Port Phillip District
The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria. In September 1836, NSW Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay declared Captain William Lonsdale the "Police Magistrate" of "the location of Settlers on the vacant Crown Lands adjacent to the shores of Port Phillip." This position was someone "of which all persons concerned are hereby required to take notice." In May 1839, Governor George Gipps defined the "Port Phillip District" as "The whole of the Lands comprised in the District lying to the south of the main range, between the Rivers Ovens and Goulburn, and adjacent to Port Phillip." In July that year, Colonial Secretary E Deas Thomson announced that Charles La Trobe was the District's "Superintendent", (which was later said by Governor Gipps "to have the powers of a Lieutenant Governor").