John Batman (21 January 18016 May 1839) was an Australian grazier, entrepreneur and explorer, who had a prominent role in the founding of Melbourne. He was also involved in many attacks against Aboriginal Australians.
Born and raised in the then-British colony of New South Wales, Batman settled in Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania) in the 1820s, where he rose to prominence for hunting bushrangers and leading massacres of Aboriginal people in the Black War.
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 Port Phillip by 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 colonial-era 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 John Batman was born on 21 January 1801 in Parramatta, Colony of New South Wales. His parents, William and Mary Bat(e)man, arrived at Sydney aboard Ganges on 2 June 1797. William was sentenced to fourteen years' transportation the previous year for receiving stolen saltpetre, while his wife paid her fare to accompany him, bringing along their children Maria and Robert.
William obtained his ticket of leave and started a timber-yard at Parramatta, where his five sons and daughter were raised. His sentence expired in 1810 and William later became a devout Wesleyan; his children were trained as Anglican-Methodists. As Aboriginals were encouraged to come into Parramatta for charity and education, John knew many Aboriginals. John was apprenticed as a blacksmith in Sydney in 1816.
Move to Tasmania In December 1821, John 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, to 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, 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.
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.Henry Reynolds, (1995) Fate of a Free People: A Radical Re-examination of the Tasmanian Wars, Penguin, Melbourne, p.50 He employed mainland Aboriginal people hired in Sydney, New South Wales, for 'roving parties' hunting Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples.Henry Reynolds, (1995) Fate of a Free People: A Radical Re-examination of the Tasmanian Wars, Penguin, Melbourne, p.78 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".John Batman – C. P. Billot pp 48.. '..{Batman}proceeded not with a sword but an olive branch, and whose sympathy for the much injured and unfortunate race of beings was second only to that of George Augustus Robinson's, had much slaughter to account for...' Billot provides further details here that help us in the 21st century begin to understand the events discussed in this following paragraph.. quote pp 48 of the same book '[in September 1829 Batman] and his party was attacked by a well-armed group of some seventy of the most dangerous natives of the island. The attack was so closely pressed that, for the first and probably only time in his life, John was forced to order his men to open fire on the natives. As a result of this order fifteen natives were killed." 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 son, all of whom he captured. However, he "...found it impossible that the two former [the men] could 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,Rosalind Stirling, John Batman: Aspirations of a Currency Lad, Australian Heritage, Spring 2007, p.41 was later sent to Campbell Town gaol and separated from her two-year-old son, Rolepana, "...whom she had faced death to protect."James Boyce (2008) Van Diemen's Land, Black Inc, Melbourne, pp.200–201 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...".Henry Reynolds, (1995) Fate of a Free People: A Radical Re-examination of the Tasmanian Wars, Penguin, Melbourne, p.81 Luggenemenener died on 21 March 1837 as an inmate at the Flinders Island settlement.Kristyn Harman, Send in the Sydney Natives! Deploying Mainlanders against Tasmanian Aborigines, University of Tasmania Web site (https://www.utas.edu.au), p.14
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."James Boyce (2011) 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia, Black Inc, Melbourne, footnote No. 136 on p.236 However, Haebich records Rolepana as having died in Melbourne in 1842 (he would have been about 15 years).Anna Haebich, 2000, Broken circles: fragmenting indigenous families, 1800–2000, Fremantle Press, p.101 She also says that:
Batman openly defied Governor Arthur and [George Augustus] Robinson 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'.Anna Haebich, 2000, Broken circles: fragmenting indigenous families, 1800–2000, Fremantle Press, p.100
Batman rose to prominence during the time of the Black War of 1830 (aged 29), during which he participated in the Black Line—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 [i.e., capturing] the Aboriginal people.Henry Reynolds, (1995) Fate of a Free People: A Radical Re-examination of the Tasmanian Wars, Penguin, Melbourne, p.69 In the same letter, he asked in explaining his difficulty in capturing Aboriginal people in the bush, "...if he could follow known [Aboriginal] offenders once they had made it 'to their own ground'.Henry Reynolds, (1995) Fate of a Free People: A Radical Re-examination of the Tasmanian Wars, Penguin, Melbourne, p.128
The 19th-century artist, John Glover, captioned one of his Tasmanian paintings Batman's Lookout, Benn Lomond (c. 1840) "...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 in 1833.
By 1835, Batman's property, "...Kingston [near 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 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".Bill Wannan, Australian folklore: a dictionary of lore, legends and popular allusions, Lansdowne, 1970, p.42Alexander Wyclif Reed, Place names of Australia, Reed, 1973, p.149
Batman's Treaty 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 "Sydney Blacks", which were his Aboriginal employees from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land."James Boyce, (2008) Van Diemen's Land, Black Inc, Melbourne, p.245 These Aboriginal men, namely John Pigeon (Warroba), Johnny Crook (Jonninbia or Yunbai), Joe the Marine (Quanmurrer), Stewart (Nillang), Mackey (Macher), John Allen (Lurnerminer), Bill Bullets, Old Bull, and Joe Bangett, performed a central role in the cross-cultural negotiations and the maintenance of these relations.