The European settlement of Frankston began shortly after Melbourne was founded on 30 August 1835. Early settlers were primarily fishermen who lived in tents and simple wattle-and-daub huts along the foreshore and at the base of Olivers Hill. They regularly travelled by boat to Melbourne to sell their catches, forming the foundation of the area’s early economy.

In 1840, James Davey arrived and obtained a 640-acre pre-emptive land licence covering much of what is now Frankston and Frankston South, from Olivers Hill down to Daveys Bay. During the mid-1840s, Davey built the Cannanuke Inn—the first permanent building in the area—on the site now occupied by the Frankston Mechanics’ Institute at 1 Plowman Place in the central business district (CBD). In 1851, he also constructed the first permanent wooden house in southern Frankston near Daveys Bay on what was known as “Old Man Davey’s Hill.”

Frank Liardet, eldest son of Melbourne pioneer Wilbraham Liardet, arrived in 1843 and took out a 300-acre depasturing licence for the area now known as Karingal. He built the first permanent wooden house in eastern Frankston in 1847, later incorporating it into his Ballam Park estate following the formal land sales of 1854.

Other notable early settlers included James Oliver, who built a house on northern Olivers Hill to monitor fish schools in nearby waters, giving the hill its current name, and Charles Wedge, a surveyor and explorer who gained land licences in what are now Carrum Downs and Seaford. Thomas and Grace McComb arrived in 1852; Thomas contributed to the local fishing industry, while Grace became Frankston’s first nurse and midwife. In 1854, Thomas Ritchie established the suburb’s first bakery on what is now Nepean Highway in the CBD.

The Frankston township was officially surveyed by Thomas Hanbury Permein in early 1854 for the Victorian colonial government. The only permanent building at the time was the Cannanuke Inn. Using Permein’s survey, James Philp of the Surveyor General’s Office drew up a plan for the new village on 1 May 1854, which included 29 standard lots, 49 suburban lots, nine large country lots of 430 acres, and a designated village centre that would develop into the modern Frankston CBD.

The first formal land sales for Frankston took place on 29 May 1854, following its gazettal in late April as a location “well watered with springs… the odour and flavour of the water being remarkable.” That same year, the road from Brighton to Frankston was extended—now Nepean Highway—complete with bridges over Kananook Creek and Mordialloc Creek, enhancing access to the growing township.

Frank Liardet became one of the first official landowners in the village, establishing his Ballam Park estate on his depasturing licence. His early presence in the area contributed to the popular theory that Frankston was named after him, a view first published in the Victorian Historical Magazine in March 1916.

This period marked the transformation of Frankston from an informal coastal fishing settlement into a structured township with roads, surveyed lots, and permanent buildings, laying the foundation for the modern suburb.