Buckley's Chance
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123. Water becomes such a lottery that a man … Gammage, Bill.
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124. ‘One of the possible reasons for his survival …’ Tudehope.
125. It will come to us courtesy of a Scotsman … Corris, Peter. Australian Dictionary of Biography.
126. ‘They may appear to be some of the most wretched …’ O’Sullivan, Daniel. In Search of Captain Cook: Exploring the Man through His Own Words. I. B. Tauris. 2008.
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127. ‘Snake … Kadak? …’ Wadawurrung translations from Blake, Barry J. and Wadawurrung language app.
128. These black heads of the Kallallingurk come from a special quarry … The site of Wil-im-ee Moor-ring is now on the Australian National Heritage List.
129. ‘Bestowed no labour on the land …’ The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 November 1838.
130. One of his guides, Bungin, tells him … Flannery, Tim (ed.). The Explorers. Text Publishing. 1998.
131. These fires he sees are controlled burns. Descriptions of Aboriginal use of fire from sources including Gammage, Broome.
132. The introduction of the mustang by Spanish conquistadors … Gwynne, S. C.
133. It is the same with agriculture. There is widespread evidence of pre-colonial Aboriginal agriculture. Some of the best summaries are by Gerritsen, Rupert, Evidence for Indigenous Australian Agriculture. Australasian Science. July/August 2010; Pascoe, Bruce, Dark Emu, and Broome.
134. If Canopus, the second brightest star in the sky … Bell, Diane. Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin: A World That Is, Was, and Will Be. Spinifex. 1998.
135. … even the mythical Bunyip. There are almost a dozen variations of the Bunyip – a rough translation of ‘evil spirit’ – in Aboriginal mythology. Several scientists have attributed its status to cultural memory and lore going back tens of thousands of years, when early Aboriginal Australians first encountered Australia’s megafauna during the Pleistocene epoch. Professor Tim Flannery has explained Buckley’s comments about the Bunyip in this way: ‘… we need to remember that Buckley was a rural Cheshireman who doubtless believed implicitly in the faeries and hobgoblins of his homeland. Likewise, the Aboriginal people who were educating Buckley about their environment made no clear division between myth and material reality; instead both were interwoven in a seamless view of the world.’ (From: Introduction to The Life and Adventures of William Buckley. Text Classics. 2002.)
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136. Take James Murrells … James Murrells (aka Morrills, Jemmy Morril). ADB. Gregory, Edmund. Maynard, John.
137. John Wilson … Chisholm, J. H. John Wilson. ADB. Collins letter, 11 June 1795, cited in Currey, J.
138. But it is Narcisse Pelletier … Anderson, Stephanie and Maynard, John.
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139. ‘Seldom seen a more fearful section of coastline …’ The remains of Matthew Flinders, who circumnavigated Australia in 1802–3, were found beneath a London railway station in January 2019, more than 200 years after his death at the age of 40.
140. ‘I shall only observe …’ Lee, Ida. Logbooks of the Lady Nelson, 27 January 1802.
141. ‘… driven by the world’s largest current carrying 130 million cubic metres …’ Marine Science of Australia. Oceanography of Australia. www.ausmarinescience.com/marine-science-basics/oceanography-of-australia.
142. ‘They are complete savages …’ Cited by Boyce, James. Van Diemen’s Land.
143. ‘You can sense the coming cultural collision …’ Narrative drawn from Life and Adventures.
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144. William Todd has been growing frustrated … Drawn from Brown, Philip (ed.). The Todd Journal – Andrew alias William Todd. John Batman’s Recorder and his Indented Head Journal, 1835.
145. But if men like Joe the Marine … Among the Sydney Aboriginals John Batman originally hired to assist him in Van Diemen’s Land were Jonninbia (‘John Crook’), Warroba (‘Pigeon’), Macher (‘Mackey’), Numbunghundy (‘Sawyer’), Garrammilly (‘Jack Radley’), Nillang (‘Steward’), Onnorerong (‘Waterman’), Quanmurrer (‘Joe the Marine’), Bulberlang (‘John Peter’) and Budgergorry (William). Taylor, Rebe. ‘The Wedge Collection and the Conundrum of Human Colonisation’. Meanjin. Summer 2017.
146. Each night he takes out his brown calf leather journal … Todd’s original journal remains the only continual account of the first five months of European settlement in Port Phillip in 1835. It was rediscovered among the papers of a Mr Evans in Hobart in 1885.
147. ‘… the most beautiful sheep pasturage …’ John Batman journal, 30 May 1835. State Library of Victoria.
