Melbourne. The live stock imported was landed there. For some time no provision whatever was made for the safety of vessels navigating the Bay and river, and the discharge of cargo at the appointed places was accomplished under every imaginable disadvantage.
The First Lighter.
"Johnny" Fawkner—though he could in after years affect the aristocrat when it suited his vanity to do so — was prone to the snobbish indulgence of disinterring a period when he toiled in a saw-pit in Van Diemen's Land, and used to take pride in himself as a "top sawyer." Were there nothing else to be ashamed of in his pre-Port-Phillipian antecedents, no need to blush at this, but when persons seek to make too much capital from humble beginnings, the overdoing develops into the ridiculous. Fawkner was just the sort of man for a new settlement, practically a more useful member of an incipient community than Batman, for he had health, energy, pluck and perseverance; a disposition to be doing something, and a mind so fertile in resources through the vicissitudes of colonial life, that failure in one respect was succeeded by fresh efforts in another. He was the first to place a buoy in the harbour, and, when in 1836, there was a difficulty in discharging the schooners, Fawkner essayed to mitigate the inconvenience. Procuring a whale-boat he placed it on the river as a lighter to convey goods to the few storekeepers establishing themselves around the Western Market square. This vehicle he "skippered" himself, and his first crew consisted of Thomas Halfpenny and John Harrison. Halfpenny has lately told me that the river sailors would be worried almost to distraction by the myriads of mosquitoes swarming and swooping down upon them in clouds. Fawkner wrould grin and yell like a Bedlamite, but, nevertheless, had the comfortable assurance that the venture paid, for his lighterage scale of charges was heavy. Halfpenny declares that for a time Fawkner pocketed the incredibly enormous remuneration of £20 per ton for water carriage from the Bay to the town. Though positive as to this amount, I cannot resist the conclusion that his memory must be at fault, for such a payment appears to be preposterous. In 1852-3—the raving gold fever years—river lighterage did not rise above £7 or £8. As evidence, however, that the Fawknerian enterprise answered its helm pecuniarily, may be cited the fact that the whale-boat was soon replaced by one of ten tons burden, and commanded by Halfpenny, whose chief officer, or rather man of all work, was named Cotter, a brother of Dr. Barry Cotter, historically inscribed as Melbourne's first practising physician. Increasing trade led to improved lighterage accommodation, and Fawkner's second contrivance had to make way for its betters.
The First Customs House
Was a curiously shabby out-at-elbows affair, and the first person who appeared as a public benefactor in his solicitude to provide for the safety of the harbour was the inevitable Fawkner. In August, 1836, it is recorded " that he had beacons placed at his own expense;" and in the first number of his manuscript newspaper, issued in January, 1838, there appears the following characteristic advertisement:—
WANTED by the commercial world at Williamstown and Melbourne about forty beacons (good tea-tree stakes would answer) to mark the channel for the outer anchorage to this town. Whoever shall perform the service shall be entitled to public thanks.
In 1838 the Sydney Government Gazette contained the important notification of a call for tenders for three wooden buoys for the Bay; and in 1839 it was announced that there was to be a floating light near the Heads, and the arrival of a pilot was anxiously expected. The predecessor of the present staid-looking lighthouse at Williamstown was a wooden structure, erected in 1840, though it could not be lighted up until a lamp was transported hither from Van Diemen's Land.
Fawkner's Melbourne Advertiser (9th April, 1838) complained of the wharfage neglect by the Government. At Williamstown, it declares "that persons who land must wade ashore through water
