You've got Buckley's ...

You've got Buckley's ... (8KB)

In 1835 William Buckley appeared at the camp site of John Batman's Port Phillip Association with a party of aboriginals who had told him about the sighting of a ship at Indented Heads. 
"He sat down. Waves of emotion swept over him. He felt weak and overwhelmed. How would he be received? He sweated with fear ... He had his spears and hunting gear and wore possum skin clothing."Melbourne (10KB)
 

 

Geelong (11KB)

He had great difficulty being understood for he had forgotten his English language. "Buckley could not understand their spoken English. He was offered "bread". The word cleared a cloud from his brain. He understood further words. They tumbled over and over in his head as his native tongue came flooding back to him  ... The white men fed him and treated him with kindness. He showed them W.B. tattooed on his arm," and told them his story.
 The Heads (14KB)"The three white men at the camp were William Todd, James Gumm and Alexander Thomas, members of John Batman's Port Phillip Association party investigating the area with a view to future settlement in the Port Phillip District."

Wild White Man, William Buckley, Kevin Hayden, p15 - 16

 

He had been sentenced to imprisonment at the age of 20 in 1802 for stealing a bolt of cloth. He escaped from Sullivan's Bay, near the Port Phillip Bay heads in 1803. Believing Sydney to be somewhere to the North, perhaps 500 miles away William Buckley made his escape with five companions at 9pm on 27th December, 1803.

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