John Batman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Batman
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Early-20th-century drawing of Batman, based on an earlier engraving
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| Born | 21 January 1801 |
| Died | 6 May 1839 (aged 38) |
| Burial place | Old Melbourne Cemetery |
| Occupation | Grazier, explorer, pioneer |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Callaghan |
| Children | seven daughters, one son (John Charles Batman drowned 1845) |
| Parent(s) | William Batman, Mary |
John Batman (21 January 1801 – 6 May 1839) was an Australian grazier, entrepreneur and explorer, best known for his role in the founding of Melbourne.
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 as a participant 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 local Aboriginal peoples by offering them tools, blankets and food in exchange for thousands of hectares of land. The treaty resulted in the founding of Batmania, a settlement on the Yarra River which became Melbourne, eventual capital of Victoria and one of Australia's largest and most important cities. Batman moved there with his convict wife, Elizabeth Callaghan, and their seven daughters, settling on what is now known as Batman's Hill. He died shortly afterwards at the age of 38.
Batman's treaty was a matter of controversy in his day, and the colonial government in New South Wales refused to recognise it as legitimate. Batman's treaty stands as the only attempt by a European to engage Australian Aboriginal people in a treaty or transaction rather than simply claiming land outright. It remains an event of great historical interest and debate.
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Early life
Batman's English parents, William and Mary Bat(e)man, came to Sydney in 1797 aboard the ship the Ganges. William had been transported to the Colony of New South Wales for receiving stolen saltpetre (a precursor ingredient for making gunpowder), but Mary accompanied him as a free passenger, along with their children Maria and Robert. John, the couple's second son, was born on January 21, 1801 at Rosehill, Parramatta, now a suburb of Sydney, but at the time one of the early farming settlements of the fledgling colony.
After obtaining his ticket-of-leave, William started a timber-yard business that prospered, and he owned several properties and the licence for the Duke of Wellington hotel in Church Street, Paramatta. In 1810, William changed the family's surname from Bateman, perhaps to avoid convict stigma. William died in 1834, and Mary in 1840.
Move to Tasmania
In 1821 John (aged 20 years) 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. 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.
Batman became a grazier. He participated in the capture of Tasmanian Aborigines in 1829. He employed mainland Aboriginal people hired in Sydney, New South Wales, for 'roving parties' hunting Tasmanians. Between 1828 and 1830, Tasmanians in this region were shot or rounded up by bounty hunters like Batman.
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 Tasmanian Aborigines 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 Tasmanian Aborigines. In the same letter, he asked in explaining his difficulty in capturing Tasmanians in the bush, "...if he could follow known [Aboriginal] offenders once they had made it 'to their own ground'.
The 19th-century artist, John Glover, captioned one of his Tasmanian paintings Batman's Lookout, Benn Lomond (1835) "...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".
By 1835, Batman's property, "...Kingston [near Ben Lomond], covered more than 7,000 acres (2,800 ha), 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".
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 Aboriginal companions from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land."
However, Batman did not visit the colonial camp that was later set up on the Yarra River (i.e., Melbourne) until November 1835. Debate has continued for more than a century over this moment in the birth of Melbourne. Batman writes in his diary on Monday, 8 June 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. The natives on shore." The previous day Batman and his party had returned from their meeting with the Kulin Elders along the hills bordering the northern banks of the Yarra. It remains quite unclear whether the party saw the 'place for a village' by the 'Falls'—a long-used homesite for the local peoples, and similarly unclear whether Batman was in the boat that explored the Yarra on the 8th. But the site has already been noted for its virtues by numerous Britons including John Helder Wedge and Batman's Parramatta friend Hamilton Hume."
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 Kulin peoples 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 Kulin people would have understood this as a transfer of land or agreed to it if they had, but, as Percival Serle wrote, "No doubt the blankets, knives, tomahawks, etc., that he gave them were very welcome". In any case, Governor Bourke deemed such a treaty invalid as the land was claimed by the Crown rather than the Kulin peoples and other colonists including the rival party of John Pascoe Fawkner arrived to settle Melbourne.
Later life
Batman and his family settled at what became known as Batman's Hill at the western end of Collins Street. Having sold his property "Kingston" in Tasmania and brought his wife, former convict Elizabeth Callaghan, and their seven daughters to Melbourne, he built a house at the base of the hill in April 1836. His son, John, was born in November 1837.
However, Batman's health quickly declined after 1835 leaving him in constant pain. By the end of 1837 he was unable to walk and was forced to give up squatting and move into trading and investment, but he greatly overstretched his finances and was left vulnerable by his reliance on delegating work to others. As the disease eroded his nose, forcing him to wear a bandage to conceal his ruined face, he became estranged from his wife. In his last months of his life Batman was cared for by his Aboriginal servants, who carried him around in a wicker perambulator.
Following 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. Batman's will, made in 1837, was out of date at his death as many of the assets bequeathed to his children had already been sold. Years of legal wrangling followed his death, led by Eliza Batman, who had remarried in 1841 to Batman's former clerk, William Willoughby, and had only been left £5 in the will by her embittered first husband. The case dragged on, even after Batman's heir-at-law, his son John, drowned in the Yarra River in 1845, and its costs absorbed what was left of Batman's estate.
Legacy
Batman was buried in the Old Melbourne Cemetery but was exhumed and re-buried in the Fawkner Cemetery, a cemetery named after his fellow colonist (and rival), John Pascoe Fawkner. A bluestone obelisk was constructed in 1922 which was later moved to Batman Avenue before being returned to the Queen Victoria Market site in 1992. The obelisk is inscribed with the Latin "circumspice" meaning "look around", the entire city of Melbourne being his legacy. The obelisk also states that Melbourne was "unoccupied" prior to John Batman's arrival in 1835.
Australian sprinter Daniel Batman claimed to be a direct descendant of John Batman, although this claim is dubious, given that Batman's only son, John Charles Batman, died in 1845, aged just 8 or 9 years old.
Batman's legacy has been challenged in recent years, and most criticism has focused on his killings of Indigenous people in Tasmania. In 2016, Darebin Council voted unanimously to change the name of Batman Park in Northcote. It is now called Gumbri Park, after Gumbri (Jessie Hunter), great-niece of Wurundjeri leader William Barak and the last girl born on the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve in Healesville.
The Victorian electoral Division of Batman was abolished in 2018 and renamed the Division of Cooper after Aboriginal political activist William Cooper.
Places named after John Batman
- Batman Bridge (Tasmania)
- Division of Batman (Victorian electoral division; now known as the Division of Cooper)
- Batman Park (Melbourne CBD)
- Batman Park (Northcote, Victoria) – now renamed as Gumbri Park
- Batman's Hill (Melbourne CBD)
- Batman railway station (North Coburg, Melbourne, Victoria)
- Batman Avenue, Melbourne
- Batman Avenue, Keilor Park
- Batman Avenue, Sunbury
- Batman Avenue, Hurstbridge
- Batman Avenue, Shepparton
- Batman Close, Thornton, New South Wales
- Batman Lane, Surry Hills, New South Wales
- Batman Road, Eltham
- Batman Road, Indented Head – the original landing site of John Batman in Port Phillip Bay
- Batman Street, Burnside Heights
- Batman Street, Footscray
- Batman Street, Altona Meadows
- Batman Street, Aberfeldie
- Batman Street, Fitzroy North
- Batman Street, Portarlington
- Batman Walk, Parramatta
- John Batman Drive, Melton West
- John Batman Gardens, Sandringham
See also
In Spanish: John Batman para niños
