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John Batman (21 January 18016 May 1839) was an Australian grazier, entrepreneur and explorer. He is best known for his role in the founding of
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
. Born and raised in the then-British colony of
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
, Batman settled in Van Diemen's Land (modern-day
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
) in the 1820s, where he rose to prominence for hunting bushrangers and as a leader of massacres of Aboriginal people in the Black War. During this time he was notorious for committing multiple mass killings of Aboriginal people. He later co-founded the Port Phillip Association and led an expedition which explored the Port Phillip area on the Australian mainland with the goal of establishing a new settlement. In 1835, Batman negotiated a treaty with Aboriginal people in by Port Phillip offering them tools, blankets and food in exchange for thousands of hectares of land. However, the treaty was declared void by the government and it has been disputed by Aboriginal descendants. This expedition ultimately resulted in the founding of Melbourne, eventual capital of Victoria and one of Australia's largest and most important cities. Batman moved to the colony with his convict wife, Elizabeth Callaghan, and their seven daughters, settling on what is now known as Batman's Hill. He died of syphilis shortly afterwards at the age of 38. Batman's treaty stands as the only attempt by a European to engage Australian Aboriginal people in a treaty or transaction rather than simply claiming land outright. However, Batman's motives and the validity of the treaty remain of great historical interest and debate.


Early life

Batman's English parents, William and Mary Bat(e)man, came to Sydney in 1797 aboard the ship ''
Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
''. William had been transported to the Colony of New South Wales for receiving stolen
saltpetre Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitra ...
(a precursor ingredient for making gunpowder), but Mary accompanied him as a free passenger, along with their children Maria and Robert. John, the couple's second son, was born on 21 January 1801 at Rosehill, Parramatta, now a suburb of
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...
, but at the time one of the early farming settlements of the fledgling colony. After obtaining his ticket-of-leave, William started a timber-yard business that prospered, and he owned several properties and the licence for the Duke of Wellington hotel in Church Street, Paramatta. In 1810 William changed the family's surname from Bateman, perhaps to avoid convict stigma. William died in 1834 and Mary in 1840.


Move to Tasmania

In 1821 John (aged 20 years) and his younger brother Henry journeyed to Van Diemen's Land (now known as Tasmania) to settle on land in the north-east near Ben Lomond become a grazier. He acquired 'Kingston', a property said to be "...large in acreage and poor agriculturally,...". In early 1826 Batman captured the bushranger
Matthew Brady Matthew Brady (1799 – 4 May 1826) was an English-born convict who became a bushranger in Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania). He was sometimes known as "Gentleman Brady" due to his good treatment and fine manners when robbing his victims ...
, resulting in an additional grant of land by the government. Brady had been wounded in the leg in a conflict with the authorities, but got away safely. Batman went out unarmed on his own in search of Brady, and found him quite accidentally. He saw a man limping in the bush near a shallow creek, and hastened forward to him. It was Brady. He induced Brady to surrender and return with him. The outlaw was ill and suffering much pain, and did as he was asked. Brady was duly handed over to authorities at Launceston Gaol and later sentenced to death. He was hanged at
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/ Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
.


