Batman's Treaty
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Batman's Treaty was an agreement between the Port Phillip Association of British grazier colonists, and a group of Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung elders, for the purchase of land around Port Phillip, near
Artist's impression from the 1880s of the treaty being signed
The "Melbourne" deed John Batman is said to have presented to the Kulin nations' leaders and to have it signed by them on 6 June 1835. This was intended to be evidence for Batman to claim, on behalf of the Port Phillip Association, much of the land around Port Phillip Bay.
William Barak
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William Barak, named Beruk by his parents, the "last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe", was the last traditional ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri-willam clan, the pre-colonial inhabitants of present-day Me
Batman's Treaty
…maintained until his death in 1839 that the treaty was valid. Some historians continued to assume that the treaty was a forgery, however Aboriginal elder Barak, who was present at the signing of the treaty as a boy, states that Batman, with the aid of New South Wales Aboriginal peoples, did in fact participate…
William Barak in 1866
Barak's grave and headstone at Coranderrk cemetery
Figures in possum-skin cloaks, 1898 by William Barak.
William Barak Apartment building, Swanston Square in central Melbourne. The facade forms a portrait of Barak.