Western Port
Western Port but unofficially known as Western Port Bay, is a large tidal bay in southern Victoria, opening into Bass Strait. It is the second largest bay in the state. Geographically, it is dominated by the two large islands. Contrary to its name, it lies to the east of the larger Port Phillip, is separated from it by the Mornington Peninsula, it is visited by Australian fur seals and dolphins, as well as many migratory waders and seabirds. It is listed under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international significance; the area around the bay and the two main islands were part of the Boonwurrung nation's territory prior to European settlement. Western Port was first seen by Europeans in 1798 when an exploration crew in a whaleboat led by George Bass, journeyed south from Sydney to explore Australia's south eastern coastline. Due in most part to a lack of food, the expedition was halted, spending two weeks in Western Port before returning to Sydney; as it was the most westerly charted point at the time, it was named Western Port.
The bay is home to the three Marine National Parks—French Island, Churchill Island and Yaringa, while the land adjacent to the north is used for farming purposes including cattle and wineries. Today the bay is used for recreation. Western Port is around one hour from Melbourne by car and a small number of holiday villages with sandy swimming beaches lie on its shores. Prior to European settlement, the Bunurong people lived around Western Port living off shellfish, mutton birds and plant life; the bay was first explored by Europeans in 1797, when George Bass received permission from Governor Hunter in Sydney to sail a whaleboat along the unexplored section of coast south of Botany Bay. On such a rough stretch of water, Bass could not get more than halfway through the strait now known as Bass Strait; this voyage led to the recording of Western Port, so named because of its situation relative to every other known harbour on the coast at that time though it lies to the east of Port Phillip and the city of Melbourne.
Seal hunting was conducted here in the 19th century. In the year 1826 it was reported that the French had resolved to found a settlement at some Australian harbour – King George's Sound or Western Port; the British Government at once sent instructions to Sydney for Governor Darling to take possession of these places. As a result, Colonel Stewart, Captain S. Wright, Lieutenant Burchell were sent in HMS Fly and the brigs Dragon and Amity, with orders to proceed to Western Port, on 18 November 1826, they took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments. The expedition landed at Settlement Point, on the eastern side of the bay near present-day Corinella, the headquarters until the abandonment of Western Port at the instance of Governor Darling about twelve months afterwards, as unfit for civilisation,Samuel Anderson established the third permanent European settlement in Victoria, after Portland and Melbourne, at Bass in 1835, it was only after the end of World War II that serious consideration was given to the development of the port, its flat shores north of Stony and Crib Points have become a centre for heavy industry.
A major river drainage system, it was inundated together with Port Phillip by the rising sea in the Holocene period. The waters of Western Port cover an area of 680 km² of which 270 km² are exposed as mud flats at low tide; the topography of Western Port is dominated by two large islands: Phillip Island. The coastline, including that of the islands, is some 263 km; the bay and its islands are criss-crossed by seven seismically active fault lines and experiences numerous minor earthquakes every year. In the northern reaches, several rivers and creeks drain into the bay and flow through extensive mangroves and sand banks before being channelled either side of French Island and into the open water in the southern reaches around Phillip Island. Several natural river paths and channels provide access for boats to the northern reaches; some of the major tributaries of Western Port are Bunyip River, Lang Lang River, Bass River, Cardinia Creek, Redbill Creek, Mosquito Creek, Brella Creek and Tankerton Creek.
Until the mid 20th century, the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp adjoined the bay in the north, covering an area of 30–40 thousand hectares, extending inland to present-day Pakenham, prior to cultivation of the land by early settlers. The mangroves in the northern reaches are the only remnants of this swamp today. Western Port contains several small ones; the coastline around Phillip Island is of State significance because of its remnant coastal tussock grasslands and dune scrub, a rare vegetation community in Victoria. Western
Barwon River (Victoria)
The Barwon River is a perennial river of the Corangamite catchment, located in The Otways and the Bellarine Peninsula regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Fed by the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river, the Barwon River rises in the Otway Ranges and flows north by east and east, joined by thirteen tributaries including the Leigh and Moorabool rivers and flowing through Lake Connewarre, before reaching its mouth and emptying into Bass Strait at Barwon Heads; the river flows adjacent to the city of Greater Geelong. The estuarine section of the river forms part of the Port Phillip Bay and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar Site as a wetland of international importance, as well as of the Bellarine Wetlands Important Bird Area. From its highest point including its source confluence, the river descends 295 metres over its 160-kilometre course; the river is crossed by a number of bridges in Geelong. Of particular note is the unusual one lane truss bridge in Newtown, Geelong. The'Breakwater' in East Geelong was constructed by Foster Fyans to supply drinking water.
