Grave concerns about John Batman in Greensborough

In search of an ancient tree and burial ground in Victoria.

We deviate from our usual walking path that meanders along the leafy corridor bordering the Greensborough by-pass in Melbourne’s northeast.

We’ve been told of an ancient tree known as the Batman Apple believed to be connected with the city’s founder, John Batman. Rumour suggests there is a grave site too. Probably not the historic figure’s last resting place, we reason, but perhaps someone important, as graves aren’t common on public thoroughfares.

 So we turn left instead of our usual right. The path winds around to peter out at a bridge and crossroads. We look back at our route and then stare across the intersection. We discuss the credibility of our information source. Unwilling to turn back, we wave down a dog-walker. She tells us she’s “lived here for years ... heard of the apple tree, but never seen it”. She points under the bridge where a path curves to a creek and then disappears beneath drooping willows. “Perhaps it’s down there,” she suggests.

Statue of John Batman.

We ponder whether to investigate or give up and go home. After all, the dog-walker’s well-intentioned suggestion offers no guarantee.  But what if we are almost there? We tramp along the creek path, discounting various old trees as not worthy, not likely. Eventually we decide to tackle just one more bend. Suddenly we see an ancient-looking tree, spot-lit and surrounded by bollards. There’s no signage but in a small clearing a plaque declares: “This is the site of a private cemetery adjacent to the home of some of the District’s earliest pioneers.”

It lists seven children under the age of seven, who died between 1844 and 1858. We are in awe of the pioneers’ endurance and saddened at the scant local knowledge of their lives. Later we learn the apple tree came from John Batman’s deceased estate in 1841, making it possibly the oldest of its kind in Victoria.

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