The Life and Adventures of William Buckley

At 2.00 PM on Sunday, 6 July 1835, a giant of aman shambled into the camp left by John Batman at Indented Head near Geelong... he was six foot five and seven-eighths inches tall (198 cm) in his bare feet. Though clearly a European, and "well proportioned... with an erect military gait" the visitor spoke not a word of English. Instead, he pointed to a tattoo on his arm, which bore the initials WB alongside crudely executed figures of the sun, moon and a possum-like creature. Then, when he was given a slice from a loaf, the word "bread" broke suddenly--almost involuntarily--from his lips. "Over the following weeks... fragments of this stranger's history were revealed. His name, he said, was William Buckley, and he had been living with the Aborigines for so long he had lost track of time... What he told of his life in the wilds of Victoria so amazed those who heard him that he soon became celebrated as 'the wild white man'. He was, according to his contemporary and biographer Jame Bonwick, one of the most 'wonderful characters' that Australian history has ever produced."