Push to remove John Batman’s name from Melbourne public spaces gains momentum

JOHN Batman’s name could be stripped from a Melbourne electorate as a campaign by Aboriginal activists to erase the city’s founder from public places continues to gain steam.

There is a growing, long-running movement to strip John Batman’s name from public places, including Northcote’s Batman Park.

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JOHN Batman’s name could be stripped from a Melbourne electorate as a campaign by Aboriginal activists to erase the city’s founder from public places continues to gain steam.

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The federal electorate of Batman could be renamed “Simon Wonga”, but it may not be changed in time for the next federal election.

Simon Wonga was an elder of the Wurundjeri people. Courtesy: State Library of Victoria

Melbourne founder John Batman is a polarising figure in Australian history.

Councillors voted unanimously last week to make a submission to the Australian Electoral Commission asking that the name be changed during the next electoral redistribution, set to commence in December.

If successful, the change would end a years-long campaign to shed the federal seat of its link to Melbourne’s controversial founder — John Batman.

He is known as one of Melbourne’s founders, but Batman’s name is synonymous with indigenous land dispossession after the explorer convinced indigenous elders to sign a treaty trading more than 200,000ha of ancestral land for blankets, flour and other goods in 1835.

John Batman infamously negotiated a treaty to trade items including blankets, tomahawks and clothing for 200,000ha of land in Melbourne.

Aboriginal Australians have long accused John Batman of participating in massacres of indigenous women and children.

The name Simon Wonga was chosen by the Wurundjeri Land Council.

Mr Wonga was one of the Aboriginal leaders present at the signing of the Batman Treaty and helped establish the Coranderrk settlement. He died in 1874.

Batman federal Labor MP David Feeney said he would write to the AEC in support of the name change.

“Names are meant to honour people and unite the community. That is precisely the kind of name that we could rally around,” he said.

But Mr Feeney cautioned that electoral distributions are long processes and that any change of name may be postponed until after the next federal election, expected to be in 2019.

Thank you to the people of Batman. I am excited to continue to serve this community that I love #Election2016 pic.twitter.com/bbGEJNCRyP

— David Feeney (@Feeney4Batman) July 18, 2016

There is a growing movement to strip Mr Batman’s name from public places, including Batman Park in Northcote. Darebin Council will vote on that change this year.

The federal electorate of Batman includes most Darebin suburbs as well as suburbs that fall under Yarra and Whittlesea councils. Both councils have endorsed the name change.

Leader is awaiting comment from the Wurundjeri Land Council.