148. … including the towering Billibellary … Billibellary (also known as Jika Jika, Jaga Jaga and Billi-billeri) was a joint custodian of the Wil-im-ee Moor-ring quarry and its greenstone heads for tomahawks. As a Wurundjeri elder he joined the Native Police Corps, but resigned when he discovered it was being used to hunt down and even kill Aboriginal suspects. He died in 1846 of inflammation of the lungs.
149. No-one will even be sure of the exact location … Most historians now suspect the signing took place on the side of the Merri Creek, which joins the Yarra at Dights Falls.
150. You open your mouth to say something and … Morgan. Todd journal.
151. ‘… and a native of Macclesfield …’ Macclesfield is about 10 kilometres north-east of Marton. It was a major centre for English silk production in the 18th and 19th centuries.
PART III
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152. William Lushington Goodwin has been waiting … Craig, C. J. ADB.
153. ‘We are fast becoming priest-ridden and effeminate.’ The Cornwall Chronicle. 1 December 1838. Column 4, page 2.
154. ‘… some of them by nature and habit were cleanly …’ Clarke, Thrasycles. Medical and Surgical Journal of the Female Convict Ship Kains from 11 June 1830 to 25 March 1831. The National Archives, Kew.
155. … Captain Goodwin ‘began to ill use us …’ Diary of Charles Picknell, The Sydney Morning Herald, 10, 17 and 24 May 1930. Willets, J. ‘Free Settler or Felon?’ www.jenwillets.com. Parkinson, Northcote C. (ed.). The Trade Winds: a Study of British Overseas Trade during the French Wars. Routledge. 1948.
156. In the middle of 1831 … Sargent, Marion. The Launceston Examiner. 15 April 2018.
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157. Early evening at the Cornwall Hotel … The hotel was built by John Pascoe Fawkner in 1824. When it opened it was Launceston’s leading hotel, boasting 13 rooms and two storeys. Alexander, Alison. Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania. 2006.
158. ‘I’m the greatest landowner in the world …’ Bonwick, James. John Batman: the Founder of Victoria. Samuel Mullen. 1867.
159. ‘A rogue, thief, cheat and liar …’ Campbell, Alastair H. John Batman and the Aborigines. Kibble Books. 1987.
160. He might be well known back in London … By the early 1820s Glover was well known as a landscape painter throughout Europe. He moved to Van Diemen’s Land in 1831 at the age of 64. The origin of his animosity toward Batman is unclear.
161. ‘… a horse might run away with a gig for twenty miles …’ Batman journal, Bonwick.
162. Fawkner should already be in Port Phillip … Anderson, H. Out of the Shadow: The Career of John Pascoe Fawkner. Cheshire. 1962.
163. The Enterprize, without Fawkner … The crew and passengers of the Enterprize arrived on the north bank of the Yarra River on 30 August 1835. Fawkner finally arrived in early October.
164. James Bonwick has the 19th century version of a man-crush … For anyone in any doubt about the veracity of this sentence, read the opening chapter in Bonwick’s book about Batman.
165. The judge was in no mood for leniency … The Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser, 26 October 1816.
166. Flavell and Tripp were hanged on … Ibid. 16 November 1816.
167. A resident of the local orphan’s home … Campbell, Alastair.
168. Events late as the 1970s … Billot, C. P. Joh
n Batman: the Story of John Batman and the Founding of Melbourne. Hyland House. 1979.
169. … the ‘gentleman’ bushranger Matthew Brady. Robson, L. L. Matthew Brady. ADB.
170. … Arthur is a zealous reformer … Arthur had taken office in VDL in 1824 after an eight-year stint as superintendent of British Honduras. His despatches from there about the conditions of slaves and the suppression of a revolt have been credited with contributing to the eventual abolition of slavery throughout the Empire in 1834.
171. Who – except the humourless Arthur – could not appreciate … White, Charles. History of Australian Bushranging, Volume I. The Early Days.
172. … a former member of Brady’s gang, Thomas Jeffries … Jeffries, also known as Mark Jeffries, had a long and violent history. Transported to Australia in 1823, he had been sentenced to 12 months at the Macquarie Harbour Penal settlement after threatening to stab a constable.
173. In early May Brady and Jeffries are hanged in Hobart … Hobart Town Gazette. 6 May 1826.
174. Batman is soon roaming the country … Campbell.
175. ‘I immediately ordered the men to lay down …’ Ibid.
