Westernport and Port Phillip bays were discovered by Bass and Flinders in 1801. At this time, Britain was worried that a French settlement on either side of Bass Strait would have the potential to cut off the main route between it and its still struggling farthest outpost in New South Wales. In 1803, the Government sent a settlement party under Captain Collins, who landed at Sorrento in Port Phillip Bay. The settlement failed and moved onto Tasmania after a few months.

After the Napoleonic war was won by the British, pressure was taken off the desire to establish a southern settlement. In 1824, 21 years after Captain Collins' failed attempt, the Government commissioned Hamilton Hume, a first generation Australian of Scottish descent, and William Hovell, a retired sea Captain to seek an overland route from New South Wales to Westernport, recorded favourably by Bass and Flinders back in 1801.

They left Gunning, Hume's property near Yass on 17 October 1824, and soon crossed the Murrumbidgee in flood and then the Tumut River. Soon after amid great hardship they crossed the Snowy Mountains. By the time they reached the Murray River, named by Hume, the Hume River after his father, and renamed later by Captain Charles Sturt, there were arguments and the horses, bullocks and dogs lost condition, and one by one the dogs were lost.

The Murray was crossed by swimming the animals over and piloting the dwindling provisions on a raft of saplings covered with a tarpaulin. The terrain had become difficult again as they endeavoured to cross the Great Divide, with its peaks, valleys, creeks and bush. Hume was injured by a fall, staking his leg and they were forced to backtrack from Mount Disappointment, so named by the explorers as they had hoped to see Westernport from its peak, but could not.

In backtracking, they proceeded to search for an opening through the Divide and followed the King Parrot Creek to Strath Creek and turned west over very difficult country. The Strath Creek Valley is known as the "Valley of a Thousand Hills", and can be viewed spectacularly and in comfort today from the top of the Divide, at Murchison Gap.

Although by now the animals were in very poor condition and supplies were running out, on 14 December they climbed Mt Bland (now Mt Fraser) at Beveridge and could see the sea. What they saw was Port Phillip Bay and not Westernport, a mistake which was not realised until many years later. At the foot of Mt Bland now sits a monument to Hume and Hovell which reads "From this mount, the explorers first sighted their objective".

Three days later, after passing through what we know as Bulla, St Albans and Werribee, they found themselves at Point Wilson. Having reached the sea, the party turned back. Those amongst us today who are snow skiing enthusiasts or who have seen the Snowy Mountains Scheme would have some imaginative understanding of the immense difficulties faced by these 8 men. The outward journey was 670 miles and they managed to shorten this by 150 miles on the return. On 8 January 1825 the last of their rations were distributed and they were still 8 days from their destination. They were able to catch some fish and one day they shot a kangaroo. They ate meat and made moccasins for the bullocks who were affected by lameness. The men were also by this time without boots. Only one bullock survived and the men were worn out too.

They had gone out in flood and returned in drought. Unfortunately Hume and Hovell argued frequently and this hostility remained for the rest of their lives. Over such an arduous journey some leadership and personality clashes would not be surprising. The route of the journey was like a tangled thread across a map which till then had been blank. A whole system of rivers flowing into the Murray had been discovered and many excellent pastures were revealed. The Snowy Mountains as a barrier and a watershed were put onto the map, and it is still a puzzle to me that it then took a further 11 years to attempt the successful and lasting settlement on the River Yarra by John Batman.

Hume's legacy today is significant, the Hume Weir, the Hume Highway, the Shire of Hume and when this Cricket Ground was founded in 1994, the McQueen family felt that a joint recognition of these brave men should be recorded, here, in the pathway of their courageous and epic journey.