He became superintendent of the newly settled Port Phillip District of New South Wales in Australia in 1839. When it was separated from New South Wales (and re‐named Victoria) in 1851, he became lieutenant‐governor. Almost immediately he was confronted with the gold rushes, when the population of Victoria rose in six months from 15,000 to 80,000. He introduced, among other measures, the licence system which later became a cause of the Eureka Rebellion.