John Helder Wedge b. 1793

  • Artist (Draughtsman)
Sketcher and surveyor. During his survey Wedge made many sketches of the countryside and the Aboriginal people, some of which were later reproduced in James Bonwick's Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip (Melbourne 1856).
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sketcher, writer, surveyor and explorer, second son of Charles Wedge of Cambridge, England, came to Van Diemen’s Land in the Heroine with his brother Edward in 1824 to join the Survey Department. For the next ten or so years John surveyed much of the remote north-west and southern areas of the island. In 1835 he joined John Batman as a partner in the Port Phillip Association and moved to Victoria where he surveyed the controversial 600 000 acres claimed to have been purchased from the Aborigines. He is generally believed to have named the Yarra River. In April 1836 he landed at Port Phillip with 2600 sheep and 12 head of cattle as agent for himself, his brother and James Simpson, who were awaiting his arrival at the Exe (Werribee) River.

During his survey Wedge made many sketches of the countryside and the Aboriginal people, some of which were later reproduced in James Bonwick’s Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip (Melbourne 1856). One of his field books, containing forty-six sketches, is held at the La Trobe Library. His diaries sent home to his father were published by the Royal Society of Tasmania in 1962. 'Narrative of an excursion amongst the natives of Port Phillip’ and 'Description of the country around Port Phillip’ were included in a VDL Parliamentary Paper in 1835, while 'On the country around Port Phillip, South Australia’ was published in the Journal of the British Royal Geographical Society in 1836.

Wedge lived in England in 1838-43 then returned to Tasmania. At the age of fifty he married Maria Medland Wills, governess to the children of Anna Maria and Bishop Francis Russell Nixon ; his wife died in childbirth a year later. Anna Frances Walker described Wedge in her memoirs as having 'a long red foxy face that I would not trust’, but Bishop Nixon said of him: 'Although not a polished man he has a fund of information and a pleasant open, frank manner’. He certainly lived an honourable life according to the standards of the day. A devoted Anglican, he spent several years managing Nixon’s church farms (1846-51), had much compassion for the Aboriginal people (adopting an Aboriginal boy known as 'May Day’ who had been rescued from the sea) and represented the Morven district in the Tasmanian Legislative Council (1855-68). He died at his home, Medlands, on the Forth River, in November 1872.

Writers:
Staff Writer
Date written:
1992
Last updated:
2011

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References [<ExternalResource: Stancombe, G.H. (1967), 'John Helder Wedge', Melbourne, Vic : Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2 [Pike, D. (ed.)], Melbourne University Press.>, <ExternalResource: Bride, T.F. (1898), 'Letters from Victorian Pioneers', Melbourne, Vic : (reprint, 1983).>, <ExternalResource: Dixson, W. (1923), 'Notes on Australian artists', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 9.>, <ExternalResource: Downer, C.; & Phipps, J. (1985), 'Victorian Vision: 1834 Onwards', Melbourne, Vic : National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne catalogue.>, <ExternalResource: Moore, William (1934), 'The Story of Australian Art', Sydney, NSW : Angus and Robertson, (facsimile reprint, 1980), 2 volumes.>, <ExternalResource: Walker, A., 'Family traditions and personal recollections', Sydney, NSW : Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, (manuscript C195).>]