The next visitors to Corio Bay came overland. They were Hamilton Hume, a native of New South Wales, and Captain William Hilton Hovell, who had been in the colony since 1813. The governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane, was pleased to allow them to undertake a journey of exploration to Port Phillip, particularly as they intended to pay for the venture themselves.

On October 17, they set out from Hume’s property near Lake George, accompanied by six assigned servants, two carts, five bullocks, and three horses. On their way south they crossed several rivers including the Hume (now the Murray) and the Hovell (now the Goulburn), as well as passing through excellent grazing country.

Nearer to Geelong across the Exe (the Werribee) and the Arndell (the Little); the latter was named after Dr Arndell, Hovell‘s father-in-law. In his journal Hovell gives this description of their arrival at the coast on Thursday, December 16:

“We continued our course through the plains, about S.W. by S. and at the distance of 6 miles we thought we saw the water, but at other times we thought it was the grass on fire… But as the plain was so perfect level, and had no high land at the back except at a very great distance, I was enable to get a meridian altitude, which gave the latitude 38 deg. 6 min. and longitude 145 deg. 25 min. E. We bore down nearly south, and about 4 o’clock we could plainly perceive that that which we at times thought was fire and smoke was the very thing we were so anxiously looking out for. At 5 o’clock we came to the point of land which separates the south east from the north west branches. On this point I took several bearings of the harbour.“

The point they had reached would no doubt be Point Wilson.

Despite the perfect conditions for taking bearings described by Hovell, he was almost 1 degree out in his calculations and concluded he had arrived at Western Port. The glowing description the explorers gave of the area was one of the factors that led to an attempt to form a settlement at Western Port in 1826, and attempt that was abandoned two years later. In later years Hume denied that he believed that he had reached Western Port and averred that this was only Hovell’s opinion while he considered that they had reached Port Phillip. However, in a letter written to the governor immediately after his return, he refers to his exploration around Western Port, and over a year later he made a similar reference in a letter to Lord Bathurst.

The party camped for the night a little way back from Point Wilson. They marked the spot by cutting “an H on a tree the only one sufficiently large for that purpose. It is cut with a tomahawk, and is about 2 miles from the waterside. about north 10° west from the tree is the bearing of Mount Wollstonecroft distant about 8 miles.“ Mount Wollstonecroft was the name Hovell gave to the You Yangs but he records that the aborigines called them Wibamanharter, a name still used in the district in a slightly different spelling as Villamanta and Wooloomanata.

The next morning they continued westward until they came to Kennedy’s Creek (Hovell’s Creek) which they followed upstream until the water became fresh. “As there was a good grass round the ponds, we remained here for the day, to refresh the kettle, which since the time of our first coming into this country, say, since last Monday, have had nearly double the work to do to accomplish the object by the time stipulated.“

While here they had an encounter with the aborigines which began threateningly but ended peacefully enough. From them they learned the native place names, including Wibamanharter (already mentioned) and Geelong as the name for the bay. He used the present spelling in his journal but on the map the spelling Jillong is used.

The attitude of the natives and the fact that rations were running low prompted the explorers to head for home on December 18. They followed a more southerly route on their return journey.
Hovell was most impressed with the country they had seen:

“For the whole of the distance we have come since entering the plains, I find very little difference in the appearance of the country. There is a sameness throughout; the soil, generally speaking, is everywhere good. I have seen none bad, but I have seen some (I do not speak of a few acres, but of large spaces) equal to the best of any land, and the grass and herbage denotes it. Notwithstanding it is dried and parched by the long drought which has shrivelled up the leaves, it is generally of a fine silky nature, and in places is intermixed with the long forest grass. The greatest deficiency this fair land has is that of timber. To make it a delightful spot, what nature has been very sparing of here must be supplied by artificial means.“

The accompanying map is based on the sketch of their journey made by Hume and shows Port Phillip and Western Port in the correct positions relative to each other, even though the shores are not completely drawn. it is most likely that these corrections were made after the explorers return to Sydney where they would have the opportunity to consult existing maps.