William Buckley: From Convict to Aboriginal Community Leader

William Buckley, the Wild White Man, the Newsletter of Australasia' Number XIV - August 1857 (George Slater, Melbourne) with an engraved portrait of William Buckley by Frederick Grosse and a lengthy manuscript letter dated July 1857 and concerning the better pay and employment prospects to be found in Victoria, at the 'gold sinkings' or working as a bricklayer., William Buckley (1780-1856) was an English convict who was transported to Australia, escaped, was given up for dead, and lived in an Aboriginal community for many years. Buckley had left England in April 1803 aboard HMS Calcutta, one of two ships sent to Port Phillip to form a new convict settlement under Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins. They arrived in October 1803, and anchored off the south-eastern side of the bay, near modern-day Sorrento. The new settlement, called Sullivan Bay, subject to drought and poor soils, soon ran into problems and they started to abandon the site in January 1804, with the remainder leaving in June., After hearing that the settlement was about to move to Tasmania, on 27 December 1803 at 9 pm, Buckley and several other convicts ran away into the bush. During the weeks following his escape, Buckley avoided contact with Aboriginal people, travelling around Port Phillip Bay as far as the Bellarine Peninsula. For the next thirty-two years, he continued to live among the Wathaurung people on the Bellarine Peninsula being treated with great affection and respect. 'By virtue of his age and peaceful ways, Buckley... became a Ngurungaeta, a person of considerable respect among his people and his voice was influential in deciding matters of war and peace.' Buckley also became expert with Aboriginal weapons, though despite this, as a revered spirit, he was banned from participating in tribal wars. He had at least two Aboriginal wives, and almost certainly a daughter by one of them., On 6 July 1835 William Buckley appeared at the camp site of John Batman's Port Phillip Association with a party of Aboriginal people who had told him about the sighting of a ship at Indented Head. Wearing kangaroo skins and carrying Aboriginal weapons, he walked into the camp. Fearful of being shot, he told Batman's party that he was a shipwrecked soldier, but a few days later he revealed his real identity, to the amazement of everybody present. In September the same year, he was granted a pardon by Lieutenant-Governor Arthur, in Van Diemen's Land.