John Batman Memorial

The John Batman memorial sits in the Old Melbourne General Cemetery, marked by a slab of carved bluestone that looks out of place among the surrounding Victorian-era monuments. John Batman arrived at the site of what is now Melbourne in eighteen thirty-five and famously drew up a treaty with the local Aboriginal people to claim the land. The colonial government declared his treaty void, yet he remains the man who selected this spot for a village, settling the question of the city's origin.