Water from the river feeds industry. The river is a popular recreation spot for Geelong, with parklands such as Balyang Sanctuary along the banks, sees use by water skiers and rowing regatti such as Head of the River; the river's name is derived from the Aboriginal word Parwan, meaning "magpie" or "great wide". In the Australian Aboriginal Wathawurrung language the names for the river are Worragong, with no defined meaning. Towns the river flows through include: Forrest Barwon Downs Birregurra Winchelsea Inverleigh Geelong Ocean Grove Barwon Heads Ordered upstream to downstream The West Barwon Dam was constructed near Forrest in 1965 by what is now Barwon Water; the dam is now the major water supply for Geelong. Buckley Falls is located between Fyansford. A weir and water race was built above the falls in 1876 to provide power for the Fyansford Paper Mill; the falls were named by John Helder Wedge after escaped convict William Buckley who lived in the area with Aborigines for 32 years from 1803.
The'Breakwater' is located in the current Geelong suburb of the same name. Built to prevent salt water moving upstream, it now keeps the river level through Geelong constant and is an important crossing point. Construction on the weir started in late 1838 under Captain Foster Fyans and was completed by May 1840. Built by convicts, the weir failed in flood in 1844, not being rebuilt until 1849. Little changed to the breakwater until it was rebuilt by the Country Roads Board for modern traffic in the mid 1960s. A second weir was built over the Barwon River further downstream. Located near where the river enters Lake Connewarre, the barrage again keeps water levels constant upstream for waterskiiers, prevents saltwater moving upstream into Reedy Lake. Ordered upstream to downstream The Barwon River Bridge at Winchelsea was erected in 1867 for the Council of the Shire of Winchelsea, replacing an earlier timber structure of 1849; the three span arch structure was built of bluestone by James Sinclair at a cost of £4,602 and opened by Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, on 3 December 1867.
The Barwon River Bridge is the third structure erected at this historic crossing place and has since 1867 provided an important link with Geelong and the Western District. This finely proportioned masonry arch bridge, one of the most impressive stone structures in Victoria, has a notable association with Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the three times royal visitor to nearby'Barwon Park' mansion; the Barwon River Bridge, still in regular use, has been rehabilitated. A new reinforced concrete structure, located beside the bluestone bridge relieves the heavy traffic loads; the Geelong Ring Road bridge carries four lanes of freeway over the river. It is made up of twin 110-metre long bridges, was completed in 2009; the single-lane Queens Bridge carries Queens Park Road, which links Newtown. The location was the site of a punt, with a wooden cattle crossing being provided in 1861; those crossing the bridge were charged a toll. The bridge collapsed in the 1870 flood, a new wooden bridge opened in 1872.
The toll ended 1877. The bridge was rebuilt; the current one-lane steel bridge was opened in 1930. A water main and footpath were added on one side in 1963, the height and deck have been modified in years; the two-lane Princes Bridge carries Shannon Avenue between Newtown. It is the third bridge on the site, all of which have been named after Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria. A bridge was first proposed for the site in the 1850s as a second Barwon crossing in Geelong. At the time many wanted the bridge to be located at end of Pakington Street; the wooden Prince Albert Bridge was constructed by the City of Newtown in 1861, named after Prince Albert, who had died that year. The bridge was not tolled, provided competition for the Barwon Bridge on Moorabool Street, tolled by the South Barwon Shire; as a result, the shire erected a fence across new bridge to prevent people from using it, but the fence was removed several times by an unknown party, which led to a guard being stationed there.
At the same time, the Newtown and Chilwell Council decided to erect its own toll gate at the new bridge, so the South Barwon council retaliated by erecting a'check toll' gate on its side of the river. The Newtown and Chilwell councillors refused to pay the toll. With the bridge becoming dilapidated, a tender accepted in June
Alfred Stephen
Sir Alfred Stephen was an Australian judge and Chief Justice of New South Wales. Stephen was born at St Christopher in the West Indies, his father, John Stephen, was related to James Stephen, became a barrister, was Solicitor-General at St Christopher before his appointment as Solicitor-General of New South Wales in January 1824. He arrived at Sydney on 7 August 1824 and in September 1825 was made an acting judge of the Supreme Court. On 13 March 1826, his appointment as judge was confirmed, he resigned his position at the end of 1832 on account of ill-health and died on 21 December 1833. Alfred Stephen was educated at Honiton grammar school in Devon, he returned to St Christopher for some years and went to London to study law. In November 1823 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, the following year sailed for Van Diemen's Land. Stephen arrived at Hobart on 24 January 1825 and on 9 May was made Solicitor-General, 10 days crown solicitor, he allied himself with Governor Arthur who had clashed with Joseph Tice Gellibrand, the Attorney-General.
