Faces of Australia: William Buckley

William Buckley at first would appear to be an unlikely man to become a prominent name in Australia.  Buckley was born in 1780 in Tiverton, England where he worked as an apprentice to a bricklayer.  When he was of age, Buckley left home and joined the British military where in 1799 he was stationed in Holland.  After finishing his assignment in Holland, he returned to England where misfortune befell him.  According to Buckley, one day while crossing the yard of his barracks a woman he did not know asked him to give a piece of cloth to another woman that worked at the garrison.  However, before Buckley could give the cloth to the woman, he was apprehended because the cloth had been stolen.  The authorities did not believe Buckley’s story and he was convicted of stealing the cloth.  He was in turn sentenced to a life sentence in Australia.

However, Buckley did not like life as a prisoner in Australia and escaped from a convict settlement in Sorrento just south of modern day Melbourne in 1803.  Buckley escaped by rowboat from the settlement with two other convicts.  The convicts by boat and by land eventually reached the mouth of the Yarra River where modern day Melbourne now stands.  Not realizing how far Sydney was from Victoria, Buckley hoped to walk to Sydney while the other two convicts had their own ideas.  So here the convicts parted ways.  However, after walking north for a short while through the bush, Buckley changed his mind and began heading south again following the coast of Port Philip Bay.  Buckley survived by eating what berries and crawfish he could find as he walked through the bush.  Eventually he reached the Otway Ranges area. 

Otway Ranges along the Great Ocean Road

It was here that Buckley made friends with an Aborigine who was fishing with his family from the shore.  Buckley who was 6 foot 6 inches tall must have been quite a site to these Aborigines.  Buckley stayed with this family for a while and learned some basic Aboriginal terms.  Buckley eventually left this family and wandered further into the bush where he met a group of Aboriginal women.  The Aboriginal women wanted Buckley to come with them.  He followed the women back to their camp near Buckley Falls along the Barwin River.  Here the tribe organized a great Aboriginal dance for Buckley.  The Aborigines believed that Buckley was an Aboriginal that died some time ago and had returned to them in the shape of a white man. 

The Watourong tribe treated Buckley well and would actually get tears in their eyes if Buckley was gone for too long.  It was during this time that Buckley learned more about the Aboriginal culture and language.  He eventually took up an Aboriginal wife, but sensing that some of the males were jealous of him, he gave up his wife, which made the males quite happy.  After six months living with the tribe, Buckley ran into one of his former convict companions.  He brought him back to his tribe, but Buckley began to fear for his safety due to the poor behavior of his convict friend towards the Aborigines.  Eventually Buckley convinced the man to leave the tribe and the man was never heard from again. 

After a couple of years of living with the Watourong tribe Buckley had mastered their language and would entertain the members of the tribe with stories from England.  Buckley was so beloved by his tribe that one time he walked off without telling anyone where he was going, that the tribe launched a massive search for him.  When a search party found Buckley they were all in tears and great grief due to his disappearance. 

 Buckley witnessed many fights between the Watourong and neighboring Aboriginal tribes.  Buckley never actively participated in a fight and the opposing Aboriginals always left him alone, but he was often shocked by the violence the Aborigines showed towards one another.  They would kill not only men, but women and children as well.  The conquering tribe would on some occasions even eat the flesh of dead Aborigines thinking that this would give them extra powers.  Buckley even witnessed the Aboriginal eat their own children who had died of a natural death as well. 

Buckley ultimately ended up living with the Aborigines for 32 years and became a man of great respect among the Aboriginals who served as an arbitrator of many disputes.  He took at first two wives, but then settled on one and is believed to have had a daughter with her.  It seems that Buckley eventually had a longing to return to his western cultural roots and in 1835 he walked into a camp of three European men and disclosed his identity to their amazement.  He was treated well upon his return to western culture and was even given a full pardon by the Governor of Van Diemen’s Land.  Buckley was put to use as a guide and interpreter and during one of these expeditions he returned to meet his old tribe.  This is how the leader of one of these expeditions recorded the meeting of Buckley with his old tribe:

February 5th, 1836: I directed Buckley to advance and we would follow
him at a distance of a quarter of a mile. Buckley made towards a native
well and after he had rode about 8 miles, we heard a cooey and when we
arrived at the spot I witnessed one of the most pleasing and affecting
sights. There were three men five women and about twelve children.
Buckley had dismounted and they were all clinging around him and tears
of joy and delight running down their cheeks…It was truly an
affecting sight and proved the affection which these people entertained
for Buckley… amongst the number were a little old man and an old woman
one of his wives. Buckley told me this was his old friend and with whom
he had lived and associated thirty years.

Later that year Buckley was sited by Major Thomas Mitchell near Gundagai in New South Wales on the return from his exploration of the interior of Australia to include places such as the Grampians, Mt. Macedon, and Hanging Rock.  So it was pretty clear during his time returning to western culture that he was still spending a lot of time in the bush.  In 1837 Buckley became disenchanted with his life in Victoria possibly because of the fact that the white settlers he was serving as an interpreter for had conned the Aborigines out of much of their land.  Being distrusted now by the Aborigines and being angered at the white settlers, Buckley moved to Van Diemen’s Land where he ended up working a variety of jobs and marrying an Irish immigrant.  Buckley died in a cart accident in 1856 at the age of 75.  He spent 19 years living in Tasmania and had never returned to Victoria.