How escaped convict who lived with Aboriginal tribe became ‘double agent’
When escaped convict William Buckley returned to white society after 32 years living with an Aboriginal clan in Victoria, he was forced to become a “double agent” to keep the peace.
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WHEN escaped convict William Buckley appeared at John Batman’s camp in 1835, he had been missing in the Victorian bush for an astonishing 32 years.
Buckley had been living as a Wadawurrung man for three decades, accepted as a member of the clan who believed he was one of their own – a great warrior – returned from the dead.
Listen today to the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters to hear Part 2 of Buckley’s incredible story.
His story is told in a new book called The Ghost & the Bounty Hunter by Adam Courtenay, son of the late Bryce Courtenay, one of Australia’s best-known authors.
Courtenay says Buckley, almost 2m tall, strode into Batman’s camp wearing possum skins, and carrying a fearsome 3m-long double-barbed spear and a club designed to strike opponents on the head.
The three white men and five black men in the camp were transfixed.
“The Aboriginal guys must have known immediately that this was an Aboriginal except that he was white,” Courtenay says.
“He had the spears … the boomerang. He had everything that made him appear to be Aboriginal except for the fact that he had a long flowing red beard and this was a white guy.
“And they could tell that this was what they call a ngurungaeta, which meant he had the bearing of an elder man. (They realised) this guy wasn’t just some guy who just drifted in; this guy was something a bit special.”
Buckley had forgotten how to speak English after not speaking to another white person in 32 years.
After the stunned silence wore off, one man tried talking to Buckley, but he couldn’t remember, let alone form, English words.
When one man passed him a piece of bread, he remembered.
He later described it as a “cloud passing over my brain”.
“Bread,” he said.
When Buckley’s memory of English returned in the following weeks, he made up a story to protect himself – claiming he was the sole survivor from a shipwreck.
But eventually he told the truth, confessing he was a convict who had escaped many years earlier.
Buckley became a go-between in the early days of settlement in 1835, acting as an interpreter for the white settlers as they tried to avoid conflict with the Wadawurrung.
Courtenay says Buckley, who had lived as a Wadawurrung man for longer than he had lived as a white man before escaping, effectively became a double agent.
“He didn’t want anyone to get hurt,” he says.
“Some of (the clan) said, ‘These people are on our land, they haven’t asked, they haven’t done all the formal gift giving, they haven’t done any kind of reciprocation. We should kill these people.’
But Buckley insisted his clan leave the white settlers alone.
“He had to be with the white people to say, ‘I’m looking after you, don’t worry, the Aboriginal people won’t hurt you,’” Courtenay says.
“And to the Aboriginal people, he said, ‘Don’t kill them now. We’ll get far more if we keep them alive.’ So he was playing two roles.”
Listen to Part 1 of the Buckley podcast, released last week, and Part 2, available today.
Play the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters on iTunes here or Spotify here or on your favourite platform.
Listen to previous episodes including the tale of Australia’s lost convict boys, how “last Tasmanian” Truganini became an outlaw on the run in Victoria after a double murder, and the link between the Ashes urn and Ned Kelly armour.
The Ghost & the Bounty Hunter (HarperCollins, RRP $29.99) is available now.
Read an extract from the book here.
And check out In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday to see more stories from Victoria’s past.
inblackandwhite@heraldsun.com.au