Wilbraham Liardet

Wilbraham Frederick Evelyn Liardet (17 July 179921 March 1878), was an Australian hotelier, water-colour artist and historian, who was responsible for the early development of Port Melbourne.

Early life and career Liardet was born on 17 July 1799 at Chelsea, London to Wilbraham Liardet and his wife Philippa Evelyn. His father was an official in the Ordnance Department, from a family of Swiss origin, and his mother, previously the widow of an army Major, Daniel Francis Houghton, was the daughter of Charles Evelyn, Baronet, a descendant of English writer, gardener and diarist John Evelyn.

The young Liardet joined the Royal Navy and served aboard before joining the Army. He reached the rank of lieutenant in April 1825 and, the following year, after receiving an inheritance of £30,000, he retired on half-pay. Caroline and Alonzo died of scarlet fever in London and Felicia and Rosalie died in infancy at Sandridge. Darke had cut through the first European track to the beach and camped there in a bullock-drawn wooden caravan known as 'Darke's Ark'. He'd also hoisted a barrel on a pole, on high ground, to point the way back to Melbourne and this led to the area's early name of 'Sandridge'. Storey and Davis owned a boat but, in January 1840, when Liardet requested their assistance in unloading supplies he'd brought back from Sydney on the William Metcalfe, they refused. 'Brighton' was said to be Liardet's preferred name for the district but, while it became commonly known as 'Liardet's Beach', the official name remained Sandridge.

When the governor of Tasmania, Sir John Franklin, visited the Pier hotel in the 1840s, Liardet gave him one of his own artworks depicting a panoramic view of Melbourne.

Liardet moved between New Zealand and Melbourne, where his children were settled, for the next few years. the second 'the beginning of the brick era' and, finally, 'some happenings' of the 1840s. In 1988, as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations, a memorial to Liardet was erected on Beach Road, Port Melbourne, near Station Pier. The memorial reads, in part: "Wilbraham Frederick Evelyn LIARDET was acknowledged as the first European settler and Founder of Port Melbourne, (Sandridge) arriving in 1839 with his family. The family camped on what was known as Liardet`s Beach... They began...ferrying people to and from ships in the Bay and collecting and delivering mail. Their interests also included the building of Liardet`s Pier Hotel in Beach Street. Wilbraham specialised in painting water colours, was involved in numerous activities in the colony, and supported the development of local government." The Evening Post, N.Z. 22 March 1878. DEATH. LIARDET.- On the 21st March, at Vogeltown, W. F. Evelyn Liardet, aged 79 years, father of Mr. Hector and Sinclair Liardet, of Wellington.