Launceston, had opened a store which was located among the wattle and sheoaks by the river near the present corner of Cox and Gipps Streets, but there was nothing in the nature of the town, nor even a village.
James Atkinson and William Rutledge respectively obtained from the Crown the "Belfast" and the "Farnham" Special Surveys, each of 5120 acres (2072 hectares) in 1843. Atkinson proceeded to lay out the town he called "Belfast", although the harbor was always know as Port Fairy. Both Atkinson and Rutledge encouraged settlers and over the next fifteen years many were attracted to the area by the richness of the land and the commercial opportunities offer by this part of the Western District.
The population increased rapidly and by 1857, 2190 people lived in the municipality of Belfast one of the most flourishing towns in the new Colony of Victoria. Then, in 1862, came the disastrous crash of the import local firm, William Rutledge and Co, which had extensive business interests in the Western District and overseas. This dealt the town a paralysing blow from which it took years to recover. In 1887 the town was renamed Port Fairy by special Act of Parliament.
Port Fairy's old word character has remained as there was little economic development after 1900 and many of the old buildings were retained. The town contains and extraordinarily rich variety of nineteenth century buildings " churches, banks, public buildings, hotels, shops and private dwellings. Look for the different roof lines, building materials and styles of windows and chimneys. There are many rewarding little things to see if the visitor walks around slowly and looks hard, but you need to WALK!
Courtesy of the Port Fairy Historic Society, "Historic Buildings of Port Fairy" Completely Revised 1993.
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