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176. The man with the flattering tongue … Batman was originally diagnosed with syphilis in 1833 and was treated during the early settlement of Port Phillip by Dr Barry Cotter, a doctor appointed by Joseph Gellibrand of the Port Phillip Association to act as his agent. McAlister, Moria. ‘Dr Barry Cotter – the First Doctor in Melbourne’. www.drbarrycotter.com.
177. They are little more than trespassers on Crown land … The Batman treaty was declared null by the New South Wales government on 26 August 1835 and that finding was officially confirmed by the Colonial Office in London in October.
178. Todd will be one of many whose lives … Brown, P. (ed.). The Todd Journal.
179. Wedge is one of the very few characters … Stancombe, G. H., ADB.
180. The following year the Royal Geographic Society … Wedge’s report was published in 1836 in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 6.
181. A free man, after all these years … Morgan.
182. ‘Nothing,’ writes Wedges, ‘could exceed the joy …’ Wedge letter to Batman, 14 October 1835. Bonwick, J. Settlement of Port Phillip.
183. The man is a collector and very soon … drawn from Taylor, Rebe. ‘The Wedge Collection and the Conundrum of Humane Colonisation’. Meanjin. Summer, 2017.
184. ‘… four of Buckley’s clubs of various shapes rudely ornamented …’ Ibid. There is no telling exactly which of the clubs may have belonged to Buckley. Several items, including clubs and shields, were loaned to the National Museum in Canberra and displayed in 2011.
185. In early 1836 Charles Darwin … Nichols, Peter. Evolution’s Captain: The Tragic Fate of Robert FitzRoy. Profile. 2004.
186. In Van Diemen’s Land Darwin climbs Mt Wellington … Darwin, Charles. The Voyage of the Beagle. Penguin Classics.
187. But the man whose theory of natural selection … Ibid; Nicholas, J. M. & F. W. Charles Darwin in Australia. Cambridge University Press. 2002.
188. This can only be a reference to the man … Parry, Naomi. ‘Musquito’. ADB.
189. The most famous had been Pemulwuy … Kohen, J. L. ‘Pemulwuy’. ADB.
190. Swanston is a hardened Scot … Drawn from Hudspeth, W. H., The Rise and Fall of Charles Swanston, in ‘Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for the Year 1948’; and ADB entry ‘Charles Swanston’.
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191. The infant colony of what will become Melbourne … The first death in the settlement was that of William Goodwin, child of James Goodwin.
192. Fawkner will take to his diary later this wintery day … Fawkner journal, 1 July 1836. From Billot, C. P. Melbourne’s Missing Chronicle.
193. ‘… the country is somewhat indebted to me …’ Bonwick.
194. Take Christmas Day, 1806 … Billot, C. P.
195. When Fawkner returns … Ibid.
196. ‘Fawkner must be a vindictive, vain-glorious …’ Letter from Hamilton Hume to William Westgarth, 12 June 1867. Mitchell Library, NSW. In the same letter Hume mentions that during his expedition from Sydney to Port Phillip in 1824, ‘I know for a fact that Buckley followed our tracks from Station Peak to the Meariby Rivulet but did not overtake us – I was by that time as far as “Big Hill”, or rather the Dividing Range on my return to New South Wales.’ Station Peak was at that time the name of the highest peak of what is now the You Yangs to the north of Geelong. ‘Meariby Rivulet’ is possibly a reference to the Werribee River.
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197. … one of the ‘fastest land occupations in the history of empires.’ Broome.
198. ‘I cannot account for the manner …’ Billot.
199. It will be three decades before … Ibid.
200. ‘Derramuck came this day …’ Fawkner journal, 3 December 1835.
201. ‘Watkins could not make out the words used by Derrimart …’ Fawkner. Reminiscences …
202. ‘Refrain from expressing my thankfulness …’ Batman to Montague, 30 November 1835.
203. Decades later Barack will recall how … The Argus, 12 December 1931.
204. ‘Of the two native chiefs, a singular instance of the effects …’ Bunce, Daniel. Australasiatic Reminiscences of Twenty Three Years Wanderings in Tasmania and the Australias, Hendy, J. T. 1857.
205. Hull relates a recent encounter with … Testimony of William Hull from Report of the Select Committee on the Aborigines. Victoria Legislative Council Votes and Proceedings, 9 November 1858.
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206. He is a controversial figure in Van Diemen’s Land … Fox, J.; James, P. C. ‘Joseph Tice Gellibrand’. ADB.
