VELS 5
VCEAccounts of Buckley's life
Accounts of Buckley's life
Use these materials with the worksheets on the right, to help students evaluate sources and analyse documents. Below the worksheets are printable versions of all materials, which you can use in the classroom.
For more information on evaluating sources see:
See curriculum links
Relevant VCE areas of study include:
VCE Australian History
– Unit 3 Imagining Australia
Area of study 1 – A new land: Port Phillip District 1830–1860 – Outcome 1
– Key knowledge
- ideas underpinning the settlement and migration to the Port Phillip District, including ideas about European expansion in the new world and land ownership, and the motivations of some individuals and groups.
– Key skills
- analyse and evaluate written and visual historical evidence
- synthesise material and evidence to draw conclusions
- analyse the way that the experience of the period (1830-1860) has been interpreted and understood over time by historians.
For more information see Curriculum Links VCE [pdf 27KB]
See background information
These documents give different versions of William Buckley's life. Buckley was a
reclusive, illiterate man who had to rely on his contemporaries to record the
events of his life. As a result, accounts of Buckley's life – particularly his time
with the Wathaurung people - often reflect the prejudices common to 19th century colonial society.
For
additional information, see:
Buckley and the Aborigines
Buckley's return to European life
The Buckley myth
Reminiscences
of James Buckley
Creator
George
Langhorne
Date created
1837
Important to note
Although
this account was ‘discovered' in
1911 and published in the Age (Source
2), it was recorded only a few months after Buckley left the Wathaurung people.
Langhorne's language is simple and the account is quite brief, indicating he's
unlikely to have embellished Buckley's words. Langhorne mistakenly presents Buckley's first name as 'James', not William.
'William Buckley', The Age, 29 July 1911
Creator
George
Langhorne/The Age [no byline]
Date created
1911
Important to note
This
version was ‘discovered' and published 60 years after John Morgan's popular
account (Source 3). Langhorne describes interviewing Buckley as ‘extremely
irksome' because Buckley barely spoke. This is in stark contrast to Morgan's prolific
account.
The life and adventures of William Buckley
Creator
John
Morgan
Date created
1852
Important to note
John
Morgan was a journalist, whose writing needed to be marketable so that it would
make him money. Unlike Langhorne's account – which is a mere seven pages –
Morgan's account is around 200 pages long. It was also written 17 years after
events had taken place, by which time Buckley was an old man.
Buckley: the wild white man and his Port Phillip black friends
Creator
James
Bonwick
Date created
1856
Important to note
James
Bonwick was a respected educator, writer and historian who had little to no
access to Buckley himself, so his version of Buckley's life was mostly constructed
from documentary evidence from Buckley's life.
