John Batman Featured
It is suggested that the previous story relating to John Batman's father, William Bateman, should be read prior to this one.
Maria Batman, John Batman's older sister married William White. The White line is therefore directly blood related to John Batman.
Maria Batman, John Batman's older sister married William White. The White line is therefore directly blood related to John Batman.
Let us imagine that the young teenage best friends John Batman and Hamilton Hume roamed around Parramatta and the bush, delighting in the freedom to explore and develop a fascination for the rugged country around them. The aborigines that they made friends with and understood were to stand both Batman and Hume in good stead in later years.
The aborigines in those days could walked the streets proudly, insatiably curious about the strange activities of the white men, but still part of their own tribal community. They held corroborees only a stones throw away from the Batman's cottage and they always held a fascination for the young John Batman. This fascination contrasted with the growing squatter discontent with the natives, where they were laying out sacks of flour laced with poison. They were also arranging aboriginal hunts as social events. It is not commonly known that John Batman had an early and then lifelong admiration and understanding of the native people. Perhaps from his constant contact with his aboriginal friends, it was here where he learned mutual respect and superb bushcraft, that served him so well in Van Diemen's Land and in Port Phillip. |
In 1816, when John was fifteen and his brother Henry was thirteen, their father William apprenticed them to a friend John Flavell, a blacksmith and wheelwright in Castlereagh St, Sydney. The move to Sydney was a stirring experience, as their quiet home town of Parramatta, with a population of a few hundred, compared to the hustling, bustling, stinking life of the penal capital would have been enough to excite and unsettle any boy. Of the population of 30,000, 15,000 had been prisoners who had earned their freedom and 12,000 were still serving their sentence. The rest were made up of family, free settlers and military personnel. Women accounted for 1 in 3 and husbands and hired protectors jealously guarded them. Aborigines were everywhere and John continued his good relationship with them. However, six months into their apprenticeship, the owner Flavell was convicted of burglary and was executed, which meant the end of their apprenticeship. John and Henry could have returned home, as their father had prospered and in 1980 was granted permission to cut timber at Illawarra and Bulli, carting the lumber to their yard in Parramatta. Possibly it was the freedom from parental restraint and his youthful restlessness that kept him from returning home. But there was undoubtedly a more potent reason for John to stay in Sydney.
John was now a handsome, fearless young man, strong and restless, always up to mischief and fascinated by the bush and the activity around him, bright eyed and full of life. He seems to have inherited his big frame and his courage from his father. John was tall, broad shouldered of youth, of powerful frame and engaging charm, with good features, dark curly hair and chinstrap of the same growth. After five years in Sydney and no doubt living the good life of wine, women and song, many close encounters with minders meant it was time to move on. There were many males compared to the females and John, it appears, went about mixing with taken girlfriends and married women. It was in this environment that he may have overstepped the mark and some husbands and protectors may have had him in their sights. So John and Henry advertised for leave of colony on 17 November 1821. This was required by law and 12 days later John and Henry Batman sailed for Van Diemans Land, already becoming popularly known as Tasmania.
In December, 1821, John and Henry Batman and girl named Eliza Thompson disembarked at Hobart Town. Eliza Thompson was Batman's girlfriend and was under sentence in the name of Elizabeth Callaghan, who was convicted at the age of 17 and transported for 14 years, for passing a counterfeit bank note in London. She arrived in Sydney in June, 1821 and must have got off the ship, 'Providence' and 6 months later was off to Van Diemen's Land with Batman. It is not known but it appears she may have been the reason for Batman leaving Sydney.
Henry Batman became a wheelwright near Launceston. John Batman found footing as a grazier. In 1823 he contracted to supply the government meat stores at George Town. By 1824 he had enough capital to graduate from leasehold to a grant of 600 acres at 'Kingston', that was said to be a property of large acreage and poor agriculturally. Eliza Thompson soon joined him as an absconder. In March 1828 they were married at St John's, Launceston, even though her pardon was not gazetted until 1833. John Batman had certain influence and notable friends for this occur.
Ten years passed on and John and Henry were never to see their father again, for William died on 30 March, 1833. His mother, Mary died seven years later, in 1840. John saw her only once more, when he returned in 1835 on the business of the Port Phillip Association.
Henry Batman became a wheelwright near Launceston. John Batman found footing as a grazier. In 1823 he contracted to supply the government meat stores at George Town. By 1824 he had enough capital to graduate from leasehold to a grant of 600 acres at 'Kingston', that was said to be a property of large acreage and poor agriculturally. Eliza Thompson soon joined him as an absconder. In March 1828 they were married at St John's, Launceston, even though her pardon was not gazetted until 1833. John Batman had certain influence and notable friends for this occur.
Ten years passed on and John and Henry were never to see their father again, for William died on 30 March, 1833. His mother, Mary died seven years later, in 1840. John saw her only once more, when he returned in 1835 on the business of the Port Phillip Association.
In around 1826, Batman captured a bushranger called Matthew Brady. He had been wounded in the leg in a conflict with the authorities but managed to get away. Batman went out unarmed on his own in search of Brady and found 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 sentenced to death. The capture of Brady resulted in an additional grant of land by the government. Batman now had a reputation and had now started to participate in the capture of Tasmanian Aborigines. The free settlers were carrying out attacks on the aborigines as they were raiding the farm supplies on a regular basis. Between 1828 and 1830, Tasmanian aborigines in this region were shot or rounded up by bounty hunters. John Batman had become a bounty hunter as he had changed in his attitude to local aborigines. Tasmanian Colonial Governor, George Arthur later observed that John 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".
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For example, in September 1829, John Batman (aged 28), with the assistance of several "Sydney blacks" he brought to Tasmania, led an attack on an Aboriginal family group numbering 60–70 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.” The aboriginals' 40-odd dogs raised the alarm and the aboriginal people ran away into thick scrub, not before an estimated 15 people were killed.
By 1835, Batman's property, covered 7,000 acres (2,800 ha), had appropriate animals and buildings, and numerous hands but it was too rugged to be highly productive. Batman sought land grants in the Western Port area of Victoria 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". Batman's Treaty negotiations with the Kulin people (aboriginal people of 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 Dieman's Land attorney-general, Joseph Gellibrand, and with the support of his aboriginal companions from New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land.”
Batman writes in his diary on Monday, June 8, 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." |
Batman negotiated a treaty (now known as Batman's Treaty but also known as the Dutigulla Treaty, Dutigulla Deed, Melbourne Treaty or Melbourne Deed), with the Kulin people 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 the Kulin people would have understood this as a transfer of land or agreed to it if they had.
Batman and his family settled at what became known as Batman's Hill at the western end of Collins Street. He built a house at the base of the hill in April 1836. Batman's health quickly declined after 1835, as syphilis had disfigured and crippled him and he became estranged from his wife, convict Elizabeth Callaghan. They had had seven daughters and a son. His son drowned in the Yarra River.
In his last months of his life Batman, was cared for by the local aboriginal people. On 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. Left: Statue of John Batman at the former National Mutual Plaza, off Collins Street in Melbourne, unveiled on 26 January 1979.
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