207. He is forced to lie under a tree to recover … Drawn from ‘Gellibrand Memorandum re Port Phillip Expedition Jan–Feb 1836’, to Governor Charles La Trobe. Reproduced in ‘Letters from Victorian Pioneers’.
208. ‘I am quite satisfied that he can only be …’ Ibid.
209. But other men see you so differently … Brown, P. L. The Narrative of George Russell …
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210. Reed is on board the Bombay … Renshaw, Will; Fysh, Hudson. ‘Henry Reed’. ADB; Welch, Ian. Henry Reed, Australian Pan-Protestant Evangelical and Businessman. (Working paper). Australian National University. 2014.
211. ‘The congregation had in it William Buckley …’ Ibid.
212. ‘Bodies almost eaten up by disease …’ Dray, Stephen. A Right Old Confloption down Penzance. Carn Brea Media. 2013.
213. ‘He is a man of thought and shrewdness …’ Orton report to Wesleyan Missionary Society, August 1836. Historical Records of Victoria, Vol. 2A: The Aborigines of Port Phillip 1835–1839.
214. Langhorne finds a man who … Langhorne, George.
215. Hepburn is typical of those white men … Drawn from letters by Hepburn in 1853. Bride, Thomas Francis. Letters from Victorian Pioneers.
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216. ‘It appears the natives were fired upon …’ Wedge letter to Montagu, 15 March 1836. Historical Records of Victoria 1.
217. It will take years before the details emerge … Drawn from various accounts of the Convincing Ground massacre, including Clark, Ian D., Scars on the Landscape, and Pascoe, Bruce, Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with Your Country.
218. … Richard Bourke issues a proclamation warning … Bourke’s proclamation that the Aborigines of Port Phillip now came under the protection of the Governor of NSW was issued in the New South Wales Government Gazette, 18 May 1836.
219. He reports back to Sydney … Letter from George Stewart to Colonial Secretary, HRV Vol. 1.
220. Charles Franks is a man of ‘strict integrity’ … Drawn from reports in The Cornwall Chronicle; Rogers, Thomas James. The Civilization of Port Phillip …; Boyce, James. 1835.
221. The letter coincides, not surprisingly … The Cornwall Chronicle, 30 July 1836.
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223. ‘It will be one of your most important duties …’ Letter, Colonial Secretary to William Lonsdale, 14 September 1836. HRV Vol. 1.
224. Turns out you and Lonsdale have much in common … Penny, B. R. ‘Lonsdale, William (1799–1864)’. ADB.
225. A 20 per cent pay rise? Morgan.
226. ‘With boiled meat a biscuit …’ Ibid.
227. Among those surveyed is … ‘Return of dwellings, stock and cultivation at Port Phillip, 9 November 1836’. HRV Vol. 3.
228. Barely a week after your meeting with Lonsdale … The murder of Woolmudgin based on various accounts, including sworn deposition of Frederick Taylor at the Melbourne Court Register, 25 October 1836, Clark, Ian, Scars in the Landscape; HRV. Vol 2A; Charles, Florance. In Pursuit of Frederick Taylor. The Black Sheep (Journal of the East Gippsland Family History Group).
229. It will become known as the Murdering Creek massacre … Clark, Ian D.
230. Frederick Taylor will reach a respectable … From obituary in The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 February 1872.
231. When the charge is heard in court … Melbourne Court register, 3 January 1837. ‘J. P. Fawkner assaults private James Duckworth: fined four pounds.’ HRV Vol. 1.
232. Later in the year a charge … Ibid.
233. And, in 1845, Batman’s only son … Letter from Eliza Willoughby to her daughter, 30 January 1845. Reproduced in The Argus, 12 September 1952.
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234. A Sunday morning in early March, 1837 … The account of the church service and the conversation between the Reverend Langhorne and Buckley comes from George Langhorne’s Reminiscenses of James Buckley. HRV Vol. 2A.
235. Bourke’s face has a large and vicious scar … King, Hazel. ‘Richard Bourke, 1777–1855’. ADB.
236. The Governor has a favourite theory … Statement of Mr George Langhorne in reference to the establishment of the Aboriginal Mission at Port Phillip … HRV, Vol. 2A, p.187.
237. ‘Such nonsense, young man …’ Ibid.
238. Joseph Gellibrand had landed in Geelong in late February … The disappearance of Gellibrand and Hesse was one of the most significant events in the early history of Port Phillip. Despite several searches and many more theories, their bodies were never found. A comprehensive account of the searches – and the impact on the colonial frontier – can be found in Rogers, Thomas James. The Civilization of Port Phillip …; and HRV Vol. 1–3.