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John Batman was an Australian settler who played a key role in the European colonization of Victoria. In 1835, he led a group of Tasmanian sheep farmers, defying a government ban, to settle the area around Port Phillip Bay. Batman's venture, along with that of John Pascoe Fawkner who established a settlement on the Yarra River, led to the founding of Melbourne, which became Victoria's capital city. This settlement marked the beginning of significant European pastoral occupation and migration to the region, which was then part of the colony of New South Wales. The establishment of these settlements tragically came at the expense of the Indigenous population, leading to violent conflict and displacement.12

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