Eureka - The Unfinished Revolution Read Online Free PDF Page B

with the Wurundjeri for the first time. There were 20 women toting heavy loads along with 24 children and four dingos, their men having gone up river. Batman – trying hard not to look at their naked breasts, though they didn’t seem to mind – gave them blankets, necklaces, looking glasses, a tomahawk, some apples and handkerchiefs (in case they were caught short with a runny nose). In return, he was presented with some spears, a basket and a bucket.
    Over the ensuing days, Batman continued to sail towards the head of the bay, stopping off each day to walk the country. Each time he was more enamoured with the vast expanses of open land that at times extended 30 miles in every direction. The land near the rivers and creeks teemed with ducks and other waterfowl, and he noticed the Aborigines had constructed stone fish traps in the creeks.
    On 3 June, Batman began an extended trek up the river the Wurundjeri men had followed. He surveyed the land and discovered good supplies of fresh water in places away from the river, which itself had good drinking water. On sighting the Keilor Plains, he described it as ‘the . . . most beautiful sheep pasturage I ever saw in my life’. Wildlife was plentiful – kangaroos, emus, dingos and wild geese in glorious profusion. With such vast, open, well-grassed plains and rich black soil, the only deficiency for the grazier was that there were so few trees for firewood – just scattered she-oaks, wattle trees and small gums.
    On 6 June, Batman was indeed able to make contact with eight elders of the Wurundjeri clan. The three principal chiefs were brothers, all with the name Jaga-Jaga, and two of them were notably superb physical specimens, ‘six feet high and very good looking’ as Batman recorded in his diary. Many of their companions had daubed their faces with red, white and yellow clays.
    An enormously significant exchange ceremony soon took place by the bank of a small stream, as the sounds of the Australian bush pressed close. Through sign language – for, of course, the language of the Aborigines from Van Diemens Land was entirely different – Batman succeeded in making their elders understand that he and his people wished to settle on the very land in which the natives could trace their own origins to the Dreamtime. Furthermore, in return for the land stretching from where they stood to all natural barriers in view – amounting to 600,000 acres of land and delineated by marks made upon trees – he was prepared to give them many of the ‘treasures’ he had with him, which he was quick to display.
    To make them properly understand what the deal entailed, Batman had the elders put some dirt in his hands to signify that the land now belonged him, while he physically put the treasures in their hands – 20 pairs of blankets, 30 tomahawks, 100 knives, 50 pairs of scissors, 30 looking glasses, 200 handkerchiefs and 100 pounds of flour and six shirts – to make them understand that this was a swap. A yearly rent of 100 pairs of blankets, 100 knives, 100 tomahawks, 50 suits of clothing, 50 looking glasses, 50 pairs of scissors and five tons of flour were also included in Batman’s treaty.
    The eight elders seemed to agree – although it is possible that they thought the deal was simply to allow Batman and his men safe passage across the land – and applied their marks to the treaty that Batman presented to them.
    And so it was done. To celebrate, once it was all completed, the Aborigines who had come with Batman danced in a corroboree with the Wurundjeri, their joyous cries and stomping causing the kookaburras and other birds for hundreds of yards around to take flight in fright. Or was it that they sensed what was about to overtake the superb natural habitat in which they had made their home?
    On 7 June 1835, Batman took up his quill and carefully transcribed in triplicate copies of the deed of his land purchase from the Wurundjeri. That accomplished, he wandered over to