Exploration Research
The Making of the Buckley Myth in Art and Literature: From the “Wild White Man” to Truth-Telling in Victoria
MLA Educational Series — History, Art, and Cultural Memory
William Buckley’s life — thirty-two years living with the Wadawurrung people before the foundation of the Port Phillip colony — has been retold, reimagined, and mythologised for nearly two centuries.
In colonial times, Buckley was depicted as the “wild white man,” a curiosity who bridged civilisation and savagery. In modern Victoria, however, his story is being reclaimed through Indigenous and truth-telling perspectives as one of empathy, coexistence, and cultural translation.
This article examines how art, literature, and public history have shaped and reshaped Buckley’s legacy — from 19th-century frontier paintings to 21st-century cultural renewal and education.
The Origins of the Buckley Legend
Colonial Discovery and Early Reports
When Buckley re-emerged from Wadawurrung Country in 1835, his story stunned the colonial world. Newspapers in Hobart and Sydney quickly labelled him “the Wild White Man of Port Phillip.”
His memoir, The Life and Adventures of William Buckley (1852), edited by John Morgan, became one of Australia’s first bestsellers. Yet it was filtered through a colonial lens — turning Buckley’s genuine integration into a tale of European survival and redemption (Morgan, 1852).
Myth and Morality
To British readers, Buckley’s return symbolised “civilisation reclaimed.” The notion of a white man living among Indigenous people unsettled Victorian society’s racial hierarchies. To make sense of it, writers cast Buckley as a man trapped between worlds — a warning of what could happen when “civilised men” strayed too far into the wilderness.
This early narrative erased Wadawurrung agency, portraying them as backdrop to a European drama rather than as the people who had adopted, taught, and sustained him.
Visualising the Frontier: Art and the Colonial Imagination
Early Depictions: Wilderness and Fear
The first artistic images of Buckley’s life emerged during the 1840s–1850s, when the Australian colonial frontier became a popular subject for painters such as John Glover and later Eugene von Guérard.
Although neither artist knew Buckley personally, their paintings of Victoria’s volcanic plains and coastal cliffs reflected the mood of his legend — vast, untamed, and perilous.
Von Guérard’s works like View of Geelong (1856) presented the land as both magnificent and subdued, celebrating the pastoral conquest that Buckley’s story foreshadowed. Aboriginal figures appeared small and distant — symbols of vanishing life — echoing the settler myth that colonisation was inevitable and progressive (Tipping, 1982).
The Romantic Frontier Hero
By the late 19th century, Buckley was romanticised in popular art and illustration as a bush hero — half-savage, half-saint.
Wood engravings and newspaper sketches depicted him clothed in animal skins, his long beard and spear emphasising his transformation into a “noble savage.”
This portrayal comforted colonial audiences: it affirmed the fantasy that Europeans could survive in the “wild,” yet always retained their superiority.
Such images ignored the truth — that Buckley’s survival came not through wilderness mastery, but through Wadawurrung law, kinship, and care.
Literature and the Shaping of a Colonial Myth
19th–20th Century Romanticism
Buckley’s story inspired numerous retellings in colonial and early federation literature. Writers such as Marcus Clarke, Rolf Boldrewood, and others referenced him as a tragic emblem of “lost men in the bush.”
In these works, the Indigenous world became a metaphor for exile, not belonging — reflecting European anxieties about isolation and identity in the colony.
Buckley’s humanity and his relationship with the Wadawurrung were largely omitted or exoticised.
The Age newspaper in 1903 even described him as “a ghost of civilisation, reclaimed from the savage.” Such portrayals reinforced colonial superiority while erasing Indigenous complexity (Broome, 2005).
The Phrase “Buckley’s Chance”
From this myth came the enduring Australian phrase “Buckley’s chance”, meaning “almost no chance at all.”
Its origins lie in settlers’ astonishment that a convict could survive among Indigenous people for three decades — a survival that colonial society could only interpret as impossible, not as evidence of cultural connection or knowledge of Country.
Rediscovering Buckley: 20th–21st Century Reinterpretations
Historians and Truth-Telling
From the 1970s onward, historians began to dismantle the romantic myth. Scholars such as Ian D. Clark (1990) and Richard Broome (2005) reframed Buckley’s story within Indigenous sovereignty and cultural continuity.
They recognised that he lived not “in the wilderness,” but within a structured and lawful society — that of the Wadawurrung Nation, whose generosity ensured his survival.
