Gellibrand and Hesse: A misadventure of two lawyers turned explorers

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A novel about Australian explorers, the colonisation of Melbourne and Victoria, and the interaction with the Aboriginal people. In 1837, two lawyers from Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) set off from the newly established colony at Port Phillip in search of new farming lands and never returned. While this part of the story is a mystery, it is set around real events, including the sacking of Gellibrand when he was the first ever Attorney-General of Van Diemen’s Land, his involvement in the proposed private treaty with the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land where Melbourne now stands and the massacre of Aboriginal people at what is now known as Mount Cottrell, on the Werribee River. Many books briefly mention Gellibrand and Hesse as early explorers who disappeared, likely murdered, but none explore the links to other events leading up to how they came to be exploring mainland Australia and why they were there. This story begins in Hobart, Tasmania and follows the men to places now known as Williamstown, Melbourne, Lara, Geelong, Inverleigh, Winchelsea, Colac, The Otways and Gellibrand River.