Melbourne Girls’ Grammar students will rename Batman House

Melbourne Girls’ Grammar will remove the name of Melbourne founder John Batman from one of its houses after an overwhelming student vote.

Melbourne Girls’ Grammar in South Yarra. Picture: Ellen Smith

An elite Melbourne girls’ school has dropped the name of Batman House, which was named after Melbourne founder John Batman.

Melbourne Girls’ Grammar students in years 4 to 12, and all alumnae, earlier this month held a school-wide referendum on whether to rename the house.

In a statement on its website, the school said: “An overwhelming majority of students and Old Grammarians told us they were in favour of changing the name of the Batman House”.

“The result of the Batman referendum was quite clear. This was reflected in the votes from our current and our past students who represent many generations of alumnae,” the statement said.

It comes after school captains last year made a presentation to school council questioning “whether in a contemporary 21st century setting, Batman was an appropriate name.”

According to a statement on the school’s website, students put forward the idea that “John Batman was not only the broker of the notorious Batman Treaty but a participant in the Tasmanian ‘Black Wars’, which culminated in the murder of more than 1000 Aboriginal people.”

John Batman depicted negotiating what is known as Batman’s Treaty with the Kulin people in 1835.

“They also made the case that the other House names of Hensley and Taylor (our first principals), Mungo (after the original site of the School, St Mungo in Domain Rd), and Clarke (after Melbourne Archbishop, Lowther Clarke, responsible for promoting and funding Anglican girls’ education) were closely tied to the school. Batman by contrast, seemed the ‘odd man’ out,” the school’s statement said.

Last Tuesday, principal Dr Toni Meath sent a letter to students and parents saying: “I know these issues are sometimes more complex than they appear, particularly when dealing with historical legacy; however, student voice is a pillar of MGGS and the conversation has been continued within the student body”.

“Scholars of representations of Australian History often refer to ‘moral moments’ that occur at different points in time; perhaps now is one of those,” she said.

Last year, Northcote High School also dumped John Batman’s name from one of its school houses in favour of leader William Cooper.

In 2019, Box Hill High students called to ditch their house names, including Batman and Mawson, in favour of modern leaders such as Kerryn Phelps, Anh Do, Fred Hollows and Dylan Alcott.

Yarra City Council last year proposed to undertake a comprehensive audit of monuments, statues and places in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.