Stephen's resignation of his position in August 1825, his charges against his brother officer's professional and public conduct brought the matter to a head. Stephen always took an high-minded attitude about his own conduct in this matter. In 1829 Stephen discovered a fatal error in land titles throughout the Australian colonies; the matter was rectified by royal warrant and the issuing of fresh titles in 1830. In January 1833 Stephen was gazetted attorney-general and showed great industry and ability in the position, he was forced to resign in 1837, his health having suffered much from overwork, but after a holiday he took up private practice with great success. On 30 April 1839, he was appointed as acting-judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and he arrived in Sydney on 7 May. In 1841, when judge Willis went to Port Phillip, Stephen became a puisne judge and from 1839 to 1844 he was a judge of the administrative court, he published in 1843 his Introduction to the Practice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, on 7 October 1844, he was appointed acting chief justice.
His appointment as chief justice was confirmed in a dispatch from Lord Stanley dated 30 April 1845. He was to hold the position until 1873 and during that period not only carried out his judicial duties but advised the government on many complicated questions which arose in the legislature. In August 1852 he recommended that the second chamber under the new constitution should be nominated and elected. In May 1856 he was appointed President of the Legislative Council and held the position until January 1857, he was able to give the council the benefit of his experience by framing legislation dealing with land titles, the legal profession, the administration of justice. He continued to hold his seat until November 1858 when judges were precluded from sitting in parliament. In February 1860 he obtained 12 months visited Europe. On his return, he gave much consideration to the question of criminal law and was principally responsible for a criminal law amendment bill which although first brought before parliament in 1872, did not become law until 1883.
He resigned his chief justiceship in 1873. He had administered the government between the departure of the Earl of Belmore in February 1872 and the arrival of Sir Hercules Robinson in June, he was appointed several times administered the government. He was a member of the legislative council for many years from 1875, taking an active part in the debates, from 1880 he was president of the trustees of the national gallery. In 1883, with A. Oliver, he published Criminal Law Manual, comprising the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1883, towards the end of his life interested himself in the amending of the law of divorce. Among his writings on the subject was an article in the Contemporary Review for June 1891 in reply to one by W. E. Gladstone in the North American Review. Stephen lived in retirement, he was still comparatively vigorous when he passed his ninetieth birthday in August 1892 and never took to his bed. He faded out of life on 15 October 1894, his intellect bright and clear to the last; the Stephen family is a prominent legal dynasty in Australia.
Sir Alfred was the son of a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Stephen married Virginia, daughter of Matthew Consett, who died in 1837, Eleanor daughter of the Rev. William Bedford, who died in 1886. There were nine children of each marriage and at the time of Stephen's death, he had 66 grandchildren, he was knighted in 1846 and was a made a CB in 1862, KCMG in 1874, GCMG in 1884, privy councillor in 1893. Of Stephen's sons, Alfred Hewlett Stephen, born in 1826, entered the Church and in 1869 became a canon of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. Another, Sir Matthew Henry Stephen, became a puisne judge of the supreme court of New South Wales in 1887, a third son, Hon. Septimus Alfred Stephen was a distinguished lawyer and New South Wales politician. Other sons held prominent positions in Sydney. Of his grandsons, Edward Milner Stephen was appointed a supreme court judge at Sydney in 1929 and Brigadier-general Robert Campbell Stephen, served with distinction in the 1914-18 war. A great-grandson, Lieutenant Adrian Consett Stephen, killed in the same war, showed much promise as a writer.
His Four Plays and An Australian in the R. F. A. were published posthumously in 1918. Alfred's brother, George Milner Stephen, was a barrister with a significant political career in South Australia and Victoria. Another brother, John Stephen, (died 18
Roderic O'Connor (land commissioner)
Roderic O'Connor was an Irish Australian landowner and public official, most notable for his activities as a land commissioner in Tasmania. He became one of the biggest landowners in Tasmania, oversaw the modernisation of the land using the forced labour of convicts. O'Connor was notorious for his combative personality, was involved in verbal and legal feuding with local rivals, resulting in several court cases. O'Connor was the oldest son of Roger O'Connor, an Irish nationalist who held unorthodox views on history and religion. Roderic was named from Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair the last High King of Ireland, from whom his father claimed lineal descent, he grew up in the childhood home of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. His mother Louisa died shortly after his birth, he had two notable half-brothers by his father's second wife: the Chartist leader Feargus O'Connor and the Irish-Bolivian general Francisco Burdett O'Connor. At one point Feargus and Francisco stole two of Roderic's horses in order to sell them and get away to London.
