Batman's Treaty

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Batman's Treaty was a treaty made on 6 June 1835 between John Batman, Australian farmer and businessman, and a group of Wurundjeri elders, for the rental of land around Port Phillip Bay, near the present site of the city of Melbourne. It was one of the few attempts made by white settlers to negotiate with Aboriginal Australian people, although it was later declared void by the Governor of New South Wales, Richard Bourke.

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[edit] Making of the treaty

Batman was the head of an expedition sent from Tasmania by the Port Phillip Association, a group of businessmen and farmers, which aimed to gain legal control over the area of Port Phillip(at the time still part of the colony of New South Wales). The expedition included five Aboriginal men from Parramatta, outside Sydney. The party sailed into Port Phillip Bay aboard the Rebecca on 29 May 1835, landing at Indented Head. Over the next week, they explored the area around the Bay, first at Corio Bay, near the present site of Geelong, and later moving up the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers at the north of the Bay.

Batman's party met with Aboriginal people several times, presenting gifts of blankets, handkerchiefs, sugar, apples and other items, and receiving gifts of woven baskets and spears in exchange.

On 6 June, Batman met with eight elders of the Wurundjeri people, the traditional owners of the lands around the Yarra River. The meeting took place on the bank of a small stream, although the precise location is unknown. A likely location is Merri Creek, in what is currently Northcote. After another exchange of gifts, including blankets, knives, scissors and flour, he produced treaty documents, which he signed, and which were then supposedly signed by the eight elders. For a purchase price including more scissors, flannel jackets, red shirts and a yearly tribute of similar items, he obtained about 400 km² around Corio Bay, and about 2,000 km² around the Yarra River. The total value of the goods has been estimated at about GBP 22 in the value of the day.

Batman returned to Launceston on 14 June. Several days later he wrote to the Governor of Tasmania, George Arthur, informing him of the treaty, and of the Association's plans to run 20,000 sheep on the lands purchased. Arthur was not pleased, and wrote to the Governor of New South Wales, Richard Bourke. Not only had Batman attempted to negotiate with the Aboriginal people, whom the British did not recognise as having any claim to any lands in Australia, he had purchased the lands for the Association, and not for the Crown.

On 6 August, Bourke issued the Proclamation of Governor Bourke, a document which formally declared that the British Crown, relying on the doctrine of terra nullius, owned the whole of the continent of Australia, and that only the Crown could distribute or sell any land. It voided any contracts or treaties made by any person without the consent of the government, and declared any person attempting to rely on such a treaty to be trespassing. It was the ultimate absolvement of Batman's treaty. The proclamation was approved by the Colonial Office on 10 October 1835.

John Helder Wedge, another member of the Port Phillip Association, had left Launceston on 7 August 1835, to make a settlement on the Association's land. They had left before Bourke had invalidated their purchase. After stopping at the Barwon River, Wedge moved on to the Yarra River, where he encountered a party led by John Pascoe Fawkner. Wedge told Fawkner of the treaty, but Fawkner would not leave, dismissing the treaty as worthless. Ultimately, however, both men were trespassers, since they did not have the authorisation of Governor Bourke.

[edit] Disputes over the treaty

The validity of the treaty has been widely disputed. It is possible that the marks which Batman claimed were the signatures of the eight Wurundjeri elders were instead made by one of the five Aboriginal men he had brought with him from Parramatta, since they resemble marks commonly used by Aboriginal people from that area. Furthermore, since neither Batman, the Sydney Aboriginal men or the Wurundjeri men spoke anything approaching the same language, it is almost certain that the elders did not understand the treaty, instead probably perceiving it as part of the series of gift exchanges which had taken place over the previous few days. In any case, the European system of understanding property was entirely alien to almost all Aboriginal peoples. Nevertheless, the treaty has been praised as one of the few times any attempt to reach an agreement between white settlers and the local Aboriginal people for land use was made.

Batman maintained until his death in 1839 that the treaty was valid.

[edit] References

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