John Batman
Batman asked to be given land in the Westernport area of Victoria, but the government rejected him. So, in 1835, as a leading member of the Port Phillip Association he sailed for the mainland of Australia in the schooner Rebecca and explored much of Port Phillip Bay. Batman made an agreement, now known as Batman's Treaty, with some local Aborigines to rent their land in return for things like knives and flour every year. Probably the Wurundjeri people did not understand the agreement. In any case, the Governor of New South Wales said the agreement was not legal the land was owned by the Government rather than the Aborigines.