O'Connor had managed his father's estate in Ireland. In 1817 his father was accused of conspiring with his estate workers to rob a mail coach, he was put on trial. Though he was acquitted, the events created ill feeling towards the O'Connor family, which persisted after the trial. Roderic took the opportunity to visit Hobart in Van Diemen's Land in the year of the trial, he emigrated there permanently in 1824, bringing with him his two illegitimate sons William and Arthur. He acquired 1000 acres of land, which he improved with new buildings, expanded his holdings, becoming one of the biggest landowners in Tasmania, he owned or controlled over 70,000 acres of land. O'Connor's skill in land management and engineering recommended him to the Lieutenant-Governor Sir George Arthur, who appointed him land commissioner, overseeing the organisation and improvement of territory in Van Diemen's Land, a subject to which O'Connor devoted himself with great energy, he was the most active of the three commissioners.
A number of Tasmanian place names are due to his influence, including the town of Longford. Having completed this task, he was appointed inspector of bridges, he was responsible for building the Bridgewater causeway among other thoroughfares. O'Connor made great use of convict labour, both in his road building schemes, he was a strong supporter of continuing the system of penal transportation. Like other settlers, he had a low opinion of the native Aboriginal Tasmanians, saying it would be "a disgrace...to the human race to call men." Supporting Arthur's policy of creating a Black Line to segregate Tasmanians he wrote, "Can we live in a wilderness surrounded by wretches who watch every opportunity and who take delight in shedding our blood?"He retired from public service in 1836, after Arthur left office. O'Connor became notorious for his quarrelsome and litigious behaviour, pursuing public disputes in the pages of local newspapers. In 1830 Dudley Fereday, the local sheriff and moneylender, sued O'Connor for libel after O'Connor had publicly denounced him for committing perjury when his business practices were examined in a court case.
Fereday sued for £5000 damages. Joseph Gellibrand, O'Connor's lawyer, gave "a detailed account of Fereday as the prince of usurers, lending money at 35 per cent interest". Fereday won damages of £ 400. There was a long-running dispute between O'Connor and former colleague Joseph Henry Moore, played out in a series of letters in the Hobart Town Courier and The Colonial Times, it came to court when Moore sued for libel. O'Connor accused Moore of having obtained land by corrupt means. After O'Connor wrote a letter cancelling his subscription to the paper, The Colonial Times satirically referred to him as "Don Roderic", with reference to his claim to descended from the kings of Ireland, ridiculed the "scurrility and abuse" to which he resorted. In the end Moore won damages from the court of 40 shillings on two counts; however the jury added that "Mr. Moore had improper and illegal possession" of the land, but had not obtained it by "dishonourable means". Jane Franklin, the wife of George Arthur's successor John Franklin, described him as "a man of immense estate...bound by ties of I know not what nature to the Arthur faction...but...a man of blasted reputation, of exceedingly immoral conduct and of viperous tongue and pen".
Robert Hughes describes him as a "tough, outspoken and arrogant" man, "very much feared". Though brought up as an unbeliever, shortly before his death he converted to Roman Catholicism. According to James Dunkerley his descendent called Roderic, has "preserved a family tradition by occupying in Cressy a house called'Connorville' after the original family estate in County Cork"
Virtual International Authority File
The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of several national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. Discussion about having a common international authority started in the late 1990s. After a series of failed attempts to come up with a unique common authority file, the new idea was to link existing national authorities; this would present all the benefits of a common file without requiring a large investment of time and expense in the process. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library and the OCLC on August 6, 2003; the Bibliothèque nationale de France joined the project on October 5, 2007. The project transitioned to being a service of the OCLC on April 4, 2012; the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together. A VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary "see" and "see also" records from the original records, refers to the original authority records.
