Kerr’s Melbourne almanac, and Port Phillip directory, for 1842.

A compendium of useful and accurate information connected with Port Phillip. Melbourne: printed and published by Kerr and Thompson, at the Port Phillip Patriot Office, Collins Street, 1842. Octavo, original half cloth over papered boards (some wear and stains), expertly rebacked, worn paper label to spine; early ownership inscription of Alexander Beatson Balcombe (“Tichingorourke, 1842, afterwards The Briars, Mornington”); with the half title, pp. xii, 366, [vi adverts.], occasional minor foxing, a very good copy of a rare early Melbourne imprint, with an association to a prominent Port Phillip pioneer colonist whose name and property are listed on page 357.

The city of Melbourne was founded in 1835; Kerr published its first two almanacs in 1841 and 1842. Offered here is the second of these, published in April 1842, which provides a valuable survey of the fledgling colony at the time. It contains numerous local laws, regulations, fees and duties, notices for the regulation of Aborigines, and a named directory containing 1944 names of settlers in the Port Phillip District.

A foundation book from the first years of Victorian settlement, in the original colonial binding.

Ferguson 3432

Provenance: Alexander Beatson Balcombe (1811-1877), owner of “The Briars” (formerly “Tichingorourke”), a large pastoral run that extended from Mornington to Mount Martha; à Beckett family, Melbourne (by descent from the original owner).