John Helder Wedge The story of colonial surveyor and explorer
John Helder Wedge, one of the forgotten founders of Melbourne.
Wedge arrived in Van Diemens Land with his brother in 1824, and
went on to map some of the most isolated regions of contemporary
Tasmania. Later he became involved, along with John Batman and
fellow entrepreneurs, in the claim to the Port Phillip area,
later the settlement of Melbourne. A fervent Anglican, Wedge
helped fashion Batman's famous treaty with local Aboriginal
clans of Port Phillip Bay. He had witnessed and documented the
treatment of Tasmania's Indigenous population -- something he
did not want to see repeated in the settlement on the mainland.
A member of the Royal Geographic society, Wedge, like many of
his 19th century contemporaries, was a curious and keen
collector of Aboriginal material culture. These artefacts
included some spears and clubs, which may have come to Wedge
through his association with the escaped convict William
Buckley, who lived with the Aboriginal peo