The doll John Batman gave to his daughter, Elizabeth, lies preserved in a box of acid-free tissue paper. Despite the efforts of the Library’s expert conservation staff, there is something macabre about her deteriorating form – her fading facial features and her worn leather arms.

For now, Elizabeth Batman’s doll is hidden from the public eye, but if you’re lucky, you might catch her in one of her rare public appearances. Author Carmel Bird describes coming across her in one such appearance in her 1990 novel, The bluebird cafe:

She was in the glass case with a harpoon gun, a muzzle-loading revolver, a walking stick, a telescope, a holder for a clay pipe, and a silver spectacle case. Some of these things belonged to John Pascoe Fawkner and some belonged to Edward Henty. She lay like a corpse in crimson bonnet and shoes …  (p 101).

Anecdotes suggest that dolls were scarce in the early days of the Port Phillip District. They either accompanied children on their sea voyage from home, or were imported from European countries such as Germany and France. Dolls were also passed down through the family. [1]

Colonial children learnt to make do with their natural surroundings for playthings, as their Indigenous counterparts had been doing for centuries. They made up their own games, and toys were often hand-crafted. There were hand-made wooden dolls, spinning tops, and hoops. Marbles and jacks were fashioned from stones and debris. [2]

Elizabeth Batman however, was luckier than most. She would have been six or seven years of age when her father, the infamous pioneer John Batman, moved his wife and seven daughters to their house on Batman’s Hill. The Batmans had thirty servants, a library, an orchard, a garden, sheep, cattle and horses, as well as a governess to educate their children.

The clothing worn by Elizabeth Batman’s doll is typical of the period. Settlers preferred cool fabrics such as muslin, silks and cotton, and often chose to wear white. [3] Hats and sun bonnets were more than just fashion accessories. They protected their wearers from the harsh Australian sun.

Jane Caverhill was the child of well-to-do pastoralists in the Western District of Victoria. Growing up in the 1840s, she recalled wearing:

… very thick lacing boots out of doors and substantial leather shoes indoors, white drawers almost to the top of our boots, white stockings, round housemaids’ skirts and very big holland pinafores with holes for the arms and falling straight down.[4]

The hairstyle of Elizabeth’s doll probably emulated her owner’s. In the 1820’s and 1830’s, European women and girls wore their hair parted in the centre with light curls around the forehead.[5] Jane Caverhill recounts how she would go to bed every night with papers in her hair to create the curling ringlets that were so fashionable at the time:

I still remember how I had to shift about my head till I could get it so that some wretched curl paper was not trying to pull up by the roots a few sensitive underneath hairs. [6]

Elizabeth Batman’s doll is an interesting relic from the earliest days of Melbourne. Her appearance is testament to the ravages of time, and how much things have changed.

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References

[1] Rait, L, 1989, Through the nursery window. A history of antique and collectible dolls in Australia, 1788-1950, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Vic

[2] Kociumbas, J, 1997, Australian childhood. A history, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, p 52

[3] Reade, C, 2010, ‘Resources: collections of colonial dress and fashion in Australia’. In M. Maynard (Ed.). Berg encyclopedia of world dress and fashion. Volume 7, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific islands, viewed 12 March 2019, <http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/BEWDF/EDch7013>

[4] Scandrett, E, 1978, Breeches & bustles : an illustrated history of clothes worn in Australia, 1788-1914, Pioneer Design Studio, Lilydale, Vic, p 20

[5] Caverhill, J, 1881, cited in MacKellar, M (ed), 2008, Strangers in a foreign land. The journal of Niel Black and other voices from the Western District, Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, Vic

[6] Ibid

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