Capacitación docente

ag ains t uhites for k i l l ing Abo rig ines convinced m any that the government ' s s tric tures regarding the u s e of force were not to be t aken seri ou sly .

If the coloni s t s in their war ag ains t the Aborigine s ac ted in-

depend ently from the governmen t , often ignoring the c onc i l i atory

pas sages in Procl amati on s and Governm ent Notic e s , so too did

Arthu r ' s acti ons bel ie hi s own pu blic sta tement s . Al though he held

back from a final tri a l of s treng th wi th the Aborigines , he s ane-

tioned another me thod of the ir de stru c tion by hi s org ani z ati on and

support of roving parti e s . The function of the se p arti e s was

supposed l y to h arass and c ap tu re , but the s e ac tivi tie s often led to indiscriminate shooting s . 47 It i s si gnificant th at Arthu r

p l aced the org ani zation of the civi l i an element of the se parties in the hand s of Thom as Ans tey , a m an who had shown in hi s corre s-

pondence with Arthu r , that h e had no sympathy wi th the Aborigine s and whose u su al term of reference to them was "mi s e rabl e rac e " ,

48 uwretches " or " scou rge 11 o

The murderou s activities o f the roving p arti es and the gove rnmen t ' s

co l lu sion wi th them , was evident in an incident in 1 8 2 9 i nvol ving 49

John Batman , a l andowner of north-e a s tern VDL and fu tu re insti- g ator of tre ati e s wi th Victori an Aborigine s in 18 35 . Batm an had o ffered hi s s ervices as a l e ader of a rovi ng par ty in Ju ne , 18 29 . 5 0

5 1

Arthur w a s gre a tly ple ased wi th the offer . Batm an had already shown hi s bu sh ski l l in the c apture of the bu shranger , M atthew Brady and up ti l l tha t time it was unknown for a prominent s e t t l e r t o offer hi s services against the Aborigine s . Af ter conside rabl e

d i s cu ssion abou t p aymen t , Batm an was accepted wi th the expect ation of receiving a grant of 2 , 0 0 0 acre s . Thi s was dependent on Thom a s

Ans tey deciding after twelve months tha t he had " zealou sl y given [hi s services ] in the pro secu tion of the unde rtaking " . 5 2

I n hi s very _ first report on hi s expe rience s , Batman d e s cribed the attempted "capture" of a tribe of Abo rigine s on the east side of Ben L emond :

we arrived wi thin 2 1 paces of them . The men were dr awn up on the right by my orders intending to ru sh upon them , • • • bu t unfo rtu ­

nately a s the l a s t man was coming up he struck hi s mu sket ag ainst th at of anothe r of the party , which immediately al armed the dog s • • • the Natives aro se from the ground

and were in the act of ru nning away when I ordered the men to fire on them , whi ch was done . S 3

Batman then mentioned the capture of two b adly wou nded men , a woman and a child . He no ted wi th sati sfac ti on the " tracks of blood " left by the departing tribe , which , toge ther wi th the in- formation supplied by the captu red Abori gine s su gge s ted th at a great number of Aborigines mu s t have been wound ed . 5 4 Hi s report concluded :

• • • we left the p l ace for my farm , wi th the two men , woman and child bu t fou nd it qu i te impo s sible that the two fo rmer cou ld walk , and after trying every mean s in my power , for some time , found I cou ld not get them

on . I was therefore to shoot them . S S

The attack on the tribe was qui te legal sinc e i t occurred in an

area where marti al l aw was in effect . Thu s Batman was not repre- manded for thi s . Some criticism was rai sed over Batman ' s l ater

execu tion of the two male pri soners . Consequentl y , Batman , toget-

her with thre e other members of the part y , was qu e s tioned by