This first general history of pre-goldrush Victoria in more than ninety years incorporates the advances in documentation and scholarship which have taken place. The book is illustrated in colour with contemporary paintings, many of which will be unfamiliar to most readers. The period from the first temporary convict camp of 1803 to the formal separation of Victoria from New South Wales in 1851 encompassed years of struggle, adversity and uncertainty. They saw the future of the territory shaped by diverse figures: Aborigines, whalers, adventurers, squatters, speculators and immigrants. The story begins with the British government's decision to make a settlement on the shores of Bass Strait and with a study of the Aboriginal inhabitants of Port Phillip as they were at the dawn of the nineteenth century. An account of the beginnings of Melbourne leads on to the topics of squatting, speculation, immigration, economic depression and recovery, and ends with an examination of the separation of the district from New South Wales.