William+Buckley

William Buckley was born around 1780 in Cheshire, England. He was an apprentice to a bricklayer for a while, then became a soldier, serving the Netherlands. After he came back to England he was convicted of receiving a bolt of cloth which he knew was stolen and we was sentenced to transportation for life. At Port Phillip Bay, Buckley and his fellow convict companions decided they would risk it all and escape. Some got shot and others turned back, and Buckley separated from the rest of the group. Hungry and tired, Buckely wondered how he would survive. Then he found a spear in the ground. It was the marking of the resting place of the leader of the Wathaurung people. The Wathaurung people found him holding this spear, and they thought Buckley was the spirit of the late leader and took him in. Buckley made no contact with any white man untill thirty two years later when he stumbled by a camp at Port Phillip. He had forgotten English, so he showed the men the tattoo of his initials on his arm. It was then clear that this man was the presumed dead William Buckley. He said goodbye to the Wathaurung people and left them forever. He was given a pardon for his crimes and lived the rest of his live as a free settler. He died in 1856 when he fell off his gig (a two wheeled carriage pulled by a horse). He was 76. William Buckley as the “Wild White Man”. By Saskia