SORRENTO AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
“That pale, that white fac’d shore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean’s roaring tides.”
_Shakespeare._
In order to give those of our readers who have not visited Sorrento
a clearer idea of the coast whereon the _S.S. Alert_ was wrecked, it
has been deemed necessary to give, by way of preliminary, a brief
outline of the locality.
On the S.E. side of Port Phillip bay, about 40 miles south of
Melbourne, lies the pretty little township of Sorrento. It has a
population of some 300 persons, but during the summer months this
number is largely increased as the neighborhood, principally owing to
the enterprise of the Hon. George Coppin, M.L.C., is a favorite resort
for pleasure seekers and picnic parties, who arrive, per train or
steamboat, from Melbourne and suburbs. In addition to its notoriety
as a bathing and health giving place, Sorrento possesses a historic
interest which is at once instructive, amusing and contradictory.
Here it was that Colonel Collins, in October, 1803, landed, from
the ships _Calcutta_ and _Ocean_, 350 British convicts, with the
intention of forming a permanent penal settlement in accordance with
instructions received from the Imperial Government. After staying a
few months, he, however, abandoned the locality as it was, to use his
own words, “an inhospitable spot not fit for a white man to live in.”
In one sense it was providential that the Colonel condemned the
place, otherwise the record of the origin of Victoria, as a colony,
would not have been very edifying. One of the principal reasons given
by Collins for deserting the settlement was “want of water,” but
wells, dug by the members of the expedition, still exist to prove
how easily water could have been obtained. Other proofs are not
lacking to show that the gallant Colonel must have had other reasons
than the ones he gave for taking his departure. For instance, Mrs.
Hopley, wife of one of the officers of the expedition, according to
Rusden’s “Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip,” wrote to her
friends in England, thus—“My pen is not able to describe half the
beauties of that delightful spot. We were four months there. Much to
my mortification, as well as loss, we were obliged to abandon the
settlement through the whim and caprice of the lieutenant governor.
Additional expense to the government and loss to individuals were
incurred by removing to Van Dieman’s land. Port Phillip is my
favorite and has my warmest wishes. During the time we were there
(Sorrento), I never felt one ache, or pain, and I parted with the
place with more regret than I did my native land.” Further, one of
the officers wrote—“It was one of the most healthy and enjoyable
spots that it has been my good fortune to find in the course of my
travels. Why it should have been abandoned is a mystery. Climate,
prospect, and every natural advantage were in its favor, and water
was to have been obtained in abundance if there had been any desire
to have found it.” Amongst the members of the Collins party were two
men who afterwards became famous though their stations in life were
widely apart. One was William Buckley—a convict who made his escape
and lived for 32 years amongst the native blacks as “the wild white
man,”—and the other was the late Hon. John Pascoe Fawkner—then a boy
in charge of his parents—who had an excellent claim to be considered
the founder of Victoria, and was beyond all doubt the founder of the
City of Melbourne. At the rear of Sorrento, across a narrow neck of
land about a mile and a quarter wide, lies the Ocean Beach—or as
landsmen love to call it, the “Back Beach,”—where the ever surging
South Pacific rolls in its mighty waves on to a bleak and barren
shore, which embraces a stretch of coast line extending from Cape
Schanck to Port Phillip Heads, a distance of about 20 miles. The
fore-shore, or rocky beach, is here flanked by a sort of amphitheatre
of high cliffs, from whence a magnificent view seaward can be
obtained, and, when a strong southerly wind is blowing, the commotion
of the waters, as seen from this vantage ground, forms a remarkably
imposing picture. Here one can gaze on what Tennyson describes as
“The long wash of Australasian Seas.” Now, with sullen roar, racing
swiftly along, now leaping high over the outlying reefs, then dashing
with irresistible force against the jutting rocks, and finally
spending their fury by lashing themselves into a fringe, or belt, of
creamy foam which extends as far as the eye can reach. If there be
one place more than another to which the grand lines of Gordon, the
Victorian poet, are appropriate, that place is Sorrento Ocean Beach.
“Oh, brave white horses! you gather and gallop,
The storm sprite loosens the gusty reins,
Now the stoutest ship were the frailest shallop,
In your hollow backs, or your high arched manes.”
[Illustration: ships near shore]
[Illustration: RESUSCITATION OF ROBERT PONTING.]
[Illustration: House near water]