Batman Apple Tree and Pioneer Graves
6A Hamish Court Greensborough, NILLUMBIK SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Batman Apple Tree and Pioneer Children's Cemetery located along the Plenty River behind Corowa Crescent, Greensborough.
How is it significant?
The Batman Apple Tree and Pioneer Children's Cemetery located along the Plenty River behind Corowa Crescent, Greensborough are of local historic and social significance to the Shire of Nillumbik.
Why is it significant?
The Batman Apple Tree is of local historical significance for its associations with Melbourne founder, John Batman. The tree was one of a number of fruit trees brought over by Batman from Tasmania in 1836 and planted as part of the orchard on his property known as Batman's Paddock. In 1841, after Batman's death in 1839, T. Flintoff purchased fruit trees from the sale of Batman's estate and planted them at his property on the banks of the Plenty River. The Batman Apple Tree is of historical significance as the only surviving tree from Flintoff's original orchard and as one of the trees brought to Victoria and planted by Batman in 1836. The tree is of historical significance for its demonstration of the pioneering settlement of the Greensborough area in the 1840s and for its associations with pioneering settlement families including the Flintoffs and the Whatmoughs. The Pioneer Children's Cemetery is of historical significance for its demonstration of the pioneering settlement of the Greensborough area in the 1840s and 1850s. The cemetery is significant for its associations with the Whatmough and Partington families who settled in the area in the 1840s and 1850s respectively. (Criteria A, B & H)
The Batman Apple Tree is of local social significance for the interest generated, and myth making surrounding investigations into its origins. Stories and investigations regarding the tree's origins have been the subject of a number of journal articles from the 1910s to the present day. The Batman Apple Tree and Pioneer Children's Cemetery are of social significance as they have become memorials to early settlement in the area and are highly valued by the local community as important links to the past. The Pioneer Children's Cemetery is of social significance as a commemorative place for the Greensborough community and descendants of the Whatmough and Partington families. (Criterion G)
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Batman Apple Tree and Pioneer Graves - Physical Description 1
Description
The Batman Apple Tree and Pioneer Cemetery are located on the eastern banks of the Plenty River adjacent to the Plenty River Trail, behind Corowa Crescent. The tree and cemetery are located approximately 100 metres apart with the Maroondah Aqueduct pipe bridge across the Plenty River, between the two sites.
The tree is located on a flat, grassed area directly behind (west of) 3 Leischa Court. It is a wide spreading multi stemmed tree and over the years has lost one or two stems. The tree canopy is approximately five metres high and nine metres wide. Brought over from Tasmania in 1836, the original apple variety is unknown but evidence suggests it was cut back and grafted to a Rymer in about 1890 (at this time the crevices and trunk were filed with cement mortar) and once again cut back and grafted to a Rome Beauty variety in about 1910.
The Pioneer Cemetery is located on sloping land directly behind (west of) 3 Lear Court. At the base of the slope is a concrete memorial with a plaque set into the concrete. The plaque contains the names of those buried in the cemetery. There is a low log post and rail fence marking the boundary of the graves site on the sloped land. A concrete path stemming from both directions off the Plenty River Trail leads to the memorial at the base of the slope.
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JANEFIELD 2, GOLDMINING AREAVictorian Heritage Inventory
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JANEFIELD 6Victorian Heritage Inventory
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JANEFIELD 9Victorian Heritage Inventory
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