City of Belmont - Ruth Faulkner Public Library

The extraordinary tale of William Buckley

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The extraordinary tale of William Buckley

"On a stifling hot Christmas Eve in 1803 William Buckley, an English 23 year-old court-martialled soldier, and three other convicts, transported to Australia on Victoria's first fleet, escaped the doomed settlement of Sorrento in Port Phillip. One is shot and dies, two others return. Buckley exhausted and near death took a spear from an Aboriginal grave to help him walk - the luckiest decision he ever made in his life. When a group of Wathaurong Aborigines discover him they believe he is the warrior Murrangurk, the owner of the spear, returned from the dead. He is taken in by the family of Murrangurk. Marrangurk's brother Torrenauk becomes his 'brother'. Over the years, Buckley becomes a Wathaurong tribesman, learning to hunt and fish and speak their language. He witnesses many battles, cannibalism and various tribal customs. He endures hardship - tragically losing his family in a clan killing, and finds great happiness - falling in love with a young woman who stays with him for many years. Thirty-two years later at 2 pm on Sunday, 6 July 1835, a giant of a man shambles into the camp recently established by John Batman at Indented Head near Geelong. Near the end of his days, Buckley sat down to tell his story to John Morgan, a journalist with an eye for a good yarn. Buckley's rich and detailed account offers a fascinating and often surprising portrait of life in an ancient culture before white colonisation. It is one of the most extraordinary survival stories ever told"--Publisher's website

William Buckley