page_title: Indented Head, Victoria
section_title: The Batman expedition encounters local Wathaurong (Aboriginal) people and William Buckley
hierarchical_section_title: Indented Head, Victoria / History / The Batman expedition encounters local Wathaurong (Aboriginal) people and William Buckley
caption_attribution_description: English: Pioneer Memorial, Indented Head picture
context_page_description: Indented Head is a small coastal township located on the Bellarine Peninsula, east of Geelong, in the Australian state of Victoria. The town lies on the coast of the Port Phillip bay between the towns of Portarlington and St Leonards.
  Indented Head's population fluctuates throughout the year, increasing drastically during the summer months, and is very much seasonal. Its beaches attract keen fisherman, boaters and families to the area.
  It is appreciated by locals and tourists for its quiet and isolated nature.
context_section_description: In 1835, the Tasmanian colonist John Batman set up his base camp for the land speculation company Port Phillip Association at Indented Head while he returned to Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) to collect his family and additional provisions. He left the small base camp in the care of his ex-convict servants William Todd and Gumm, and 5 Aboriginal members of his party named Bullett, Bungett, Old Bull, Pigeon and Joe the Marine. Some of these Aboriginal people had been brought from Sydney to Tasmania by Batman, who employed them in his bounty hunting 'roving parties' rounding up Tasmanian Aboriginal people in the island's north-east in the late 1820s.
  The escaped convict William Buckley made contact with the men at Batman's camp in July 1835. Buckley had been living with the local Wathaurong people for over thirty years since his escape from an early settlement near Sorrento in 1803. Large numbers of local Aboriginal people frequented the small campsite, and Todd's diary records what must have been a fascinating intercultural exchange including extensive 'Corrobboring', singing, and shared hunting parties, although Todd himself generally did not participate. On 3 August 1835, after the small camp's imported food supplies ran low, Todd recorded, "We have commenced eating Roots the same as the Natives do" - these were murnong or Yam Daisy roots (Microseris lanceolata) which were a staple of the Wathaurong diet and would have been collected in large quantities by local women.
  A monument marks the place (now in Batman Park) where Batman was believed to have landed.
caption: The historical monument marking where John Batman landed at Indented Head in 1835.
exif: {}