John Helder Wedge
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John Helder Wedge (1793-1872) was an early Australian colonist noted for his surveying in Van Diemen’s Land in the 1820s and early 1830s and his involvement in the founding of Melbourne and the settlement of the Port Phillip District.
Wedge was born in Stetchworth, Cambridgeshire, the son of Charles Wedge and brother of Edward Davy Wedge. At 18 he went to assist his older brother run a large farm in Lincolnshire.
The agricultural recession which followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars caused the brothers to suffer losses which their father was obliged to cover. Unable to achieve sufficient income to support his large family in respectable circumstances, Wedge’s brother was obliged to consider the colonies, and Wedge obtained an appointment as assistant surveyor in Van Diemen’s Land. In 1823 Wedge and his brother sailed in the Heroine for Van Diemen’s Land.
From 1824 to 1835 Wedge was employed as an assistant surveyor in Van Diemen’s Land, where he explored some of the most rugged country in the colony. In his numerous travels he had many adventures, including a run-in with the bushranger Matthew Brady. He also developed his 1,500-acre (6 km²) farm, Leighland, near the town of Perth, on the South Esk River.
In 1835 Wedge joined with other prominent colonists in the Port Phillip Association, a private venture which aimed to obtain 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) of land by entering into a treaty with the Aborigines. One of the aims of a treaty was to establish a long-term relationship with the Aborigines to avoid the bloodshed which the members had witnessed in Van Diemens Land.
Wedge was one of the first to explore the new region, he named the Yarra River and was a prominent founding settler of the town of Melbourne. The Colonial Government of New South Wales repudiated the treaty, which had been negotiated by John Batman, but the settlement thrived and Wedge and his brother established themselves as “squatters” on a large tract at Werribee. Wedge was one of the purchasers of land at the first auctions in the new colony and prospered from the venture. Wedge petitioned the colonial government for greater protection of the Aborigines, but official policy failed to afford proper protection in the remote settlements, where both whites and blacks continued to be killed in skirmishes.
In 1837 he returned home to England to visit his father. During his time in England Wedge continued to petition for the protection of the Aborigines, writing letters to Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary, and Lord John Russell who followed him, but official policy did not change.
After the death of his father Wedge returned to Australia on the Duke of Roxburgh, and during the voyage he became engaged Maria Medland Wills, who was governess to the children of Francis Russell Nixon, the first Bishop of Tasmania who was also sailing on the ship. Wedge and Maria were married the following year by the Bishop in old St David's Cathedral, but his wife died in childbirth the following year at Leighland and she was buried at the Perth cemetery.
Wedge subsequently entered the Tasmanian Parliament and assisted Bishop Nixon as Treasurer of the Diocese of Tasmania, as well as continuing his pastoral pursuits. He did not remarry and died without issue in 1872. He was buried with his wife at the Perth Cemetery.
[edit] References
- J. Uhl, 'The Men from East Anglia: the Wedge Family an early pioneering family in Van Diemen's Land and Port Phillip', reprinted from the Victorian Historical Magazine Vol XXXVII No 1 (Melbourne 1966);
- Crawford et al (editors) The Diaries of John Helder Wedge, Royal Society of Tasmania, (Hobart 1962); Correspondence File for Wedge in Tasmanian Archives)
