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Why was John Batman’s 1835 land treaty disallowed by the governor of New South Wales?

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John Batman’s 1835 land treaty was disallowed by New South Wales Governor Richard Bourke primarily because the enterprise was illegal from its inception.1

The treaty violated the British Colonial Office’s 1829 Nineteen Counties order, which strictly limited the geographic areas open to European settlement. By attempting to purchase 600,000 acres directly from the Port Phillip Aborigines, Batman and the Port Phillip Association acted as unauthorized squatters on land considered to be owned by the British Crown.12

In August 1835, Governor Bourke responded to these actions by formally voiding all private land deals between Europeans and Aboriginal people. This decision reinforced the government's authority over land distribution and maintained the official restrictions on settlement, even though the association's activities ultimately precipitated the rapid colonization of the region that would later become the state of Victoria.13