Batmans Treaty

On 6 June 1835, just under two years before Melbourne was officially recognised as a
settlement, John Batman, the leader of the Port Phillip Association presented Wurundjeri
Elders with a land use agreement. This document, now referred to as the Batman treaty,
was later given to the British government to claim that local Aboriginal people had given
Batman access to their land in exchange for goods and rations. Today, the meaning and
interpretation of this treaty is contested. Some argue it was pretence for taking Aboriginal
land in exchange for trinkets, while others argue it was significant in that it sought to
recognise Aboriginal land rights.

The exact location of the meeting between Batman and the Kulin Ngurungaeta (head clan-
men) with whom he made the treaty is unknown, although it is believed to have been by
the Merri Creek. According to historian Meyer Eidelson, it is generally believed to have
occurred on the Merri near modern day Rushall Station.

Opinions around why Kulin Ngurungaeta signed the Treaty (if in fact they did) are open to
speculation.  One opinion is that “the clan-heads may have made a very informed decision”
to “limit the number of settlers in Port Phillip” to Batman and his associates in an attempt
“to at least curtail the destruction they had heard had happened elsewhere”.

In attempting to understand Batman’s intentions, it’s worth noting that the Association’s
principal aim ‘was to depasture stock as profitably as possible’.[iv] The aim of the
Association as given to the British authorities, however, was to establish a nucleus ‘for a
free and useful colony, founded on the principle of conciliation, of philanthropy, morality
and temperance…calculated to ensure the comfort and well being of the natives’.[v] It is
unlikely that these two aims could peacefully coexist.

Batman’s treaty was deemed invalid. It was also noted that ‘if it was acknowledged that the
Aborigines had the right to dispose of their land as they saw fit, then the Crown’s claim to
all Australian lands would be in doubt.’. Ultimately, Batman’s treaty had no legal
significance in the European settlement of Melbourne and the taking of Aboriginal land.
However, it was an important first step in this process, and also holds significant
symbolism. It is symbolic of European relations with the Kulin, in that self-interest and
deceit were central to colonisation. To this day, Batman’s treaty is the only land use
agreement that has sought to recognise European occupation of Australia, and pre-
existing Aboriginal rights to the land.
 Batman's treaty

When John Batman arrived in Port Phillip in 1835, he

approached local Indigenous leaders with a contract, to ‘buy'
their land. His negotiations were successful, and he walked
away with 240,000 hectares of prime farming terrain – almost
all of the Kulin nation's ancestral land.
However, this transaction was not as straightforward as it
appears.

Batman's claim to this territory was based on the European idea

of land ownership and legal contracts – a concept that was
completely foreign to the Indigenous people of Victoria. For
them land was not about possession, but belonging. Territories
may belong to different groups, but land cannot be bought or
sold.

Batman also claimed that he had negotiated with Aboriginal

‘chiefs' who were in charge of this land. But he was actually
negotiating with the tribal elders who weren't, in fact, in a
position to sell their people's land, even if they had wanted to.

As William Buckley, who lived with the Wathaurung Aboriginal

community for 32 years, observed:

...they had seen several of the native chiefs, with whom, as

they said, they had exchanged all sorts of things for land; but
that I knew could not have been, because unlike other savage
communities, or people, they have no chiefs claiming or
possessing any superior right over the soil: theirs only being as
the heads of families. [...] I therefore looked upon the land
dealing spoken of as another hoax of the white man, to possess
the inheritance of the uncivilised natives.

– William Buckley
Source

When Batman arrived in the Port Phillip region, he had with him
Aboriginal translators from New South Wales, who would have
spoken a completely different language to the Wurundjeri
people. It is now believed that the Wurundjeri may have
thought Batman was offering them gifts in exchange for safe
passage – a transaction known as tandarrum.

It is also thought by some historians that the ‘marks' Batman

claims were made by eight Aboriginal chiefs to sign the contract
are identical to marks found in his journal, which raises the
question of whether they might have been forged.

Batman's treaty was almost immediately declared invalid by the

Proclamation of Governor Bourke of New South Wales. On 6
August 1835, he declared the British Crown owned the entire
land of Australia, and that only it could sell or distribute land.

Batmans Treaty with the Aborigines at Merri Creek John W Burtt 1875
John Batman Treaty Transcript
Know all Persons that We Three Brothers Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, being the Principal
Chiefs, and also Cooloolock Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip and Mommarmalar being the
Chiefs of a certain Native Tribe called Dutigallar situate at and near Port Phillip, Called by
us.

