Portarlington to Edwards Point

I have come to the near deserted wash of the beach that rough-arcs for 18 kilometres/12 miles from Portarlington to Edwards Point. To set my feet into the assuring soft sands deposited from millenniums. To feel the cool wash of the tide of Port Phillip Bay on its first retreat of the day devoted by tug of moon, sun and earth. In these steps, imprinted by a July mid morning and drenched under by a mid-winter sunlight with a hint of the season's turn. I feel a sense of belonging, though I was born in a forested place many decades ago. There is something universal walking along a beach hearing the sound of gentle waves as they lap the shore and to feel the water across your feet as if in this act is a cleansing of the soul. This was a day of renewal amidst the non-judgemental artefacts of Nature.

Portarlington is located on the Bellarine Peninsular, (on the western side of Port Phillip Bay) 99 kilometres/62 miles from Melbourne and a short dolly of 28 kilometres/17 miles from the second largest City in Victoria, Geelong. To get there I travelled for just on an hour via a Train journey to Geelong, then a 30 minute Bus ride. To meet the Train it was a 4:30am rise and shine, though nothing but the mercury laden street lights were shining at that time! My eyes did not wake up until 2 hours later, or so it seemed. I reckon I walked to the Train station by a barely conscious rote.

Just over 3,000 people live in this seaside town, though this swells to well over 10,000 in the summer months and the 4 week holiday period post Christmas. Over this time you will holidaymakers in a variety of caravans, tents, cabins and rented seaside houses (the houses costing upwards of $1,000 in a week's holiday rental), hugging or near the foreshore the waft of a summer BBQs enticing your nostrils. Before the European invasion and subsequent settlement, Portarlington was under the custodianship of the Wathaurong people, part of the Kulin Aboriginal Nation that inhabited most of the south-west, central and eastern reaches of the present day State of Victoria (Australia). A number of Aboriginal middens (sea shell heaps) have been located hereabouts of Portarlington, mostly consisting of mussel shells. A number of indigenous implements have also been found in the vicinity of the town. The area retains a place of spiritual significance particularly of dreamtime stories and ceremonies.

The area between Portarlington and Edwards Point was first viewed through white eyes by Royal Navy Lieutenant John Murray in January 1802 whilst he was looking for a place to establish a small penal outpost having sailed from Van Diemen's Land (the island of Tasmania). He eventually settled at a place that became later known as Sorrento on the opposite side of Port Phillip Bay. The settlement was ill-fated, barely lasting 12 months before being abandoned. Though from that time, a number of convicts escaped, all of whom later returned to be dreadfully punished or ended up perishing in the Bush. Except one. William Buckley (1780-1856) was a former soldier in the King's Foot Regiment who ran foul of England?s excessive penalty of Class. Buckley's crime was that of receiving a bolt of stolen and got walloped with 14 years transportation. Buckley survived his escape and subsequent tribulations by eventually living with local Aborigines (after having walked around Port Phillip Bay - a distance well in excess of 270 kilometres) for the next 32 years. The locals believed, due to Buckley's skin colour, that he was a reincarnate of one of their own and so needed to be helped to return to the tribal community he had only recently 'departed from'. In the Australian lexicon, the phrase, "You've got Buckley's" or "You've got Buckley's chance", means little or no hope. Rather unfair on Buckley, as he did quite well for the years he lived amongst the supportive Aborigines.

Ten weeks later, the erstwhile sailor Captain Matthew Flinders RN (1774-1814), on one his two extraordinary mapping surveys of the Australian coastline (in the HMS Investigator) landed 6 kilometres along the coast towards Edwards Point at present day Indented Head. Apparently, Flinders (and his crew) in the true spirit of then English benevolence, traded with the Indigenous occupants (the usual pathetic detritus of trinkets, cloth, beads, knives, the occasional axe, small pox, the common cold and syphilis). I read that Flinders even had 'lunch' with the locals, though what was on the Menu has not survived the pillaging of Historians. Mind you, after I read this, I felt sick in the stomach of such paternalism but soon recovered when I later learnt that the French nabbed Flinders in 1803 at island of Mauritius, which they were occupying, when Flinders was returning to the 'Mother Country'. Another bloody spat was taking place in Europe between the two countries - with that chap Napoleon causing some mischief. After a series of misunderstandings, insults, diplomatic faux pas, slow mails and just sheer stupidity, Flinders was sent to the slammer. Some years later, seven in fact (1810) Flinders was released, no doubt thoroughly sick of French Goal cuisine.

