In 1803 Lieutenant Colonel David Collins and a company of nearly 300 convicts arrived in Port Phillip to establish a settlement.

The company disembarked near Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula where they remained, without exploring the bay or the Yarra River. Collins was intent on relocating to Van Diemen’s Land and was permitted to do so in June 1804.

Before their departure, a convict named William Buckley escaped and lived among local Aborigines for 33 years until the arrival of free settlers.