Names
Australian Placenames of German Background
Hesse, Victoria
Hesse is a locality on the Hamilton Highway 41 km from Geelong.
George Brooks Legrew Hesse and Joseph Tice Gellibrand were two lawyers from Tasmania who sailed from there to Point Henry (near Geelong) in early 1837. They intended to make a relatively short journey inland from there but got lost and found themselves much further west of Geelong than they intended. They did not have much food or equipment with them as they had not planned to make a long journey. It is thought that they made it to the region around Lake Colac, however their exact fate is unclear. They may have died of exhaustion and starvation, and some white Australians claimed at the time that local indigenous Australians had killed them. This has not been proven. Wadawurrung people were actively involved in all four unsuccessful searches for Hesse and Gellibrand.[1]
A report written for the governor of the colony of New South Wales (Victoria was part of NSW at that time) stated that some of the colonists who took part in the searches seemed more motivated by economic opportunism (curious about new unexplored land that they could make money from) than by really wanting to search for the missing men.[2]
George Hesse was born in England, but the name Hesse is a common name in Germany. The best-known Hesse in Germany is perhaps Hermann Hesse, who won the 1946 Nobel Prize for Literature. His books are available in many languages. Hesse is the English form of the name of the German federal state of Hessen.
Placename sign: Hesse, Victoria
The disappearance of George Hesse and Joseph Gellibrand was a high-profile event at that time in the Port Phillip District. The Victorian towns of Queenscliff, Winchelsea, Colac each have a Hesse Street. In the same part of Victoria are also the landscape features named Mt Hesse (about 10 km north-west of Winchelsea) and Point Hesse (west of Port Campbell).
♦ Notes:
1. Mitchell, Jo (2018). Gellibrand and Hesse. Barwon Blog. Accessed 09/01/2023.
2. Cahir, Fred. (2019). The Invasion of Wadawurrung Country 1800-1870. (Chapter 7, Cultural interchange and cooperation). Book available online as PDF here.
♦ References:
Blake, Les. (1976). Place names of Victoria. Adelaide: Rigby. p.121