18 Facts About Joseph Gellibrand

Joseph Tice Gellibrand was the first Attorney-General of the British colony of Van Diemen's Land, where he gained notoriety with his attempts to establish full rights of trial by jury.

Joseph Gellibrand became an integral part of the Port Phillip Association, producing the Batman Treaty in an attempt to obtain extensive landholdings from the local Aboriginal people around Port Phillip.

Joseph Tice Gellibrand was born in England, the second son of William Gellibrand and Sophia Louisa.

Joseph Gellibrand arrived at Hobart accompanied by his father on 15 March 1824.

The full benefit of trial by jury had been withheld from the colony, and Joseph Gellibrand's speech is held by some to have been the opening of a campaign for an unconditional system.

Joseph Gellibrand was a believer in the liberty of the subject, and he was consequently bound to fall foul of a man with the autocratic tendencies of Governor George Arthur.

Arthur believed that Joseph Gellibrand was acting in "close union" with Murray.

Joseph Gellibrand gave "a detailed account of Fereday as the prince of usurers, lending money at 35 per cent interest".

In 1828 Joseph Gellibrand made some efforts to obtain a government appointment at Sydney without success.

In 1835 Joseph Gellibrand became one of the leading members of the Port Phillip Association, a company of seventeen colonists who devised a plan to obtain and divide amongst themselves thousands of acres of land on the northern shore of Port Phillip through a treaty with the local Wurundjeri people.

Joseph Gellibrand, having a strong foundation in law, drew up this Batman Treaty which stipulated that the Aboriginal people would hand over all of the land within ten miles of the northern shore in exchange for a yearly hand-out of basic provisions.

Joseph Gellibrand was assigned a block of land that is the region that extends from Laverton to Spotswood.

Joseph Gellibrand assessed the land there, finding that the Aboriginal people were being driven away by a property manager who threatened to shoot them for stealing potatoes.

Joseph Gellibrand then proceeded back to the Yarra River and conducted an exploration up this river to the north-east, where he named the Plenty River.

McGeary failed to find any sign of Joseph Gellibrand but managed to come into conflict with an Aboriginal stranger during his journey, who clubbed McGeary on the head and jaw.

Joseph Gellibrand's life was saved after two Aboriginal men he employed as guards shot the stranger dead.

Joseph Gellibrand apparently lived with them for two months before he was strangled to death by members of a nearby clan, his body buried and mourned over by the people who had tried to help him.

Joseph Gellibrand married and was survived by at least three sons, one of whom, Walter Angus Joseph Gellibrand, was a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council from 1871 to 1893, and was its president from 1884 to 1889.