Buckley’s
Ngurrju mayi?
I graduated as a Geologist in the early 1960’s. Back then not very many students at Melbourne Uni. studied Geology. When the Nickel Boom with its inflated salaries and bonuses burst upon Australia there was a seismic shift in the incentive to study Geology, a love and fascination with rocks was replaced by an obsession with share prices and wealth ‘creation’. Earth Sciences student numbers rose exponentially.
One such pre-Nickel Boom student was Stan Stroud. Stan called into our student flat in Carlton with a handful of 45s (if you don’t know what these are, ask an old person).
It was Stan who introduced us to Little Richard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Ujb6lJ_mM
For this I’ll be forever grateful to Stan. Years later ‘Lucille’ was one of the favourite numbers to feature at Yuendumu jam-sessions and concerts.
Another pre-Nickel boom student of Geology was Craig Robertson. Like Stan and others, Craig disappeared into the Geo-sphere. There was no Google search engine back then. Social Media hadn’t been dreamed up as yet. Most of your friends and acquaintances simply ephemerated into vague memories (such as Stan and Little Richard).
So imagine the pleasant surprise when 15 years later a publisher friend of ours gave me a book ‘Buckley’s Hope’. The author? None other than Craig Robertson. A third of a century has passed since I read Craig’s fascinating well researched and well written novel on Buckley.
In a second hand book shop in Lorne we chanced upon ‘Our Australian Colonies’ by Samuel Mossman. Although it doesn’t appear on the tome, I estimate the publishing date to have been around 1867.
I quote from page 108: “… Shall it be said then that this fair and fertile portion of our common mother earth was destined by the Almighty to be perpetually occupied by the indolent savage? Such a conclusion would be contrary to His mandate, where He commands us to ‘multiply and replenish the earth’ …” You get the drift.
On a wall at Marla on the Highway named after him, there is a poster featuring John McDouall Stuart’s expeditions. JMcS aborted his first attempt at crossing the continent from south to north in 1858 because he ran out of provisions according to the poster. Page 51: “…when he was compelled to retrace his steps, on account of meeting a hostile tribe of natives, who barred his further progress…” Thus history is written and rewritten.
William Buckley was an escaped convict who emerged after 32 years (1803-1835) living with the Wadawurrung people on Bellarine Peninsula near present day Geelong.
Page180-182 deal with that ‘European savage’ Buckley (nowhere on these pages is Buckley referred to as William)… “… One would suppose that any civilized man of ordinary activity of intellect, would have improved the occasion and taught these simple people how to improve their condition. Instead of doing so, or even retaining his position in the scale of civilisation, he adopted their savage habits, and lived like the beasts in the fields…”
Civilization (Andrew Sisters and Danny Kaye)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6LQojHOxjY
In 1861 the Burke and Wills expedition ended in tragedy. Burke and Wills had Buckley’s. Burke and Wills died within a few days of each other. King succeeded in joining a group of Yantruwanta and lived with them for several months before being found (alive). It was to no avail that Burke and Wills retained their position in the scale of civilisation, but it did save them from being vilified as was William Buckley. Page 181: “This case is a melancholy instance of the depravity of human nature, notwithstanding the material advantages of a civilized birthright, when the individual is deficient in moral and religious principle. Those who conversed with him afterwards, describe his mental deficiencies as bordering on idiotcy (sic)…”
I can’t recall reading anything like this in Craig’s novel.
Notwithstanding his ‘idiotsy’, Buckley was given the position of Interpreter to the natives, and as a guide for Captain Foster Fyans, among others; his knowledge of the Aboriginal language was put to good use (Wikipedia). After a year Buckley became disenchanted with his new life and left for Van Diemen’s land. I suspect his disenchantment may have been due to this “good use” to betray and be complicit in the dispossession of his friends and family.
The 19th Century book has reminded me of a saying from the Pacific Islands: “When the Missionaries came they had the Bible and we had the Land, now we have the Bible and they have the Land”… Hallelujah!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YaGwI7GjlA
For four decades I’ve witnessed the ethnocentric assimilationists trying to finish off the job of dispossessions, disempowerment and ethnocide started in 1788.
You know what? I reckon they’ve got Buckley’s
Ngaka-na-nyarra nyanyi,
Jungarrayi
PS- Googling, I find that Stan Stroud is the Senior Metocean Advisor to Woodside Ltd.
In offshore and coastal engineering, metocean refers to the syllabic abbreviation of meteorology and (physical) oceanography. You learn something new every day!
And that Craig Robertson is a technical writer who documents computerised information systems. He lives in Melbourne, and is also the author of ‘Song of Gondwana’
(Must read it!)