Snapshots of Aboriginal Fitzroy

Creation of Melbourne

Batman Treaty | Early days of Melbourne | Battle at Ryries Hill | Merri Cr School | Deaths of Billibellary & Kulpendori | Move to Acheron & Coranderrk

Following the settlement of Melbourne the environs of the area were rapidly transformed. The Wurundjeri were moved to a mission station, first at Acheron and then to Coranderrk. Despite the attempts to move Aboriginal people away from the new settlement there remain significant sites around the Melbourne locality.

The British Government's awareness of the impact of the new settlement at Port Phillip upon the Aboriginal population led to the establishment of a Protectorate system under a Chief Protector, George Augustus Robertson. Robinson commenced his duties on 24 February 1839 and was assisted by Assistant Protectors. The Protectorate system was supposed to provide for the "education and moral guidance" of the remaining Aboriginal population but it had little success in curbing the decimation of the Kulin nation. The combined effect of dislocation from their traditional country, frontier clashes, massacres and the impact of introduced diseases such as influenza led to a dramatic decline in the Aboriginal population (Ellender & Christiansen, 2001: 28). Wiencke estimates that by 1863 the total number of survivors of the tribes of the Kulin nations was only 181 (Wiencke, 1984: 35).

View of Melbourne with Aboriginal family in foreground
State library of Victoria
Library record number: 847764
Accession number: h92.334/2

The Batman treaty

On 8 June 1835 a ceremony was held between representatives of the local Aboriginal Tribe and John Batman, a representative of the Port Phillip Association, which was a group of entrepreneurs who intended to make their fortune by exploiting the rich grasslands of the Port Phillip District. Batman alleged that he met with representatives of the "Yarra Yarra tribe" and that the ngurungaeta (clan headman) subsequently signed title deeds over the land of the Woi-wurrung. Batman's diary entry recorded:

Batman’s diary entry recorded: " The other five chiefs were fine men and after a full explanation of why my subject was, I purchased two large tracts of land from them about 600 000 acres more or less - and delivered over to them blankets, knives, looking glasses, tomahawks, beads, scissors, flour etc as a payment for the land and also agreed to give them a tribute or rent yearly".

A Campbell, John Batman and the Aborigines, McPhee Gribble, 1987, p.100.

The Batman "Treaty" was subsequently disallowed by the Government of the Colony of New South Wales, which maintained that only the Crown had the capacity to make grants of land. The validity of the title deeds gained by Batman has been questioned by a number of writers, with Foxcroft calling them "a piece of grotesque trickery, fantastic and absurd" (1941: 33). The location of the place where the so-called "Batman Treaty" was allegedly signed between John Batman and representatives of the Yarra tribe in 1835 remains in dispute. Eidelson observes that there have been numerous locations given for the signing of the treaty, including the Merri Creek, Darebin Creek, Edgars Creek and the Plenty River (1997:32).

Signing of the Batman Treaty
By C. Ashton, reproduced in Lemon, A., The Northcote Side of the River, p.3

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Early days of Melbourne

The earliest commentators did not recognise or appreciate the different tribal groupings and there was consequently a wide variation of spellings for the names of Aboriginal tribes. Alternatively the local groups were described in geographic terms, using local features to distinguish groups. For example, William Kyle's reminiscences refer to the groups that would have been part of the Kulin confederacy as the Plenty River tribe, or the Yarra Yarra tribe:

Corroboree at Emerald Hill, 1840
W.F. Liardet, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria.

"Arriving with my parents in Port Phillip in the year 1841 we found the black population pretty numerous. Many of them were camped around the embryo city of Melbourne. The Yarra Yarra tribe camped on the site now occupied by the Melbourne and Richmond cricket teams.Other tribes often visited the young city. The Plenty River tribe fixed upon Newtown Hill, now Fitzroy, as their camping ground."
William Kyle, Reminisces of Aboriginal Life in Victoria and NSW,

Kyle also recounted the occasions of gatherings of the Aboriginal groups around Melbourne. These gatherings were
also recorded by the Aboriginal Protectors, on 26 March 1839, for example, Robinson wrote to the Colonial Secretary
that “on Saturday last the town of Mel bourne was visited by a very large body of aboriginal natives, who it seems
were invited by the resident tribes, and as I am informed, to attend a conference” (Cannon, 1983: 448). The white
artists of the time also attempted to record such “conferences”.

Apart from the pictorial and documentary records of the corroborees that took place around the new settlement in Port Phillip, there are still signs in the landscape where these important gatherings took place. One of the most important of these is the Corroboree Tree, located in Burnley. This tree remains of great significance for the Wurundjeri people today.

