canvastown

Updated: May 11, 2025

At last, when the public scandal of so grievous a spectacle made longer inaction impossible, when the disappointed and shiftless immigrants began to beat a retreat from the inhospitable colony, the balance streaming by thousands into "Canvastown," or wandering helpless elsewhere, and mostly ruined by the cost of living for a cabbage had risen to 5 shillings at the goldfields, and to 2 shillings and 6 pence in Melbourne the Governor, by an adroit move, in the despair of the position, referred the case "Home."

William Westgarth - Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria