Buckley's chance - #BRPreview

Buckley's chance: the incredible true story of William Buckley and how he conquered the world was written by Garry Linnell and recently published by Michael Joseph (Penguin) Books.

Growing up in Victoria I occasionally heard mention of a convict, William Buckley, who lived in the bush with Aborigines for more than 30 years before approaching a party of white men, part of the European settlement of Port Phillip in 1835. In this book Garry Linnell brings the story of William Buckley to life.

 At 6 foot 6 inches, Buckley was a man who stood out in a crowd. In the army he stood head and shoulders above his fellow soldiers. The Aborigines who discovered him in the bush were astonished by this huge white ghost and thought that he was one of their tribe who had returned from the dead. Among the settlers in the new colony at Port Phillip and later in Hobart the large frame of William Buckley was always noticed, although he probably preferred to be left in peace.

William Buckley's life could never be described as dull. Buckley was born in Cheshire, England, in 1776. His first job was that of a bricklayer before enlisting in the army encountering the carnage of the Napoleonic Wars in August 1799. Three years later Buckley was charged with stealing fabric, a crime he may or may not have committed, and sentenced to death, commuted to transportation for life. He arrived at Sullivan Bay in Port Phillip aboard the Calcutta in October 1803 where David Collins planned to establish a convict settlement. It was soon obvious that this was not the best location for a new settlement but before the convicts could be taken to Van Diemen's Land a number of convicts, including William Buckley, had escaped into the bush. The other escapees eventually returned to the camp but Buckley was to spend the next 32 years living with the local Aborigines.

When Buckley left the bush to live again in a white community it took time before he could understand and speak English but eventually he acted as an interpreter between the Europeans and the Aborigines. After several years in the fledgling settlement that was to become Melbourne, Buckley relocated to Hobart where he eventually married and attempted to lead a normal life. Newspaper articles about William Buckley and his life with the Aborigines attracted huge interest and in 1852 the newspaper editor, John Morgan, wrote a book about Buckley's life - The life and adventures of William Buckley, thirty-two years a wanderer amongst the Aborigines of the then unexplored country round Port Phillip, now the Province of Victoria. James Bonwick also wrote a book about Buckley's life - William Buckley, the wild white man and his Port Phillip Friends - in 1856. William Buckley died in Hobart in January 1856.

Garry Linnell has written this book in a conversational style as if he is discussing Buckley's life with Buckley himself.

But this is not just a book about the life of William Buckley; it is also an account of life in the Port Phillip District in the initial days of European settlement plus a description of life in Hobart Town from 1838 to 1856. Many of the characters involved in those settlements are described in detail, particularly the rivalries between John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner. The initial contact between Aborigines and white settlers is also a theme of this book.

The book is therefore a useful, readable, contribution to the history of Victoria and Tasmania.

Earlier this year I read a copy of Strandloper by Alan Garner, a fictional account of William Buckley's life comparing the influence of legends and folklore of Cheshire, which would have been part of Buckley's early life, with his experiences of living with Aboriginal culture for 32 years.

Many thanks to Better Reading for providing a preview copy of this book. #BRPreview

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