Joseph Tice Gellibrand was the first Attorney-General of the British colony of Van Diemen's Land where he gained notoriety with his attempts to establish full rights of trial by jury. He became an integral part of the Port Phillip Association, producing the Batman Treaty in an attempt to obtain extensive land-holdings from the local Aboriginal people around Port Phillip. He was also later part of an ill-fated expedition into the region west of Geelong where he disappeared and was assumed to have been killed by Aboriginal people in the Otway Range.

The Port Phillip Association was formally formed in June 1835 to settle land in what would become Melbourne, which the association believed had been acquired by John Batman for the association from Wurundjeri elders after he had obtained their marks to a document, which came to be known as Batman's Treaty.