John Helder Wedge

John Helder Wedge (1793 – 22 November 1872) was a surveyor, explorer and politician in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania, Australia).[1]

Early life

Born 1793, Wedge was the second son of Charles Wedge of Shudy Camps, of Cambridgeshire, England.[1] John Wedge learned the basics of surveying from his father.

Van Diemens Land

The brothers arrived in Van Diemen's Land aboard the Heroine[1] on the morning of 15 April 1824.[2]

Port Phillip District

Wedge arrived the site of Melbourne on 2 September 1835, where he discovered members of a party organised by John Pascoe Fawkner.[3] Wedge was against the forceful removal of Fawkner's party.[1] Wedge named the Yarra River on 13 September 1835.[3]

Leighland

In or soon after 1824, Wedge was granted a 1500-acre property which he called Leighland,[4][5] later known as Leighlands, situated on the South Esk River, south of the town of Perth, in the Norfolk Plains district of Tasmania. He subsequently developed the property into a large sheep farm, building a house which was completed between 1830 and 1833.

Leighland passed on the death of John Helder Wedge to his nephew Thomas Wedge, and on his death in 1880 eventually went out of the Wedge family, and, following its acquisition by Alfred Youl, has since been in the Youl family.[6] The old homestead was burnt down in the 1950s.

References

  1. ^ a b c d G. H. Stancombe, 'Wedge, John Helder (1793 - 1872)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition
  2. ^ "Ship News". Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser. Andrew Bent. 16 April 1824. p. 2. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  3. ^ a b Serle, Percival (1949). "Wedge, John Helder". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
  4. ^ Rebe Taylor, 'The Wedge Collection and the Conundrum of Humane Colonisation', Meanjin (Summer 2017), 34-55 (p. 36).
  5. ^ The Diaries of John Helder Wedge, 1824-1835, ed. by Justice Crawford, W. F. Ellis and G. H. Stancombe. ([Devonport?]: Royal Society of Tasmania, 1962), pp. xiii, xix.
  6. ^ G. H. Stancombe, 'Youl, Alfred (1849–1921)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, 12 (MUP), 1990.
  • J. Uhl, 'The Men from East Anglia: the Wedge Family an early pioneering family in Van Diemen's Land and Port Phillip', reprinted from the Victorian Historical Magazine Vol XXXVII No 1 (Melbourne 1966);
  • Crawford et al. (editors) The Diaries of John Helder Wedge, Royal Society of Tasmania, (Hobart 1962); Correspondence File for Wedge in Tasmanian Archives)
  • "Wedge, John Helder". Members of the Parliament of Tasmania. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  • John Helder Wedge, Field book 1835-1836. [manuscript]. MS 10768. State Library Victoria (Australia)
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