Participation in massacres of Aboriginal people and the Black War

Batman participated in the many killings of Tasmanian Aboriginal people while in Tasmania. Many such killings are well documented in the Tasmanian State archives and Victorian State library records. Batman participated in the capture of some Aboriginal people in 1829. He employed mainland Aboriginal people hired in Sydney, New South Wales, for 'roving parties' hunting Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples. Between 1828 and 1830 Aboriginal people in this region were shot or rounded up by bounty hunters like Batman.Bill Gammage, (2011) The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, p.40 As Tasmanian Colonial Governor, George Arthur, observed, Batman "...had much slaughter to account for". Closer examination of this quote from Governor Arthur reveals a more complex picture of Batman's motives and actions on behalf of the government in these so-called "roving parties". For example, in September 1829 Batman (aged 28), with the assistance of several "Sydney blacks" he brought to Tasmania, led an attack on an Aboriginal family group together numbering 60 to 70 men, women and children in the Ben Lomond district of north-east Tasmania. Waiting until 11pm that night before attacking, he "...ordered the men to fire upon them..." as their 40-odd dogs raised the alarm and the Aboriginal people ran away into thick scrub. In his report of the incident to the police magistrate at Oatlands, Batman estimated that they killed 15 Aboriginal people. The next morning, he left the place for his farm, with two badly wounded Tasmanian men, a woman and her two-year-old boy, all of whom he captured. However, he "...found it impossible that the two former he mencould walk, and after trying them by every means in my power, for some time, found I could not get them on I was obliged to shoot them." The captured woman, named Luggenemenener, was later sent to Campbell Town gaol and separated from her two-year-old son, Rolepana, "...whom she had faced death to protect." Batman reported afterwards to British Colonial Secretary, John Burnett, in a letter of 7 September 1829, that he kept the child because he wanted "...to rear it...". Luggenemenener died on 21 March 1837 as an inmate at the Flinders Island settlement. Later, Rolepana (aged 8 years), traveled with him as part of the founding party of Melbourne in 1835. After Batman's death in 1839, Rolepana would have been 12 years old. Boyce notes that Rolepana was employed by colonist George Ware at 12 pounds a year with board on Batman's death, "...but what became of him after this is also unknown." However, Haebich records Rolepana as having died in Melbourne in 1842 (he would have been about 15 years). She also says that: :Batman openly defied Governor Arthur and eorge AugustusRobinson by refusing to hand over two Aboriginal boys in his employ: Rolepana (or Benny Ben Lomond) and Lurnerminer (John or Jack Allen), captured by Batman in 1828. He claimed the boys were there with the consent of their parents,....He also demonstrated a strong proprietorial interest in the boys, when he told Robinson they were 'as much his property as his farm and that he had as much right to keep them as the government'. Indeed Batman was convinced that the best plan was to leave the children with the colonists, who clothed and fed them at no expense to the government and raised them to become 'useful members of society'. In a series of letters to Governor Arthur, he 'pleaded hard for the retention of youths educated by settlers and devoted to their service'. Batman rose to prominence during the time of the Black War of 1830 (aged 29), during which he participated in the
Black Line } The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of 600 to 900 Aborigi ...
—the formation of a "human chain" across the island to drive Aboriginal people from their lands into a 'manageable' area. In February 1830, Batman wrote to the British Colonial Secretary, John Burnett, about his difficulty in 'coming up' with .e., capturingthe Aboriginal people. In the same letter, he asked in explaining his difficulty in capturing Aboriginal people in the bush, "...if he could follow known boriginaloffenders once they had made it 'to their own ground'. The 19th-century artist, John Glover, captioned one of his Tasmanian paintings ''Batman's Lookout, Benn Lomond'' (1835) "...on account of Mr Batman frequenting this spot to entrap the Natives." Batman's neighbour in Van Diemen's Land, Glover said that he was "a rogue, thief, cheat and liar, a murderer of blacks and the vilest man I have ever known". Batman was diagnosed with
syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium '' Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, a ...
in 1833. By 1835, Batman's property, "...Kingston Ben_Lomond.html" ;"title="ear Ben Lomond">ear Ben Lomond covered more than , had appropriate animals and buildings, and numerous hands; but it was too rugged to be highly productive."


Foundation of Melbourne and Batman's Treaty

Batman sought land grants in the Western Port area, but the New South Wales colonial authorities rejected this. So, in 1835, as a leading member of the Port Phillip Association he sailed for the mainland in the
schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...
'' Rebecca'' and explored much of Port Phillip. When he found the current site of central Melbourne, he noted in his diary of 8 June 1835, "This will be the place for a village." and declared the land "Batmania".
Batman's Treaty Batman's Treaty was an agreement between John Batman, an Australian grazier, businessman and coloniser, and a group of Wurundjeri elders, for the purchase of land around Port Phillip, near the present site of Melbourne. The document came to b ...
negotiations with Kulin peoples (Aboriginal peoples of now central Victoria) took place in June 1835 on the banks of the Merri Creek in present-day Northcote (an inner suburb of Melbourne), "...using legal advice from the former Van Diemen's Land attorney-general, Joseph Gellibrand, and with the support of his Aboriginal companions from
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
and Van Diemen's Land." However, Batman did not visit the colonial camp that was later set up on the
Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, ( Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower s ...
(i.e., Melbourne) until November 1835. Debate has continued for more than a century over this moment in the birth of Melbourne. Batman writes in his diary on Monday, 8 June 1835 that "... the boat went up the river I have spoken of, which comes from the east, and I am glad to state, about six miles up found the river all good water and very deep. This will be the place for a village. The natives on shore." The previous day Batman and his party had returned from their meeting with the Kulin Elders along the hills bordering the northern banks of the Yarra. It remains quite unclear whether the party saw the 'place for a village' by the 'Falls'—a long-used homesite for the local peoples, and similarly unclear whether Batman was in the boat that explored the Yarra on the 8th. But the site has already been noted for its virtues by numerous Britons including John Helder Wedge and Batman's Parramatta friend Hamilton Hume." Batman negotiated a treaty (now known as
Batman's Treaty Batman's Treaty was an agreement between John Batman, an Australian grazier, businessman and coloniser, and a group of Wurundjeri elders, for the purchase of land around Port Phillip, near the present site of Melbourne. The document came to b ...
but also known as the Dutigulla Treaty, Dutigulla Deed, Melbourne Treaty or Melbourne Deed), with Kulin peoples to rent their land on an annual basis for 40 blankets, 30 axes, 100 knives, 50 scissors, 30 mirrors, 200 handkerchiefs, 100 pounds of flour and 6 shirts. It is unlikely that Kulin people would have understood this as a transfer of land or agreed to it if they had, but, as Percival Serle wrote, "No doubt the blankets, knives, tomahawks, etc., that he gave them were very welcome". In any case, Governor Bourke deemed such a treaty invalid as the land was claimed by the Crown rather than the Kulin peoples and other colonists including the rival party of
John Pascoe Fawkner John Pascoe Fawkner (20 October 1792 – 4 September 1869) was an early Australian pioneer, businessman and politician of Melbourne, Australia. In 1835 he financed a party of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land (now called Tasmania), to sai ...
arrived to settle Melbourne.


