WENDY Harrap's "support" (The Examiner, April 14) of John Batman as founder of Melbourne and lauded for seeking to negotiate a ''treaty" with the Wurundjeri people of Port Phillip needs to be challenged.
Batman took credit for being a founder of Melbourne but was not the one who organised the first group of settlers; that was John Pascoe Fawkner.
Fawkner's group arrived without him and Batman then proceeded to take advantage of that and instigated "roadblocks" that impeded Fawkner's arrival. That allowed Batman to falsely take credit for something he didn't do.
The alleged treaty was a con job and does not deserve any kudos at all. The Wurundjeri could not speak English and really had no idea about what Batman was trying to do.
And Batman's record of slaughtering Aboriginal people is a clear indicator of what he would have done later if the Wurundjeri had maintained their occupation of the land (officially Crown Land) in defiance of the "treaty".
It should also be noted that Fawkner established the first pub, and the first newspaper, of Melbourne and became one of the first legislative councilors while Batman died, at age 38, a bankrupt, disgraced and syphilis-ridden scoundrel.
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