For almost 180 years, glass has been important to the Geelong area and especially to the Bellarine Peninsula. In 1835, glass mirrors were part of the
price that John Batman paid to the Kulin nation as 'rent' for 600,000
acres of their land, covering today's Melbourne, Geelong and Bellarine
Peninsula.
On 6 June 1835, Batman signed
a treaty with eight Kulin nation* elders, in which Batman rented the
 |
| Signing the Treaty |
Kulin
nation’s land for an
annual
rent or tribute of ‘one hundred Pair of Blankets, One Hundred Knives, One
Hundred Tomahawks, Fifty Suits of Clothing, Fifty looking Glasses, Fifty Pair
scissors and Five Tons of flour’; plus an initial payment of ‘Twenty Pairs of
Blankets, Thirty Tomahawks, One Hundred Knives Fifty Pair of Scissorrs (sic),
Thirty looking Glasses Two Hundred Handkerchiefs and One Hundred Pounds of
Flour and six shirts’.
One Deed or Two?
Batman’s account of the
signing mentioned only one document, but subsequently he produced two deeds.
The Melbourne Deed (also known as the Dutigulla Treaty, Dutigulla Deed,
Melbourne Deed or just
‘Batman’s Treaty’) concerned 500,000 acres, including what is now Melbourne,
the western arm of Port Phillip Bay and what is now the city of Geelong. The Geelong deed concerned a
further 100,000 acres, including parts of the south coast of Victoria and the
Bellarine Peninsula.
Batman had arrived from
Launceston at what is now Indented Head in early May 1835, intent on purchasing
from local aborigines a large tract of today’s southern Victoria, on which to
graze stock and establish a settlement. He represented the Port Philip
Association, formed earlier that year by fifteen leading sheep graziers of Van
Dieman’s Land (today’s Tasmania) to acquire new grazing lands.
Glass mirrors and beads had
been among the items that Batman gave a group of Wadda Wurrung women and
children as evidence of his good intentions when he met them on 31 May 1835 at
what he called Gellibrand Bay, near today’s Point Wilson. (The other items were
blankets, handkerchiefs, sugar, apples and a tomahawk.) A final act of gift
giving happened on 23 and 25 June at Indented Head, when James Gumm and William
Todd - two members of a small group that Batman had left there on his departure
for Launceston on June 8 - gave clothing, food and other items to a group of
Wada Wurrung they had encountered.
Local
historian Ian Wynd makes no mention of Batman’s original gift of beads
to Wathaurong people, but it’s implied in a quote that he includes from James
Gumm who, together with William Todd and Alexander Thompson, formed a ‘holding
party’ on the Bellarine stayed when Batman’s party left on June 9:
“Some were from the first Mob you
fell in with at Gellibrand Bay (on May 31), they having the Beads on their
Necks which you gave them.”
(Gumm’s record of events, quoted
by Wynd on pp 7-8.)
But were they good Deeds?
On
26 August 1835, NSW Governor Bourke declared Batman’s treaty invalid. Not only
had Batman negotiated
directly with the Aboriginal people, despite the British authorities claiming
Australia for the Crown and dismissing any Aboriginal claim to the land; but
also, he had purchased the land for the Port Philip Association, and not for
the Crown. Nonetheless, Batman maintained until his death in 1839 that the
treaty was valid; and it remains historically significant because it was the
first and only documented instance of Europeans negotiating their presence and
occupation of Aboriginal lands.
Even
if Batman’s Treaty hadn’t been declared illegal, it would have had a very
dubious status in law. It is unlikely that the elders who allegedly signed the treaties
on 6 June understood the treaty as a transfer of land or, if they had,
would have agreed to it. Instead, they probably saw the signing as akin to their own Tanderrum
ceremony, in which gifts were exchanged (the Kulin gave Batman two fur cloaks, some
stone axes, woomeras boomerangs and baskets) and local foliage was presented to
strangers, signifying their access to and usage (but not ownership) of the
host's land as well as protection. The strangers were expected to reciprocate by
sharing their resources which, it could be argued, was what Batman’s party had
done on three occasions - 31 May, 6 June and 23 - 25 June.
* The Kulin nation - an alliance of five Aboriginal
nations, Wurundjeri, Bunurong, Wathaurong, Taungurong and Dja Dja Wurrung –
were traditional owners of lands around the Yarra River.
REFERENCES
Clark, I. D. (1990) “Aboriginal Languages and
Clans: an historical atlas of Western and Central Victoria 1800-1900.”
Melbourne: Monash Publications in Geography and Environmental Science: No. 37. (My
info taken from p.280)
Harcourt,
R. 'The Batman treaties', Victorian Historical Journal, vol.62, nos. 3&4,
Dec. 1991-Mar. 1992, pp.85-97.
Wynd, I. (1988) Balla - wein: a history of the Shire of Bellarine. Shire of Bellarine.