The above mentioned Chiefs Iramoo being possessed of the tract of Land hereinafter
mentioned for and in consideration of Twenty Pair of Blankets, Thirty Tomahawks, One
Hundred Knives Scissors, Thirty Looking Glasses, Two Hundred Handkerchiefs, and one
Hundred Pounds of Flour, and Six Shirts delivered to Us by John Batman residing in Van
Diemens Land Esquire but at present sojourning with us and our Tribe Do for ourselves our
Heirs and Successors Give Grant Enfeoff and confirm unto the said John Batman his heirs
and assigns All that tract of Country situate and being at Port Phillip, Runing from the
branch of the River at the top of the Port about 7 Miles from the mouth of the River, Forty
Miles North East and from thence - West. Forty Miles across Iramoo Downs or Plains and
from thence South South West across Mount Vilanmarnartar to Geelong Harbour at the
head of the same and containing about Five Hundred Thousand more or less Acres as the
same hath been before the execution of these presents delineated and marked out by Us
according to the custom of our Tribe by certain marks made upon the Trees growing along
the boundaries of the said Tract of Land To hold the said Tract of Land, with all advantages
belonging thereto unto and To the Use of the said John Batman his heirs and assigns for
ever To the Intent that the said John Batman his heirs and assigns may occupy and possess
the said tract of Land and place thereon Sheep and Cattle Yielding and delivering to us and
our heirs or successors the yearly Rent or Tribute of One Hundred Pair of Blankets, One
Hundred Knives, One Hundred Tomahawks, Fifty Suits of Clothing Fifty Looking glasses, Fifty
Pair Scissors and Five Tons Flour

In Witness whereof We Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, the above mentioned Principal Chiefs,
and Cooloolock, Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip & Mommarmalar the Chiefs of the said Tribe
have hereunto affixed our seals to these presents and have signed the same Dated
according to the Christian Aera this Sixth day of June One thousand eight hundred and
thirty five

Signed Sealed and Delivered in the presence of Us the same having been fully and properly
interpreted and explained to the said Chiefs James Gumm Alexander Thompson Willm Todd
Signed on the Banks of Batman's Creek 6th June 1835
 John Batmans Diary Entry on the Signing of the Treaty

“ I joined this tribe about twelve o’clock and staid with them until about 2 the next day
during which time I fully explained to them that the object of my visit was to purchase from
them a tract of their country that I intended to settle amongst them and I also proposed to
pay them an annual tribute as a compensation for enjoying the land.

The chiefs appeared most fully to comprehend my proposals, then explained to them the
boundaries of the land which I wished to purchase and which are defined by hills to which
they have affixed their native names.

On the next day the chiefs proceeded with me to the boundaries land they marked with
their own native marks the trees at the corners of the boundaries and they also gave me
their own private mark which is kept sacred by them.

After the boundaries had been thus marked and described, I filled up as accurately as I
could define it, the land agreed to be purchased by me from the chiefs and the deed, then
thus filled up was most carefully read over and explained to them by the two interpreters
so that they could most fully comprehend its purport and effect. I then filled in two other
parts of the deed so as to make it in triplicate and the three principal chiefs and five of the
subordinate chiefs then executed each of the deeds, each part being separately read over
and they delivered to me a piece of the soil for the purpose of putting me in possession
thereof, I understand that it was a form by which they delivered me the tract of land”.
 Batman signing his 1835 treaty with the Dutigall Aboriginal chiefs.

On this day: Batman treaty

annulled
IN 2012, MOST MELBOURNIANS would be confused if you offered them a handful of
tomahawks, a few handkerchiefs, some blankets and some scissors for their land. One
hundred and seventy-seven years ago in the rough-shod days of early Australian settlement,
however, they represented a princely sum. And that is exactly what settler John Batman used
for currency to acquire the 250,000ha on which Melbourne and Geelong sit.  

Upon his arrival in Port Phillip, grazier and businessman John Batman met the chiefs of the
Dutigall people on behalf of his settler committee, the Port Phillip Association. Believing it
to be the ideal place for a new settlement, Batman negotiated the purchase of the land with
eight indigenous chiefs, in exchange for 20 blankets, 30 tomahawks, 100 knives, 30 mirrors,
200 handkerchiefs, 100 pounds of flour and six shirts.

Crown repeals Batman's treaty and claim to Melbourne

The most important outcome of this event was that Batman became the first and possibly the
only early Anglo-Australian to formally recognise the indigenous Aboriginal population as
property owners. 

He then submitted the agreement to the state through Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur. In
June 1835 he received a long-winded response which, in essence, denied his ownership of
the land because he had negotiated with an indigenous tribe. 

On 26 August the Governor of New South Wales, Richard Bourke, annulled the agreement
and issued a proclamation that all private property agreements with the native population
would be "void as against the rights of the Crown," as negotiating for land with indigenous
Australians could only legally be recognised if it was the Crown itself that purchased the
property.

Modern day repercussions of the Batman treaty's repeal

In many ways, neglecting to recognise the agreement and indigenous land ownership set a
precedent that is only being patched-up now. The treaty's abandonment "did have a
cascading effect for the law's interface with indigenous people," says Dr Thalia Anthony,
senior law lecturer on Aboriginal and Indigenous issues at University of Technology Sydney.
"It [reflected] the Anglo-Australian government's prevailing interest in Crown title and its
dismissal of competing claims."

Another point of historical contention is whether Batman fabricated the agreement to acquire
the land or whether the signing actually took place, which remains unclear. However, either
scenario would have created the friction over native title that has reverberated throughout
Melbourne's history. 

An extreme case was the ceremonious presentation of the treaty to the Victorian Government
in 1969 by the Victorian Aboriginal Advancement League (VAAL), demanding rent going
back to the signing. 

Batman was portrayed by many in the state as a heroic founding father of Victoria, but tales
of his less admirable swindling and womanising habits have surfaced in recent years. In the
end he died of syphilis in his Collins street home in 1839.