| 1837 Governor Richard Bourke visits from Sydney and names the settlement on the Yarra River, Melbourne. |
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| 1837 Robert Hoddle is appointed surveyor for the Port Phillip District of New South Wales and commences the planning of Melbourne. |
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| 1839 George Augustus Robinson becomes Chief Protector of Aborigines in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. |
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| 1840 Miss Anne Drysdale arrives from Scotland to become a sheep farmer; the town of Drysdale near Geelong is named after her. |
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| 1841 Georgiana McCrae arrives with her children from London; after four years in Melbourne the family moves to Arthurs Seat |
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| 1841 John Walpole Willis becomes the first Resident Judge in Port Phillip District, only to be dismissed two years later. |
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| 1845 Charles Joseph La Trobe completes two weeks exploration of South Gippsland through difficult terrain, travelling 575 miles (950 km) chiefly on horseback. |
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| 1846 Charles Joseph La Trobe lays the foundation stone of Prince’s Bridge. |
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| 1848 The Melbourne Hospital opens on the corner of Swanston and Lonsdale Streets. It had been founded 2 years earlier with La Trobe as patron. |
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| 1851 The first census of the new colony of Victoria is undertaken, revealing a total population of 77,345. |
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| 1854 Melbourne’s first Town Hall opens; it proves to be inadequate and is replaced by the present building within sixteen years. |
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| 1854 The first Australian electric telegraph line opens between Melbourne and Williamstown. |
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| 1856 The Melbourne Public Library, now the State Library Victoria, opens. |
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