The data are available for research and data exchange and sharing. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol; the file numbers are being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAF's clustering algorithm is run every month; as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records. Authority control Faceted Application of Subject Terminology Integrated Authority File International Standard Authority Data Number International Standard Name Identifier Wikipedia's authority control template for articles Official website VIAF at OCLC
John Gellibrand
Major General Sir John Gellibrand, was a senior Australian Army officer in the First World War, Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police from 1920 to 1922, a member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Tasmanian Division of Denison for the Nationalist Party from 1925 to 1928. The scion of a prominent Tasmanian family, Gellibrand graduated top of the Royal Military College and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the South Lancashire Regiment in October 1893, he served in the South African War. In May 1900 he was promoted to captain in the Manchester Regiment, served on St Helena where its primary task was guarding Boer prisoners of war, he graduated from the Staff College, Camberley, in December 1907, served on the staff of the garrison commander in Ceylon. Frustrated at the poor prospects for promotion, he resigned his British Army commission in April 1912 and returned to Tasmania to grow apples; when the First World War broke out in August 1914, Gellibrand offered his services, was appointed to the First Australian Imperial Force as a captain on the staff of the 1st Division.
He landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, served in the Gallipoli Campaign until he was wounded on 11 May. He put in for a transfer to the staff of the 2nd Division. In December, he was given command of the 12th Infantry Battalion, the 1st Division's Tasmanian battalion resting on Lemnos, but did not return to Anzac, evacuated in December. On 1 March 1916 he was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the 6th Infantry Brigade, which he led in the Battle of Pozières and Second Battle of Bullecourt, he was relieved of his command at his own request, posted to the AIF Depots in the United Kingdom. He returned to the Western Front in November 1917 to command of the 12th Infantry Brigade, which he led in the Battle of Dernancourt in April 1918, he was promoted to major general on 1 June 1918, commanded the 3rd Division in the Battle of Amiens and the Battle of the Hindenburg Line. After the war, Gellibrand returned to Tasmania. In 1919 he accepted the post of Public Service Commissioner in Tasmania.
He investigated the conditions of the service, recommended reforms. He took up a position as Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police in Victoria, but failed to get the Victorian government to agree with his recommendations for reform, resigned in 1922. While in Melbourne, Gellibrand commanded the 3rd Division, but had to resign when he returned to Tasmania in 1922, he entered Federal politics in 1925, was elected the member for Denison. He was defeated in the 1928 and 1929 elections, returned to farming, first in Tasmania, in Victoria. In the late 1930s, he was consulted by Prime Ministers Joseph Lyons and Robert Menzies about defence matters, he campaigned for an increase in the size of the Australian Army, after the outbreak of the Second World War, lobbied the Menzies government to appoint Major General Sir Thomas Blamey as Commander in Chief of the Army. In June 1940, he was appointed commandant of the Victorian Volunteer Defence Corps, the Australian version of the British Home Guard, but ill-health forced him to resign.
John Gellibrand was born at Leintwarden, near Ouse in Tasmania, on 5 December 1872, the sixth child and third son of Thomas Lloyd Gellibrand, a grazier and local politician and his wife Isabella née Brown. Thomas Lloyd was the son of Joseph Gellibrand, a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1856 to 1861, a captain in a Militia unit, the 3rd Rifles. Gellibrand had two older brothers and Walter, his father died on 9 November 1874, on 7 February 1876, his mother took her seven children to live in England, sailing on the clipper Sobroan. En route she met the ship's surgeon, Dr Edward Clayton Ling, they were married in Saxmundham, where his family lived, on 28 December 1878, they had two more children, a daughter, a son, but Ling died in 28 June 1882. Gellibrand was educated at Crespigny Preparatory School at Aldeburgh in Suffolk. In 1883 the family moved to Frankfurt-am-Main, where he continued his education before completing it at the King's School, Canterbury in 1888 and 1889. After a visit to Tasmania with his mother and sister Annie in 1891, he returned to Frankfurt-am-Main in September 1891 to study for the entrance exam to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
In Frankfurt he met and courted Elizabeth Helena Breul, known as Elsie to her family, who would become his wife. He passed the entrance exam, topping the list of candidates, published on 17 August 1892, entered on 1 September, he graduated at the top of his class of 87 on 18 October 1893, was awarded the General Proficiency Sword for gaining the highest aggregate marks in the final exams. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the South Lancashire Regiment on 21 October 1893, was posted to its 1st Battalion on garrison duty in Birr, County Offaly, in Ireland. Gellibrand married Elsie in an Anglican ceremony at the parish church in Ilkley, Yorkshire, on 27 July 1894, he attended a course at the School of Musketry in February and March 1895, qualifying him as an instructor in small arms and the Maxim gun, was promoted to lieutenant on 24 April 1895. He commanded C Company from October 1895 to October 1897, his salary was insufficient to live on, so Gellibrand and Elsie supplemented it by translating German works by Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prince Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfinge
John Batman
John Batman was an Australian grazier and explorer. He settled in the north-east of the Van Diemen's Land Colony in the 1820s, as a leading member of the Port Phillip Association he led an expedition which explored the Port Phillip Bay area on the Australian mainland with a view to establishing a new settlement there, he is best known for his role in the founding of the settlement on the Yarra River which became the city of Melbourne, eventual capital of the new Colony of Victoria, one of Australia's largest and most important cities. Batman is a controversial figure due to his dealings with Aboriginal peoples in Van Diemen's Land and Victoria; the artist John Glover, Batman's neighbour in Van Diemen's Land said Batman was "a rogue, thief and liar, a murderer of blacks and the vilest man I have known". The treaty Batman negotiated with local Aboriginal peoples in 1835, to acquire land in the Port Phillip area, was a matter of controversy in his day, has remained an event of great historical interest and debate.
