23 Facts About Robert Hoddle

Robert Hoddle was the first Surveyor-General of Victoria from 1851 to 1853.

Robert Hoddle was previously the Surveyor-in-Charge of the Port Phillip District from 1837 to 1851.

Robert Hoddle became Surveyor-General upon the proclamation of the Port Phillip District as the new Colony of Victoria within the British Empire in July 1851.

Robert Hoddle is especially recognized for the design and layout of the Hoddle Grid in 1837, the area which forms the Melbourne central business district of Melbourne.

Robert Hoddle was an accomplished artist and depicted scenes of the Port Phillip region and New South Wales.

Robert Hoddle, the son of a bank clerk for the Bank of England, was born in Westminster, London.

Robert Hoddle became a cadet-surveyor in the British army in 1812.

Robert Hoddle worked in the Ordnance Department and took part in the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain.

Robert Hoddle then sailed for the Cape Colony, South Africa in 1822 where he worked on military surveys.

Robert Hoddle migrated to the Australian colonies, arriving in Sydney, New South Wales, aboard the William Penn in July 1823.

Robert Hoddle spent the next twelve years in Queensland and later still in New South Wales where he surveyed the sites for the towns of Berrima and Goulburn as well as Bell's Line of Road in the Blue Mountains.

Between 1830 and 1836, Robert Hoddle made several visits to the rural district now occupied by the Australian Capital Territory where he surveyed property boundaries.

Robert Hoddle arrived in Port Phillip, the future site for Melbourne, in March 1837 in company with Governor Bourke, as senior surveyor with his assistants D'Arcy and Darke.

Robert Hoddle was to take charge of the surveying work which had been begun by Robert Russell, who many years later claimed to have surveyed the first grid of streets.

Whether Robert Hoddle surveyed from scratch or used Russell's initial survey has been the subject of controversy, but they both followed the then standard grid layout and alignment.

In 1837, at the same time as Melbourne, Robert Hoddle laid out the first blocks of Williamstown, but without rear laneways.

Robert Hoddle was in favour of the principal entry streets being a generous width of 60m, which he applied to what are now Melbourne's tree-lined boulevards, such as St Kilda Road, Victoria Parade, Elizabeth Street in Carlton, and the roads branching off that: Royal Parade and Flemington Road.

Robert Hoddle advocated widening the other existing major roads without success.

Robert Hoddle is the earliest-known European artist to have depicted the Australian Capital Territory area.

Robert Hoddle built himself a house on the corner of Bourke and Spencer streets where, in retirement, he tended his trees, played organ and flute and translated Spanish.

Robert Hoddle had bought in 1837 the block of land in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, on which the Commonwealth Bank now stands, for a comparatively small sum, and he became a wealthy man.

Robert Hoddle was married twice and left a widow and children.

Robert Hoddle died at his residence on the north east corner of Bourke and Spencer Street, a lot he bought at one of the first land sales, on 24 October 1881.