Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,794
The "Batman Treaty": The Only Time in History
That Anyone the Aborigines didn't just steal their land ...!
On June 6, 1835, the farmer John Batman, who had recently immigrated from England ...
... signs a lease agreement with some of the Wurundjeri Aboriginal elders for 2000 square kilometers of land around the Yarra River and around Corio Bay ...:
He wants to graze sheep on it.
Here is the contract document ...
... with a card drawn by John Batman himself ...:
The total value of the goods is estimated at £ 100 in today's value.
In return, the Aborigines receive:
40 blankets, 30 axes, 100 knives, 50 scissors, 30 mirrors, 200 handkerchiefs, 100 pounds of flour and 6 flannel shirts and red trousers, as well as the assurance of annual "lease payments" of a similar amount.
This "lease" is of course very low!
And yet "Batmans Treaty" is the first and absolutely only attempt in history to offer the Australian aborigines a written contract for their country and to pay them any "price" for it, no matter how low it may have been!
In thousands of other cases, the land was simply taken away from them, because the British crown granted the indigenous people in principle and absolutely no property rights - they spoke of "terra nullius", a legal term for "no man's land".
And this is exactly how the British authorities reacts:
As the matter broke, the British Governor of New South Wales (as Australia was then called) Richard Bourke ...
... promptly publishes a specially printed proclamation on August 6, 1835, in which he declares the Batman Treaty to be null and void!
The reasoning:
The "no man's land" is claimed by the British Crown and no one can lease it for private purposes from the indigenous people to whom it does not belong at all.
The land grab for no quid pro quo (if you don't count the number of bullets with which the British simply slam the natives with the slightest resistance) continues ...
The British "legal" conception of a "Terra Nullius" lasted until 1992. Only then was it overturned by the High Court of Australia.
Any compensation was not paid to the indigenous people (now I almost wrote "of course")!
John Batman fell ill with onset syphilis shortly thereafter, which changed his mind and crippled him. His wife and seven children left him.
He lived in his house in what is now Melbourne until his death - and he must have had a really good relationship with the Aborigines, who cared for him until he died on May 6, 1839.
His house on "Batman Hill" (that's what the hill is still called today!) No longer exists - but there is a memorial stone in its place today ...:
That Anyone the Aborigines didn't just steal their land ...!
On June 6, 1835, the farmer John Batman, who had recently immigrated from England ...
... signs a lease agreement with some of the Wurundjeri Aboriginal elders for 2000 square kilometers of land around the Yarra River and around Corio Bay ...:
He wants to graze sheep on it.
Here is the contract document ...
... with a card drawn by John Batman himself ...:
The total value of the goods is estimated at £ 100 in today's value.
In return, the Aborigines receive:
40 blankets, 30 axes, 100 knives, 50 scissors, 30 mirrors, 200 handkerchiefs, 100 pounds of flour and 6 flannel shirts and red trousers, as well as the assurance of annual "lease payments" of a similar amount.
This "lease" is of course very low!
And yet "Batmans Treaty" is the first and absolutely only attempt in history to offer the Australian aborigines a written contract for their country and to pay them any "price" for it, no matter how low it may have been!
In thousands of other cases, the land was simply taken away from them, because the British crown granted the indigenous people in principle and absolutely no property rights - they spoke of "terra nullius", a legal term for "no man's land".
And this is exactly how the British authorities reacts:
As the matter broke, the British Governor of New South Wales (as Australia was then called) Richard Bourke ...
... promptly publishes a specially printed proclamation on August 6, 1835, in which he declares the Batman Treaty to be null and void!
The reasoning:
The "no man's land" is claimed by the British Crown and no one can lease it for private purposes from the indigenous people to whom it does not belong at all.
The land grab for no quid pro quo (if you don't count the number of bullets with which the British simply slam the natives with the slightest resistance) continues ...
The British "legal" conception of a "Terra Nullius" lasted until 1992. Only then was it overturned by the High Court of Australia.
Any compensation was not paid to the indigenous people (now I almost wrote "of course")!
John Batman fell ill with onset syphilis shortly thereafter, which changed his mind and crippled him. His wife and seven children left him.
He lived in his house in what is now Melbourne until his death - and he must have had a really good relationship with the Aborigines, who cared for him until he died on May 6, 1839.
His house on "Batman Hill" (that's what the hill is still called today!) No longer exists - but there is a memorial stone in its place today ...:
