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for the suddenly arrived community. His choice was surveyed and divided into 36 blocks, each
containing 20 lots.
On 26 October 1838, that pegged oblong of land, between the beach and the Barwon, officially
became Geelong.
But it was not until 14 February 1839 that the first three blocks were sold, the bulk of the
allotments therein going to speculators in Melbourne and Sydney, as did the lots in two blocks
sold in 1842, when Geelong's population was but 454. Local purchasers thenceforth acquired
more of what was on offer as local business prospered and the population grew. But even by
1851 several of the central blocks remained empty and unsold.
By then the population numbered 8,291, nearly half of whom were female, and most of whom
were immigrants who dwelt on the cheaper lots outside the official town. Landowners like
James Austin and Dr Thomson divided up their properties for profitable sales to immigrant
families, 4,000 of whom arrived in Geelong between 1848 and 1850.
The Geelong Advertiser, Victoria's oldest morning newspaper, first published in November
1840, noted a few years later: 'Dwellings and handsome edifices are springing up in all
directions with astounding rapidity. The limits of Chilwell, New Town, Little Scotland and
Ashby are being rapidly extended. The first named is almost the growth of a day, a few months
ago not a house was to be seen; but now, as if by magic, we behold a busy and thriving hamlet.'
In fact, more that 100 dwellings and businesses were built in Chilwell within a year. Highton and
Beimont, south of the Barwon, were also established at this time.
The handsome edifices referred to included the first stone building, Strachan's wool store
(1840); a post office; a court house; three banks; five churches (two of which were
Presbyterian); a fire station; two theatres (the Victoria and the Theatre Royal); a Mechanics
Institute, an Oddfellows Hall, a customs house, a barracks, some small factories, mills, several
hotels, many
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church and private schools, and dozens of shops. A jetty and wharf were also built. Most of the
commerciai businesses congregated near Market Square, spreading up Yarra and Moorabool
Streets, and along Corio Terrace (later Brougham St), Corio, Malop and Ryrie Streets, and the
streets between.
Most of these streets were iil-defined as such, without pavements and denuded of trees. As in
all pioneer towns, dust flew about in summer, and in the winter, horse and bullock wagons and
drays bogged down in the mud.
As prosperity and the population increased in the 1840s so did prostitution and poverty. The
various churches and friendly societies tried to deal with the latter, while most of the towns-
people sought entertainment in hotels and at the theatres, at concerts, soirees and balls, at the
racecourse, at the regatta and the Corio Cricket Club. Sea-bathing was also popular.
On 9 February 1850, the newly elected Town Council of Geelong met for the first time, in the
Royal Hotel in Malop St, and Dr Alexander Thomson, aged 49, became the town's first Mayor.
Fred Champion's house in Corio St was rented for a year as Council Chambers for £50, after
which Captain Foster Fyan's house in Yarra Street was so used until the Town Hall was built in
1856.
There was much cause for congratulation at that first meeting of the Council in 1850. A town
now stood where none had existed 12 years before; Geelong's exports, mainly wool, sheep,
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