Later life

Batman and his family settled at what became known as Batman's Hill at the western end of Collins Street. Having sold his property "Kingston" in Tasmania and brought his wife, former convict Elizabeth Callaghan, and their seven daughters to Melbourne, he built a house at the base of the hill in April 1836. His son, John, was born in November 1837. However, Batman's health quickly declined after 1835 as syphilis had disfigured and crippled him, leaving him in constant pain. By the end of 1837 he was unable to walk and was forced to give up squatting and move into trading and investment, but he greatly overstretched his finances and was left vulnerable by his reliance on delegating work to others. As the disease eroded his nose, forcing him to wear a bandage to conceal his ruined face, he became estranged from his wife. In his last months of his life Batman was cared for by his Aboriginal servants, who carried him around in a wicker perambulator. Following Batman's death on 6 May 1839 his widow and family moved from the house at Batman's Hill and the house was requisitioned by the government for administrative offices. Batman's will, made in 1837, was out of date at his death as many of the assets bequeathed to his children had already been sold. Years of legal wrangling followed his death, led by Eliza Batman, who had remarried in 1841 to Batman's former clerk, William Willoughby, and had only been left £5 in the will by her embittered first husband. The case dragged on, even after Batman's heir-at-law, his son John, drowned in the
Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, ( Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower s ...
in 1845, and its costs absorbed what was left of Batman's estate.


Legacy

Batman was buried in the Old Melbourne Cemetery but was exhumed and re-buried in the Fawkner Cemetery, a cemetery named after his fellow colonist (and rival),
John Pascoe Fawkner John Pascoe Fawkner (20 October 1792 – 4 September 1869) was an early Australian pioneer, businessman and politician of Melbourne, Australia. In 1835 he financed a party of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land (now called Tasmania), to sai ...
. A bluestone
obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...
was constructed in 1922 which was later moved to Batman Avenue before being returned to the Queen Victoria Market site in 1992. The obelisk is inscribed with the Latin "circumspice" meaning "look around", the entire city of Melbourne being his legacy. The obelisk also states that Melbourne was "unoccupied" prior to John Batman's arrival in 1835. Australian sprinter Daniel Batman claimed to be a direct descendant of John Batman, although this claim is dubious, given that Batman's only son, John Charles Batman, died aged just 8 or 9 years old by drowning in at Yarra Falls on 11 January 1845.


Controversy over massacres

Batman's legacy has been challenged in the 21st century, and most criticism has focused on his killings of Indigenous people in Tasmania. In 2016, Darebin Council voted unanimously to change the name of Batman Park in Northcote. It is now called Gumbri Park, after Gumbri (Jessie Hunter), great-niece of
Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the Traditional Owners of the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, covering much of the present location of Narrm ( Melbo ...
leader
William Barak William Barak, named Beruk by his parents, (1823 – 15 August 1903), the "last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe", was the last traditional ngurungaeta (elder) of the Wurundjeri-willam clan, the pre-colonial inhabitants of present-day Melbourne, ...
and the last girl born on the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve in Healesville. In 2017, artist Ben Quilty called for Batman's statue to be removed from the Melbourne CBD, describing him as a mass murderer who "makes the American Confederates look friendly" and adding that "changing the inscription n his statueto 'mass murderer' might slightly appease my sense of justice." The Victorian electoral Division of Batman was abolished in 2018 and renamed the Division of Cooper after Aboriginal political activist William Cooper.