Corroboree Tree, Burnley
Photo: Mark Harris

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The Battle at Ryries Hill 1843-4

The congregation of various tribal groups around Melbourne on some occasions resulted in conflict. James Dredge's journal entry for 23 March 1839 records "This evening a fight took place between the different tribes of blacks just outside the town.A few of the poor fellows got some bad wounds from spears and boomerangs" (in Cannon, 1983: 449).

Kyle also recounted the battle that took place in 1843-4 between tribes from the Yarra Yarra, Goulburn River and River Plenty on one side and the tribes from Lal Lal, Barrabool Hills and Corio on the other. The number of Aboriginal disputants was put at between five and six hundred by Kyle (170). He noted that: "The spot selected for the battle was on the southern slope of what was then known as Ryrie's Hill, and is now called Clifton Hill. The road to Heidelberg was the dividing line of the opposing armies" (171). After a period in which the Lal Lal allies enjoyed the upper hand the balance of the battle shifted, according to Kyle, to the Yarra Yarra alliance, so that they "forced their enemies over the crest of Clifton Hill, and almost surrounded the Western tribes" (172).

The battle was halted by the arrival of the Black Protector, Mr Thomas, and two members of the native police. Kyle
refl ected that “The number killed in the fi ght was small, not exceeding eight – a small per cent age compared with the
number engaged – but I think that others succumbed to their wounds later on” (Kyle: 182). The bodies of the fallen
were buried in an old graveyard on the banks of the Merri Creek, which Kyle noted “be longed to the Yarra Yarra tribe”
(Kyle: 182). Later in his rec ol lec tions Kyle notes that the Yarra Yarra grave yard was located “not far from where the
road from Melbourne to Heidelberg crossed the creek” (Kyle: 184), and also that “a few were buried near where the
Collingwood gas house now stands" (Kyle: 182).

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The Merri Creek School

On 1 January 1846 the Merri Creek School, which was also known as the Yarra Aboriginal Station was opened under the control of the Collins Street Baptist Church (Eidelson, 1997: 28). Ellender and Christiansen record that the "front door of the school looked out over the Yarra while the back door opened onto the Merri Merri" (2001: 94). In the same locality of Dights Falls was also located a sub-branch of the Native Police Corps. The group had been set up in 1837 and between 1842 and 1844 they were also stationed at the Merri Creek. The Native Police Corps contingent at this time numbered in the vicinity of fifty shelters.

Dights Falls
Photo: Megan Evans

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The Deaths of Billibellary and Kulpendori

The dislocation of the lives of the Wurundjeri was hastened with the death of its ngurungaeta, Billibellary on 10 August 1846 from a chest infection. The clan elders that gathered at his death bed were divided as to the cause of the illness, some attributing it to actions of the Goulburn people, while others thought that it a deed of someone from the Loddon River region. Billibellary himself believed it was someone from the Loddon clan who had slipped in while he was sleeping and cut a lock of his hair. Billibellary was buried where the waters of the Yarra River met those of the Merri Merri Creek (Ellender & Christiansen, 2001: 106-7).

In 1852 Kulpendori of the Wurundjeri-Willum died, in the swamp that was located in the area behind what is now the Richmond Town Hall. Kulpendori was the son and heir of Jaga Jaga, who was recognized as the leader amongst the Wurundjeri-Willum. Jaga Jaga had been one of the eight leaders who had been signatories to the so-called "Batman Treaty".

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The Move to Acheron and Coranderrk

In 1859 the Goulburn and Wurundjeri men, led by Simon Wonga petitioned Protector Thomas to secure land for them at the junction of the Acheron and Goulburn Rivers. Although it was never formally gazetted, the Acheron Aboriginal Reserve was established in 1859. The reserve was short-lived and residents were forced to move to another site in 1860. Led by Wonga and William Barak, the remaining members of the Wurundjeri in March 1863 shifted to a site near modern-day Healesville. An Aboriginal reserve was established on 931 hectares and became known as "Coranderrk", which is the name for the Christmas Bush (Prostanthera lasianthos).

Although the Coranderrk Aboriginal reserve was closed down in 1924 by the Victorian government to provide land for returned servicemen, the area was considered very significant for all those Aboriginal people who had been relocated there. In 1998 part of the original estate was purchased by the Indigenous Land Corporation for the Wurundjeri people.

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Further information

Community Advocacy
c/o Richmond Town Hall,
333 Bridge Rd, Richmond
Telephone 9205 5160
Email info@yarracity.vic.gov.au

Links

Within this site
Snapshots of Aboriginal Fitzroy home
Snapshots of Aboriginal Fitzroy

External sites (Yarra City Council accepts no responsibility for the information or opinions contained within external sites)
Dictionary of Aboriginal place names of Victoria
Gary Foley's Koori History Website
Aboriginal Housing Board of Victoria
Aboriginal Health Service

Information supplied by: Electronic communications & design officer - 9205 5214

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