Map of Port Phillip from the Survey of Mr. Wedge and others

Mapmaker:

John Helder Wedge (1793-1872)

Surveyor and explorer, the second son of Charles Wedge of Shudy Camps, Cambridge, England, from whom he learned the rudiments of his profession. Losses during the post-war depression in agriculture induced Wedge and his brother Edward to migrate to Van Diemen’s Land, where they arrived in 1824 in the Heroine. 

Before leaving London he had obtained an appointment in the colony as assistant surveyor. Wedge led many arduous expeditions through heavily timbered mountainous country in the north-east and central highlands. He was sent to the far north-west in 1828 to examine the lands of the Van Diemen’s Land Co. Wedge reported much rich soil in the heavily timbered area but the company wanted pasture land immediately available and disputed the accuracy of his map.

In his survey work Wedge had often visited John Batman at Kingston, and together they planned an expedition across Bass Strait. When Batman returned from his first visit in 1835 Wedge resigned from the Survey Department and crossed to Port Phillip where he explored along the Barwon River and surveyed the 600,000 acres (242,814 ha) acquired by Batman’s Port Phillip Association from the Aboriginals. He opposed the forceful removal of John Pascoe Fawkner’s party by its rivals, and played an important part in the founding of Melbourne. He was one of the first to bring over sheep from Tasmania, to his station at Werribee. He also reported to Lieutenant-Governor (Sir) George Arthur on the wild white man, William Buckley, whose pardon he recommended, and on outrages against the Aboriginals, for whose hopeless condition he had much compassion.