William Buckley’s Extraordinary Survival in The Australian Wilderness

The story of William Buckley—an English convict whose daring escape from a penal colony and subsequent life in the uncharted Australian wilderness—is one of extraordinary survival and adaptability. In 1803, Buckley fled captivity near modern-day Melbourne and vanished into the bush, and was presumed dead. Yet, against all odds, he not only survived but thrived for more than three decades, living among the Wathaurong people and becoming a figure of legend. His story offers a remarkable glimpse into both the challenges of exile and the richness of Indigenous Australian culture.

William Buckley's transportation and escape as depicted by 19th century Aboriginal artist Tommy McRae

William Buckley was born around 1780 in Marton, near Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, the son of a small farmer. He was raised by his maternal grandfather who sent him to school and arranged his apprenticeship to a bricklayer. When Buckley turned 19, he joined the Cheshire Militia and later the 4th Regiment. Buckley was unusually tall for his time—6 feet 5 inch—and because of his height, he was given the role of pivot man for the regiment. In 1799, he was deployed to The Netherlands to fight against Napoleon, where Buckley was severely wounded in his right hand.

After his return to England, Buckley was charged with theft of a bale of cloth. He insisted that he had merely been asked by a woman to carry the roll to the garrison where his regiment was stationed. Despite his defence, Buckley was found guilty and sentenced to transportation to New South Wales for life.

Buckley arrived in Sullivan Bay in southern Victoria near what is now Melbourne in 1803 aboard HMS Calcutta. The party, which included convicts from another ship, was tasked with establishing a colony under the leadership of Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins. However, the settlers found that the land was poor and there was little fresh water. The lack of timber also made construction of houses for the settlement difficult. Furthermore, the treacherous bay entrance rendered the location unsuitable for whaling, and with few marines stationed there, the settlement was vulnerable to attack.

Portrait of William Buckley, made a century after his death.

A decision was taken to abandon the site and resettle on the already established settlement on Van Diemens Land (now Tasmania). Dissatisfied with his condition as a prisoner of the Crown, Buckley resolved to escape and if possible, find his way overland to Port Jackson (now Sydney). Buckley and a small group of fellow prisoners secretly gathered food, equipment and a gun they had been allowed to use for hunting game, and on a stormy summer night in December 1803, made their escape.

A total of six men escaped, but two were quickly recaptured while another one surrendered a few weeks later. The remaining three men subsisted on rations of food that they brought with them, supplemented by cockles and mussels which they found on the beach. They traveled along the coast of Port Phillip Bay to what is now Melbourne and then across the plains to the Yawong Hills. Eventually, their food supplies ran out, and the men realized they would need to return to the bay to find sustenance. They retraced their steps to the western side of the bay, reaching what is now Corio, Victoria, and then Swan Island. Along the way, they avoided Indigenous huts, fearing capture—or worse, falling victim to cannibals, as their European prejudices led them to believe.

Eventually, they spotted a ship anchored in Port Phillip Bay. By this time, several weeks had passed since their escape, and the men were weak with hunger. Desperate for rescue, they attempted to signal the ship by lighting fires at night and waving their shirts as makeshift flags during the day, but their efforts went unnoticed. After six days of futile attempts, the group decided to part ways. Buckley’s two companions chose to walk back toward the eastern edge of Port Phillip Bay, while Buckley resolved to continue on his own.

Natives of Port Philip, southern Victoria.

Over the following days, Buckley’s condition deteriorated as dehydration, starvation, and painful sores from malnutrition took their toll. Near death, he arrived at Aireys Inlet, where he discovered embers from an old fire, fresh water, seafood, and a cave for shelter. He remained there for some time, gradually regaining his strength. Once recovered, he continued south along the Victorian coast until he reached a spot near a stream, where he constructed a makeshift hut from tree branches and seaweed. He sustained himself by foraging for plants, berries, and seafood.

One day, Buckley encountered three spear-carrying natives. Despite their friendly disposition, Buckley hesitated and refused to follow them to their village. Later, as he stood alone on the desolate coastline, Buckley realized the men had posed no threat and had, in fact, been a welcome break from his isolation. He decided to seek them out but instead got lost in the forest. For three days, he wandered without food or water until he stumbled upon a stream. Following it, he made his way back to the shore and eventually to his hut.

Buckley waited for months, hoping the men would return, but they never did. As winter approached, he struggled to find enough food and stay warm. Lonely and physically drained, he decided to travel eastward along the bay, hoping to find other escaped convicts who might have survived.

During his journey, he discovered a burial mound with a spear protruding from the earth. He took the spear, using it as a walking stick. Further along, while crossing a stream, he slipped and was swept away by the current. Though he managed to reach the shore, he was left too weak to walk.

