Obituary: Scholar who ignited Batman controversy (Australia)
Marjorie Tipping was a scholar in the arts and history. She caused a row in the bicentenary year by finding a letter in Sydney's Mitchell Library suggesting that Melbourne pioneer John Batman had been a convict and not a migrant from Sydney to Hobart as Melburnians had always believed.
Later research showed Batman had left Sydney for Tasmania suddenly, but not without explanation, rather than being transported. The letter Tipping found referring to him as an ''assigned servant'' (convict) was either a mistake or perhaps referred to a different John Batman.
Tipping flourished as an historian in the 1970s and 1980s when several of her books were published, including Eugene von Guerard's Australian Landscapes (1975), Melbourne on the Yarra (1977), Ludwig Becker: Artist & Naturalist with the Burke & Wills Expedition (1979) and Convicts Unbound: The Story of the Calcutta Convicts and Their Settlement in Australia (1988), a book that took her 35 years of patient research. She also wrote a narrative for the Victorian government publication of William Strutt's sketchbook, Victoria the Golden (1980), and was a contributor to the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Tipping chaired the consulting committee for a Royal Historical Society of Victoria-sponsored presentation at the Myer Music Bowl in 1974 celebrating the bicentenary of Matthew Flinders's birth. She was on the committee of the Friends of the State Library, a member of the Victorian Arts Advisory Council and worked for many community organisations. She was honoured with an MBE in 1981 for her contribution to the arts.
In 1990, she was the first woman to be awarded a doctorate of letters (considered to be a higher degree than a PhD) by examination from the University of Melbourne; it was based on her extensive published scholarly works.
Read entire article at Brisbane Times
Later research showed Batman had left Sydney for Tasmania suddenly, but not without explanation, rather than being transported. The letter Tipping found referring to him as an ''assigned servant'' (convict) was either a mistake or perhaps referred to a different John Batman.
Tipping flourished as an historian in the 1970s and 1980s when several of her books were published, including Eugene von Guerard's Australian Landscapes (1975), Melbourne on the Yarra (1977), Ludwig Becker: Artist & Naturalist with the Burke & Wills Expedition (1979) and Convicts Unbound: The Story of the Calcutta Convicts and Their Settlement in Australia (1988), a book that took her 35 years of patient research. She also wrote a narrative for the Victorian government publication of William Strutt's sketchbook, Victoria the Golden (1980), and was a contributor to the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Tipping chaired the consulting committee for a Royal Historical Society of Victoria-sponsored presentation at the Myer Music Bowl in 1974 celebrating the bicentenary of Matthew Flinders's birth. She was on the committee of the Friends of the State Library, a member of the Victorian Arts Advisory Council and worked for many community organisations. She was honoured with an MBE in 1981 for her contribution to the arts.
In 1990, she was the first woman to be awarded a doctorate of letters (considered to be a higher degree than a PhD) by examination from the University of Melbourne; it was based on her extensive published scholarly works.