Collins, David, 1756-1810

Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins was ordered to establish a settlement on Port Phillip Bay to secure the strategic Bass Strait for the British. However, he was unhappy with that locality and decided to transfer the settlement to the Derwent River. On 15 February 1804, Collins, with the first detachment from Port Phillip in the Ocean and Lady Nelson, anchored off the new settlement at Risdon. A quick inspection satisfied him that the site was quite unsuitable and he made his own reconnaissance, eventually selecting the area on the western bank known as Sullivans Cove and ordering that the expedition should be disembarked with all its stores in the vicinity of Hunters Island.

David Collins was first Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania.

Cadell and Davies were the publishers of David Collins' Account of the English colony in New South Wales published in London in 1798 and 1802.