William Buckley draped in kangaroo-skin cloak with spears and dagger in hand.

The following morning, still frail, Buckley pressed on and arrived at a lake or lagoon known as Maamart by the Indigenous people. There, he encountered two women who immediately recognized his dire condition. With the assistance of their husbands, they brought him to their huts. These people belonged to the Wallarranga tribe of the Wathaurong nation. Upon seeing the spear Buckley carried, they believed he was the spirit of a deceased tribal chief whose weapon he had taken from the burial mound. They welcomed him and gave him the name Murrangurk, which had belonged to the departed chief.

For the next several days, ceremonies of mourning and rejoicing took place. Buckley was cared for with great attention, and he was given food specifically selected and prepared to restore his strength. Over time, he was taken in by the former chief's brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, who became his adoptive family. The Wallarranga tribe patiently taught him their language, customs, and essential bush skills. Buckley learned how to catch fish and eels using traditional methods, cook food in earth ovens, skin possums and kangaroos, and craft thread from animal sinew for binding and weaving.

At one point, Buckley was offered a wife, a gesture signifying acceptance and trust within the community. However, he declined, fearing that such a relationship might provoke jealousy among the men. He observed that disputes over women were a frequent cause of violent clashes between men of different tribes. These conflicts sometimes led to fatalities and, in extreme cases, acts of cannibalism.

In The Life and Adventures of William Buckley by John Morgan, Buckley recounts one such encounter:

The bodies of the dead they mutilated in a shocking manner, cutting the arms and legs off, with flints, shells and tomahawks. When the women saw them returning, they also raised great shouts, dancing about in savage ecstasy. The bodies were thrown upon the ground, and beaten about with sticks—in fact, they all seemed to be perfectly mad with excitement; the men cut the flesh off the bones, and stones were heated for baking it; after which, they greased their children with it, all over.

A more shocking detail of such battles is found in George Langhorne’s Reminiscenses of James Buckley:

It is true they are cannibals—I have seen them eat small portions of the flesh of their adversaries slain in Battle—they appeared to do this not from any particular partiality for human flesh but from the impression that by eating their enemies they would themselves become more able warriors. ... They eat also of the flesh of their own children to whom they have been much attached should they die a natural death.

Food was abundance in the region, as Buckley recalled. On one occasion Buckley and his tribe went to visit some friends at a nearby lake, and there they found a vast number of swan eggs. They returned home with their baskets filled with them. During the same trip, they stopped by another lake and caught great quantities of shrimps with nets made from strips of barks. “We lived very sumptuously,” he said.

However, winter brought a stark contrast to these periods of abundance. As food sources dwindled, the tribe often endured hunger after fruitless foraging expeditions.

Natives fishing under torchlight in their canoes.

Preparing a meal of roasted fish.

Buckley eventually lost track of how long he had been living among the Wathaurong people. The passing of time became marked only by the rhythm of changing seasons—the flowering of plants, the migration of birds, and the cooling and warming of the air. Over the years, he became fluent in the local dialect, so much so that he began to lose his ability to speak English.

During the evenings, as the tribe gathered around campfires beneath the starlit sky, Buckley would often share stories from his past life. He spoke of the bustling streets of England, the disciplined routine of military life, and the chaos and violence of war. These tales, so foreign and distant to his listeners, captivated the tribe, who listened intently to the tall man from across the sea.

One day, during a violent tribal battle, tragedy struck. The family who had taken Buckley in, along with many other members of their clan, were killed. Fearing for his own life, Buckley fled into the wilderness, once again embracing a solitary existence.

He made his way to the Bass Strait coast, where he built a simple hut for shelter and lived there for several months. Drawing on the skills he had learned from the Wathaurong people, Buckley foraged for plants, berries, and seafood. Over time, he refined his survival techniques, constructing a fish weir to catch fish in larger quantities and developing methods for dehydrating and preserving food.

Aboriginals hunting birds and possum.

Some time later, some of the members of the clan he had previously lived with discovered his whereabouts. They coaxed him to rejoin them, so that he could catch kangaroos and wombats and bring variety to his diet. Buckley describes the peculiar way these people catch these animals:

The natives take these creatures by sending a boy or girl into their burrows, which they enter feet first, creeping in backwards until they touch the animal. Having discovered the lair, they call out as loud as they can, beating the ground over head, whilst those above are carefully listening — their ears being pressed close to the earth. By this plan of operations, they are enabled to tell with great precision the spot where they are. A perpendicular hole is then made, so as to strike the extremity of the burrow: and having done this, they dig away with sharp sticks, lifting the mould out in baskets. The poor things are easily killed, for they offer no resistance to these intrusions on their haunts. The animal is generally roasted whole.