This re-evaluation paralleled a broader movement in Victoria toward truth-telling and reconciliation, including the Yoorrook Justice Commission (2022) and the rise of Registered Aboriginal Parties (RAPs) as custodians of heritage and narrative.
The Artist’s Eye: Modern Visual Reinterpretations
Contemporary artists have reclaimed Buckley’s image as a lens through which to explore identity, belonging, and the frontier’s moral complexity.
Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti) uses mixed media and photography to interrogate colonial representations of “native” and “outsider.”
Dr Deanne Gilson (Wadawurrung) and her mother Mary Gilson reinterpret Wadawurrung women’s perspectives of Country, ceremony, and survival — directly countering the masculine colonial lens that once defined stories like Buckley’s.
Their works, such as On Country: Wadawurrung Women’s Stories, restore the missing female voice of Country and show how community and kinship sustained both Indigenous and non-Indigenous life on the frontier.
In this context, Buckley’s survival is no longer framed as miracle or myth — but as the outcome of Wadawurrung law, compassion, and belonging.
Theatre and Film
Modern theatre and film have also embraced Buckley’s story as a platform for reconciliation.
Recent productions, including “Buckley” (Malthouse Theatre, 2017) and new documentary interpretations, have positioned him as a man “caught between law and lore,” guided by respect rather than conquest.
These reinterpretations place Wadawurrung voices at the centre, acknowledging their role as the true custodians of the story.
The Wadawurrung and the Reclaiming of Buckley
For the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, Buckley’s story holds both historical and cultural weight.
He is recognised as Murrangurk, the spirit man — a being who crossed the physical and spiritual boundary between peoples.
Wadawurrung Elders view his life as evidence of their ancestors’ openness and humanity.
Rather than a tale of “captivity,” it is a story of reciprocity and kinship — where a foreigner was welcomed, taught, and transformed by Country.
Through truth-telling and cultural education, the Wadawurrung have reframed the story as an affirmation of Indigenous generosity and survival, rather than a colonial adventure.
Education, Art, and Truth-Telling
In the MLA Educational Series and similar programs, Buckley’s story serves as a key learning bridge between history, art, and cultural understanding.
It offers an opportunity for students and audiences to explore:
How myths are created and sustained through colonial art and writing.
How truth-telling restores the missing Indigenous perspectives.
How empathy and knowledge of Country underpin survival.
Projects across Victoria now use Buckley’s story as a case study in cultural literacy and ethical storytelling — reminding learners that every colonial narrative contains an Indigenous truth beneath it.
Global Context: The “Wild Man” in Colonial Literature
Buckley’s transformation from man to myth mirrors other colonial “wild man” stories worldwide:
Squanto in North America, who helped early English settlers survive.
Gonzalo Guerrero in Mexico, a Spanish sailor adopted by the Maya.
James C. Read, an Englishman who lived among the Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand.
In each case, colonists reframed Indigenous compassion as curiosity or captivity — unable to accept that cultural exchange could be equal.
Buckley’s story, however, endures because it challenges this — proving that belonging can cross the lines of empire.
Conclusion
The transformation of William Buckley’s image — from the “wild white man” of colonial imagination to a symbol of truth-telling on Wadawurrung Country — reflects the evolution of Australian consciousness itself.
Where once he was portrayed as an anomaly, he is now understood as evidence of cultural coexistence, respect, and human resilience.
Through the voices of Indigenous artists, Elders, and historians, Buckley’s story has been reclaimed from myth into meaning.
It teaches that art and storytelling are not passive reflections of history — they are acts of remembrance, resistance, and repair.
In truth, Buckley’s greatest legacy is not his survival, but his belonging — the brief, fragile moment when one man found home in the oldest culture on Earth.
References
Barwick, D. (1998). Rebellion at Coranderrk. Canberra: Aboriginal History Inc.
Broome, R. (2005). Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Clark, I. D. (1990). Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria 1800–1900. Clayton: Monash Publications in Geography.
Clark, I. D. (1995). Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Morgan, J. (1852). The Life and Adventures of William Buckley. Hobart: Archibald MacDougall.
Tipping, M. (1982). Convicts Unbound: The Story of the Calcutta Convicts and Their Settlement in Australia. Melbourne: Viking.
Victorian Government (2022). Yoorrook Justice Commission Interim Report. Melbourne.
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Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (22 October 2025)
MLA
Sharing the truth of Indigenous and colonial history through film, education, land, and community.
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Copyright MLA – 2025
Magic Lands Alliance acknowledges the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay respect to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples’ communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of their respective communities.