Batman offered tools and food in exchange for thousands of hectares of land stretching from Melbourne to Geelong, but the colonial government in New South Wales did not acknowledge the treaty. Although his proposed transaction was exploitative, Batman's treaty stands as the only attempt by a European to engage Australian Aboriginals in a treaty or transaction rather than claiming land outright. Batman's English parents and Mary Batman, came to Sydney in 1797 aboard the ship the Ganges. John was born in 1801 at Rosehill, now a suburb of Sydney, but at the time one of the early farming settlements of the fledgling colony. In 1821 John and brother Henry journeyed to Van Diemen's Land 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 notorious cannibal bushranger Thomas Jeffries and on caught fellow bushranger Matthew Brady, resulting in an additional grant of land by the government.
Brady got away safely. Batman went out unarmed on his own in search of Brady, found him quite accidentally, he saw a man limping in the bush near a shallow creek, hastened forward to him. It was Brady, he return with him. The outlaw was ill and suffering much pain, did as he was asked. Brady was duly handed over to authorities at Launceston Gaol. Both Jeffries and Brady were sentenced to death, they both hanged together on the gallows in Hobart. 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; as Tasmanian Colonial Governor, George Arthur, Batman "...had much slaughter to account for". Closer examination of this quote from Governor Arthur reveals a more complex picture of Batman's motives and actions on behalf of the government in these so-called "roving parties".
For example, in September 1829, with the assistance of several "Sydney blacks" he brought to Tasmania, led an attack on an Aboriginal family group together numbering 60–70 men and children in the Ben Lomond district of north-east Tasmania. Waiting until 11pm that night before attacking, he "…ordered the men to fire upon them..." as their 40-odd dogs raised the alarm and the Aboriginal people ran away into thick scrub, killing an estimated 15 people. The next morning, he left the place for his farm, with two badly wounded Tasmanian men, a woman and her two-year-old boy, all of whom he captured. However, he "...found it impossible that the two former could walk, after trying them by every means in my power, for some time, found I could not get them on I was obliged to shoot them." The captured woman, named Luggenemenener, was sent to Campbell Town gaol and separated from her two-year-old son, Rolepana, "...whom she had faced death to protect." Batman reported afterwards to British Colonial Secretary, John Burnett, in a letter of 7 September 1829, that he kept the child because he wanted "...to rear it...".
Luggenemenener died on 21 March 1837 as an inmate at the Flinders Island settlement. Rolepana, travelled with him as part of the founding party of Melbourne in 1835. After Batman's death in 1839, Rolepana would have been 12 years old. Boyce notes that Rolepana was employed by colonist George Ware at 12 Pounds a year with Board on Batman's death, "...but what became of him after this is unknown." However, Haebich records Rolepana as having died in Melbourne in 1842. She says that: Batman defied Governor Arthur and Robinson by refusing to hand over two Aboriginal boys in his employ: Rolepana and Lurnerminer, captured by Batman in 1828, he claimed the boys were there with the consent of their parents.... He demonstrated a strong proprietorial interest in the boys, when he told Robinson they were'as much his property as his farm and that he had as much right to keep them as the government'. Indeed Batman was convinced that the best plan was to leave the children with the colonists, who clothed and fed them at no expense to the government and raised them to become'useful members of society'.
In a series of letters to Governor Arthur, he'pleaded hard for the retention of youths educated by settlers and devoted to their service'. Batman rose to prominence during the time of the Black War of 1830 (aged