In his later years among the Aboriginal people, Buckley occasionally encountered European ships along the coast. Despite his efforts to signal them, he was unable to capture their attention. On one occasion, he lit a fire to attract a ship’s crew, but the sailors, seeing his kangaroo-skin clothing, mistook him for an Aboriginal man and ignored his signals. Buckley himself had forgotten how to speak English which made him unable to make known his true identity.

Buckley’s fortune changed in 1835 when he stumbled upon a camp established by John Helder Wedge and his men. Buckley’s appearance caused great surprise among the sailors, with his gigantic stature and kangaroo-skin rug, long beard and spear. At first, Buckley couldn’t understand a single word the men said. Years of speaking only the Wathaurong language had caused him to lose nearly all traces of his native tongue. However, by repeating and mimicking words spoken by the men, Buckley gradually managed to convey that he was not a native-born but a European. To further prove his identity, he pointed to an old tattoo on his arm bearing the initials W.B.

William Buckley and the natives arrive at John Wedge’s camp.

Buckley’s return to civilization after thirty-two years in the wilderness caused a sensation, and he quickly became known as the “Wild White Man.” His fluency in the Wathaurong language made him an invaluable interpreter between the Aboriginal people and European settlers. On more than one occasion, his intervention prevented what could have escalated into bloodshed. Grateful for Buckley’s efforts, John Helder Wedge advocated for his official pardon, which was soon granted.

Not only was Buckley given his freedom, but he was also offered a position as a government interpreter. In his new role, Buckley acted as both a translator and a mediator, navigating the growing tensions between settlers and the Aboriginal population. While he initially managed to balance his responsibilities effectively, the situation grew increasingly volatile. Skirmishes between the newly arrived settlers and the Indigenous people became more frequent, placing Buckley in an impossible position. He found himself caught between two worlds—struggling to maintain the trust of the Aboriginal people while facing accusations from settlers who believed he held too much influence over the very people they sought to control.

In 1837, he resigned his job and left the colony for Hobart, where he got a job as an assistant to a storekeeper. Later, he worked as a gatekeeper at the Female Factory.

In 1840, he married Julia Higgins, a widow with a young daughter. Buckley lived the rest of his life in Hobart until his tragic death in 1856, when he was thrown off a horse-drawn carriage. He was 76 at the time of his death.

Sketch of William Buckley by John Helder Wedge

Before he died, Buckley left an account of his experiences in Life and Adventures of William Buckley, written by John Morgan. Both Buckley and the financially struggling Morgan hoped the publication would become as popular as Robinson Crusoe, which was inspired by the true story of shipwreck survivor Alexander Selkirk.

Unfortunately, the book’s reception was lukewarm. Melbourne historian James Bonwick even accused Morgan of fabricating details. Buckley, as Bonwick recalls, was extremely reserved who spoke in monosyllables making it almost impossible to learn anything about his past life or of his acquaintance with the Aboriginals. Captain Stokes, the Australian voyager, observes of Buckley: “His intellect, if he ever possessed such, had almost entirely deserted him, and nothing of any value could be procured of him respecting the history and manners of the tribe with whom he had so long dwelt.” Bonwick, who spent seven years in Hobart with Buckley, describes seeing his hulky figure almost everyday “slowly pacing along the middle of the road, with his eyes vacantly fixed upon some object before him, never turning his head to either side or saluting a passerby. He seemed as one not belonging to our world.”

On Buckley’s work in Melbourne, Bonwick confides that he was “thoroughly useless.”

Despite James Bonwick’s harsh assessment of Buckley, at least three individuals—George Langhorne, John Wedge, and John Morgan—had meaningful conversations with him. While they acknowledged that Buckley’s recollections were often fragmented and disjointed, they still managed to construct narratives of his life that broadly aligned, even if some inconsistencies remained.

It’s clear that Bonwick held a personal dislike for Buckley, and while it’s unfortunate how Buckley was portrayed by certain writers, this does not undermine the extraordinary nature of his survival. In the face of immense adversity, it was Buckley’s resourcefulness, practical wisdom, and willingness to accept help from the Indigenous people around him that enabled him to endure three decades in the unforgiving Australian wilderness. These qualities cement Buckley’s legacy as one of Australia’s first true bushmen.

References:
# Evan McHugh, Outback heroes : Australia's greatest bush stories
# George Langhorne, Reminiscences of James Buckley
# John Morgan, The Life and Adventures of William Buckley