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| Batman's handwritten treaty superimposed on a traditional Kulin design, and those European men with guns ... |
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| Digital composite by Csaba Szamosy for Imagine The Future Inc, 1996, created from a traditional Kulin design copied from a pre-contact shield; a detail from Batman's Treaty; and a detail of a watercolour contributed by Geelong Heritage Centre. |
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| Romanticised interpretation of Batman signing the treaty with Kulin people. |
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| Oil on canvas by John Wesley Burrt (1860-1900), painted c. 1875. Image contibuted by the La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria. |
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In 1835, land speculator John Batman signed two 'treaties' with Kulin people to 'purchase' 600,000 acres of land between what is now Melbourne and the Bellarine Peninsula, on behalf of the Port Phillip Association, a group of businessmen from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania).
The treaty deeds were drawn up by Association member Joseph Tice Gellibrand. The contract for territory around Port Phillip was known as the Dutigalla deed, and the other, for the Bellarine Peninsula and Indented Head, was known as the Geelong deed. (See below.) According to the treaty documents the land was transferred to Batman and his heirs in exchange for blankets, knives, looking glasses, tomahawks, scissors, handkerchiefs, shirts, flannel jackets and flour, plus a yearly tribute or rental payment. The traditional landowners also gave Batman two cloaks, and some stone axes, woomeras, boomerangs and other tools, and allegedly confirmed the sale by making marks in trees with their axes. Some contemporary Aboriginal people still wonder what has happened to their yearly tribute or rental payments!
The Dutigalla Deed
The 'Dutigalla' deed was drawn up by Gellibrand for the Port Phillip Association, and signed by Batman and eight Aboriginal 'chiefs' named in the document as Jaga jaga, Jaga jaga, Jaga jaga, Cooloolock. Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip and Mommarnalar. The treaty read, in part, that the 'chiefs' do
'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 (sic) 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 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.'
The Geelong Deed
The second deed drawn up by Gellibrand for the Port Phillip Association, and signed by John Batman, was for 'All that Tract of Country situate and being in the Bay of Port Phillip, known by the name of Indented Head, but called by us Geelong, extending across from Geelong Harbour almost due South, for ten Miles, more or less, to the head of Port Phillip, taking in the whole Neck or Tract of Land, and containing about One hundred Thousand Acres.'
What are your stories about purchasing, renting or otherwise occupying land on Victoria's basalt plain?
Copyright Imagine The Future Inc. and Australian Film Commission, 2002.
Text by Merrill Findlay for ITF.
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