The town was founded as capital of the colony in 1840 by Governor Hobson.
But Hobson had forestalled them, and those who remained in the country became British subjects.
Meanwhile, a week after Hobson's arrival, Wakefield's colonists had sailed into Port Nicholson, and proposed to take possession of immense tracts which the New Zealand Company claimed to have bought from the natives, and for which colonists had in good faith paid the company.
Then followed weary years of ruinous delay and official inquiry, during which Hobson died after founding Auckland.
It is situated on Hobson's Bay, a northern bend of the great harbour of Port Phillip, in Bourke county, about 500 m.