Port Phillip Association

The Port Phillip Association (originally the "Geelong and Dutigalla Association") was formally formed in June 1835 to settle land in what would become Melbourne, which the association believed had been acquired by John Batman for the association from Wurundjeri elders after he had obtained their marks to a document, which came to be known as Batman's Treaty.

The leading members of the association were John Batman, a farmer, Joseph Gellibrand, a lawyer and former Attorney-General,Charles Swanston, banker and member of the Legislative Council,John Helder Wedge, surveyor and farmer, Henry Arthur, nephew of Lieutenant Governor George Arthur of Van Diemen’s Land, and various others including William Sams, Under Sheriff and Public Notary for Launceston,Anthony Cottrell, Superintendent of Roads and Bridges,John Collicott, Postmaster General,James Simpson, Commissioner of the Land Board and police magistrate, John Sinclair, Superintendent of Convicts, Michael Connolly, Thomas Bannister, and John and William Robertson.

Some fifteen of the leading colonists of Tasmania (at the time called Van Diemen's Land) formed a company in early 1835 with a view to purchasing a large tract of land from indigenous people who lived on the south coast of Australia, and to there establish a settlement. Gellibrand prepared deeds for the transfer of an interest in the land and which provided for the payment of an annual tribute. John Batman took copies of the deed with him when he went into Port Phillip in May 1835, accompanied by some white servants and aborigines from New South Wales.

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