It is reputed that Flinders was the first person to use 'Australia' in describing the Continent during a letter he wrote to his brother from his French digs in 1804: "I call the whole Island, Australia or Terra Australis ...". Apparently, he borrowed the word from part of a phrase used to describe the whole of the south Pacific area from a rather obscure 1771 tome by Alexander Dalrymple titled - wait for it - 'An Historical Collection of Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean'. Dalrymple's title, I am unreliably informed, caused the typesetters of the day to experience excruciating cases of 18th century TRSI (Typesetters Repetitive Strain Injury) and the word 'Historical' was often typeset as 'Hysterical' in protest. Though, I believe those who adopted this nefarious printing insurrection were transported for 7 years hard labour to Jamaica or was that Edinburgh? I quite like 'Terra Australis' as it has a hint of wordy menace. Imagine in the Olympic Games, 100 metres sprint final (if an Australian athlete ever makes the final that is - most unlikely): "And ladies and gentlemen, representing Terra Australis is ...". The other competitors might briefly shake in their obscene designer footwear or fall about laughing when the starter's gun fired. Nonetheless, Flinders did eventually set foot on English soil again, where he tragically died aged 40, and, not at the time given recognition for the fine marine navigator and cartographer he rightly should be honoured as such. His early death was probably not helped by his time with the French (see what French food can do to an English stomach) addled from the exertions and tribulations of his extraordinary maritime adventures.

Came February 1803, when the Surveyor-General of the Colony of New South Wales based in Sydney, Charles Grimes on the ship, 'The Cumberland', actually landed at Portarlington and explored the area noting its fine pasture and soils of what he called 'The Bellarine Hills', hence by extension, Bellarine Peninsular where Portarlington sits. Grimes too traded with the locals, offering trinkets etc noting evidence of smallpox infestation. Civilisation had arrived and was on its way to ruination! Nothing much happened in an invasive sense until 1835, (diseases not withstanding) when a man not related to a cape crusader, a certain John Batman (1801-1839) arrived near Portarlington with some pioneering European Settlers. They acted on behalf of the rather pompously named Port Phillip Association (in effect a bunch of opportunistic land grabbers) based in Tasmania who had funded the Expedition and were seeking grazing land upon to make their fortunes, irrespective of the wishes of the indigenous inhabitants. It was with the Batman party that William Buckley (the escaped convict of 1803) made contact - you can imagine the astonishment - and sought to return to his British origins. Buckley was to act as Interpreter for the Expedition amongst other things before returning (after short term acclaim and a Pardon from Her Majesty's Government) to live a quiet and modestly successful urbanised life in Hobart, Tasmania. Batman later took his Expedition up to the present day Yarra River and made his infamous land purchase (in fact land scam would be a better word) with Indigenous inhabitants that in part lead to the establishment of the City of Melbourne. Ironically, Batman died at the relatively young age of 38 having endured for some years the scourge of syphilitic related complications.

The area of present day Portarlington was officially surveyed around 1850 with farming based settlements becoming established thereafter. The name of Portarlington is attributed to a totally irrelevant (in the Australian context) English Peer, Sir Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington. It could have been worse, I suppose, as an earlier English name of the location was 'Drayton'. Possibly from Michael Drayton (1563-1631), a Poet famous for his sonnets and a contemporary of Shakespeare. The fine critic, Harold Bloom rates Drayton well, especially Drayton?s most famous sonnet, 'Farwell to Love' (a rather fierce rebuke):

Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part;
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me,
And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart
That thus so cleanly myself I can free.
Shake hands forever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one joy of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of love's latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by the bed of his death,
And innocence is closing up in his eyes;
Now if thou woudst, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou mightst him yet recover.

Again, I have wandered, which I do apologise. Once I start an essay I never quite know where it will take my painfully slow two finger typing! I hope of your forgiveness in this regard - not the typing (bad enough) but the wanderings.

