Why did Melbourne's people extend more rapidly to the south and the east than the west between 1888-1282?

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idontlike_idiots

Melbourne's people did not extend south very far sea in the way
east was good farming country/ coal/gold/ rivers/lakes & that way led along the coast to Sydney
north had much the same
west the country was dryer & of less use at the time

tarz

Because of the gold rush, plain and simple.

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Easy access

darklydrawl

The yarra (river) also played a big part of it. Rivers were formidable barriers to transport and ease of access. One reason was it was easier to move south and east as you don't have to cross that river.

Features that made Melb Attractive. The major one would be GOLD. There was a lot of gold laying around the region (especially near castlemaine). In the early days the gold was just on the ground and you could pick it up.

The bay is another reason. Most transport was by ship, so having a good safe harbour with a river was critical for a successful settlement. There is no other major river near the coast.

Victoria also had/has some of the best tall timber forests in Australia (and some of the tallest trees in the world) so there was plenty of wood (a major building material before steel was widely used).

Whaling would have also been easy from melbourne.

ClaudeS

It certainly wasn't the gold rush, as that was what prompted movement away from Melbourne to the North-West and North. Melbourne benefited immensely from the gold rush, but gold isn't what caused Melbourne's population footprint to spread South and East around Port Phillip Bay. What caused it was a combination of things I believe, with the most immediate being accessibility in the early days. In simple terms, the mouth of the Yarra and the Maribyrnong rivers made it difficult to take horse and cart West. So areas like St. Kilda and further down the coast through Elwood to Brighton, Sandringham, etc. were long rides but easy to navigate. Furthermore the land down towards the Peninsula, with the famously fertile "sand belt" meant that farming and settlement in that direction was much more achievable. Lastly, given that the majority of this settlement began along the shoreline and spread inland, the beaches were more plentiful and accessible. In contrast to all of this, the land to the West was much less fertile, until you made it closer to Ballarat and beyond Geelong. Also the coastal areas were more arid and apart from the harbour in Geelong, which was vital for the Western District, navigation along that side of the bay was difficult.

grasshopper

1282, we were not yet discovered!!
But as Melb. is as far south as you can go, without getting wet, one would go east as there is more water and more gold, also better land for farming.
The west was and is, rather arid, does that help.

John j

Water.

Ashleigh

"Between 1888 - 1282", I would check those dates if I were You. Access to the sea and grass lands rather than mountains.

Whodamanâ„¢

Well, to the West laid those Aboriginals ready to shoot any white face they saw. So, tally ho to the South and East.

Also, geography plays a role. The Outback lays to the West, and me, I prefer not to go die out in the desert.

iansand9876

People were avoiding Geelong.

TonyB

Have you seen the type of people who live in the Western suburbs??? Who'd want to live there?

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