Places named after John Batman

* Batman Bridge (Tasmania) * Division of Batman (Victorian electoral division; now known as the Division of Cooper) *
Batman Park Batman Park is an urban park, located on the northern bank of the Yarra River in central Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Batman Park is a small open grassed space with paths and planted Eucalyptus trees bordered by Spencer Street at the west, F ...
(Melbourne CBD) * Batman Park ( Northcote, Victoria) – now renamed as Gumbri Park * Batman's Hill (Melbourne CBD) *
Batman railway station Batman railway station is located on the Upfield line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the northern Melbourne suburb of Coburg North, and it opened on 8 October 1889 as Bell Park. It closed on 13 July 1903, and reopened again on 1 October 19 ...
(North Coburg, Melbourne, Victoria) (2003 facsimile edition) * Batman Avenue, Melbourne * Batman Avenue, Keilor Park * Batman Avenue, Sunbury * Batman Avenue, Hurstbridge * Batman Avenue, Shepparton * Batman Close, Thornton, New South Wales * Batman Lane, Surry Hills, New South Wales * Batman Road,
Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards o ...
* Batman Road,
Indented Head Indented Head is a small coastal township located on the Bellarine Peninsula, east of Geelong, in the Australian state of Victoria. The town lies on the coast of the Port Phillip bay between the towns of Portarlington and St Leonards. Indent ...
– the original landing site of John Batman in Port Phillip Bay * Batman Street, Burnside Heights * Batman Street, Footscray * Batman Street, Altona Meadows * Batman Street, Aberfeldie * Batman Street, Fitzroy North * Batman Street, Portarlington * Batman Street,
Braddon, Australian Capital Territory Braddon is an inner north suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia located adjacent to the Canberra CBD. The suburb is one of the oldest suburbs in Canberra, a relatively young city, settled in 1922 and gazetted as a divisi ...
* Batman Walk, Parramatta * John Batman Drive, Melton West * John Batman Gardens, Sandringham


See also

* History of Melbourne * ''Strandloper'' – a novel by Alan Garner involving John Batman


References


Further reading

* Attwood, Bain (2009), ''Possession: Batman's Treaty and the Matter of History'', Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, (xviii + 416 pages) * Bell, Agnes Paton (1965). ''Melbourne: John Batman's village''. Melbourne: Cassell * Billot, C. P. (1979). ''John Batman: the Story of John Batman and the Founding of Melbourne''. Melbourne: Hyland House. * Billot, C. P. (1985). ''The life and times of John Pascoe Fawkner''. Melbourne: Hyland House. * Boyce, James (2008), ''Van Diemen's Land'', Black Inc, Melbourne * Boyce, James (2011), ''1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia'', Black Inc., Melbourne * Campbell, Alastair H. (1987). ''John Batman and the Aborigines''. Malmsbury, Australia: Kibble Books. * Clark, Ian D. (1990) ''Aboriginal languages and clans: An historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800–1900'', Dept. of Geography & Environmental Science, Monash University (Melbourne), * Clark, Ian D. (1995), ''Scars in the landscape: A register of massacre sites in western Victoria, 1803–1859'', Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (Canberra), * Clark, Ian D. (2003) ''That's my country belonging to me' – Aboriginal land tenure and dispossession in nineteenth-century Western Victoria'', Ballarat Heritage Services, Ballarat. * Critchett, Jan (1990), ''A distant field of murder: Western district frontiers, 1834–1848'', Melbourne University Press (Carlton, Vic. and Portland, Or.) * Harcourt, Rex (2001), ''Southern Invasion. Northern Conquest. Story of the Founding of Melbourne'', Golden Point Press, Blackburn South. * Prior, Wannan and Nunn (1968). ''A Pictorial History of Bushrangers''. Melbourne: Paul Hamlyn * Reynolds, Henry (1995), ''Fate of a Free People: A Radical Re-examination of the Tasmanian Wars'', Penguin, Melbourne , at page 50, onwards for role in removal of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. * Wettenhall, Gib, and the Gunditjmara People (2010), ''The People of Budj Bim: Engineers of aquaculture, builders of stone house settlements and warriors defending country'', em Press, Heywood (Victoria)


Online

*
Transcript of John Batman's journal
at the State Library of Victoria.
Batmania: a fun way to explore the people and events surrounding the foundation of Melbourne, images of the Batman Land Deed and other historical documents
at the National Museum of Australia.
Batman Land Deed
– National Museum of Australia {{DEFAULTSORT:Batman, John 1801 births 1839 deaths Explorers of Australia Australian explorers Settlers of Melbourne Australian people of English descent 19th-century Australian businesspeople Deaths from syphilis