Continuing my ramble, I happily meandered along the foreshore, occasionally stopping to see one the Ships plying up the Bay heading for the Port of Melbourne. The day was wonderfully slow and I was now in a swoon mood being lavished by the Sun. Nearing the smaller town of St. Leonards after a couple of hours of plodding, I glanced upon a collection of sea shells that had been left behind by the retreating tide and in particular the specimen shown in the photograph. I could not resist this example of calcium carbonate which had been vacated by a Purple Sea Urchin. These small creatures are very common along Australian Beaches ranging from Southern Queensland through New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and parts of the southern parts of Western Australia. Strongylcentrotus pupuratus (Purple Sea Urchin) is an Echinoderm and has an impressive scientific roll call of names, classifications, subforms etc that overwhelmed my basic Latin dictionary, causing it to shut in a blather. So, I will stick with Purple Sea Urchin, I reckon. Actually, the word 'Urchin' derives from an old English word for 'Hedgehog', which with their spindly arms Sea Urchins, sort of, resemble. As with all Echinoderms they do not have a brain - this reminds me of a few people I know and they are not as beautiful as the Sea Urchin or useful nor live in such an exotic looking shell. Urchins range in a diameter of between 3-10 centimetres, (one species that clearly drank a lot of milk, has a diameter of 18 centimetres and found in Middle Eastern waters). They are quite edible, being favoured by other marine animals, some birds and humans. With humans, they are considered in some Societies to be an aphrodisiac (and for a moment I was tempted to search out a few dozen, just in case I might 'need' them). Their brittle shells are valued as decorative pieces, are used as small candle holders, attached to necklaces and in floral displays. In particular, Purple Sea Urchin shells are sold in large volumes by collectors and merchants, whom I have learnt are called 'Malacologists'.

Further along the deserted beach, I soon came across other examples of washed up sea shells ranging from very tiny ones to some rather large 'ear shaped' shells. With the larger ones I could not resist putting the shell to my ear to 'hear' the ocean. A trick of sound waves that has delighted me since I was a child and which, when I see a child today lift a shell to their ear, has the same simple, yet wondrous effect.

St. Leonards is another delightful location, with its small Pier and calm beach. With a population of around 1,500, it also a seasonal resort swelled by holiday makers and foreshore campers in the summer. You can readily see across Port Phillip Bay here, which is narrowing as it approaches its entrance called locally 'The Rip' - a notoriously dangerous and less than one kilometre wide channel that has claimed many Ships and lives since European settlement. Interestingly enough, 'The Rip' was where the Yarra River used to flow and cascade over a magnificent thirty meter waterfall before continuing its journey into the area we know today as Bass Strait. It has only been since the end of the last Ice-Age, some 10,000 years or so ago, that Port Phillip Bay filled with water as Tasmania became cut off from the Australian mainland due to rising seas levels.

From St. Leonards you walk along the beach onto a thin Spit called Edwards Point. This sand Spit extends for 4 kilometres and is only a hundred metres or so at its widest point. On one side is Port Phillip Bay and the other a shallow body of water called Swan Bay. A Wildlife Reserve was established in 1971 to protect the unique vegetation and fauna of the area. The last stand of coastal woodland on the Bellarine Peninsular is found on the Spit. In addition, the Spit is noted as an area where you will find the endangered Orange-bellied Parrot (which I have only fleetingly spotted once on an earlier visit) plus you will find Terns, the Eastern Curlew (a most beautiful bird) and the magnificent White-bellied Sea Eagle. This one small Spit has just of 1% of the entire Australian population of four waders: Grey Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, Double-banded Plover and the previously mentioned Eastern Curlew. It also has a modest sized Echidna and Wombat population plus the odd and very shy Wallaby. Walking along the Spit it is super quiet apart from the birds, the zephyrs and lap of waves. After spending a few hours looking, touching and sensing the treasures of the place, late afternoon called. I had to trundle back along the Spit to meet the Bus at St. Leonards that would take me to Geelong and the connecting Train home.

For me it was a thrilling day, just what I needed and at a place that never fails to delight. Though I avoid going there in high summer with the good natured but large crowds soaking up their bit of sunshine time. By the time I clicked the key to enter my home my calf muscles were burning, due to the soft sand walking but I still had the taste of salt air in my mouth and just a nip of sunburn on my nose, even though the UV index was rated very low. I looked a bit like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer but nowhere near as handsome or tough! My neighbour, whom I saw later that evening, was certain I had imbibed in more than a few ales instead of walking. I wish!