WILLIAM BUCKLEY GHOST BLOOD
Two Pink Lines, enamel on board, 122x92cm
Ghost, Spear and Immunity, enamel on board, 122x92cm
Homage to Tommy McRae, enamel on board, 122x92cm
My Wife and Me in Hobart Town, enamel on board, 91x61cm
Figures with Cream and Black Background, enamel on board, 122x92cm
William Buckley was a bricklayer and foot soldier from Macclesfield (northern England) who fought in the Kings regiment in the Napoleonic war.
He was transported to Sullivan’s Bay (near present day Sorrento) in 1803 for stealing a ‘bolt of linen.’
The day after Boxing Day in 1803 Buckley and three others escaped their prison encampment. One was shot and the remaining three circumnavigated Port Phillip Bay and ended up in Queenscliff/Point Lonsdale.
No food or water, two decided to return back but Buckley remained stoic and would not surrender his freedom despite being in a parlous state of health.
What transpired is a remarkable story of courage and survival combined with fascinating insights into the First Nation’s Wathaurong tribes.
Buckley lived with the Wathaurong for 32 years before anxiously presenting himself to John Batman’s encampment at Indented Head in 1835 just as settlement in Melbourne was beginning.
The notion of respect and kindness which was shown to Buckley and in turn reciprocated, signifies a harmonious relationship until ‘colonisation’ in 1835.
Buckley sadly foreshadowed the demise of indigenous culture.
David Beaumont, 2025
The Tale of Mumbrowan, enamel on board, 122x92cm
It was becoming apparent to me that my friends for many, many years would be wiped out, enamel on board, 122x92cm
Blind Boy and Transubstantiation Soliloquy, enamel on board, 122x92cm
Indented Head Bread, enamel on board, 122x92cm
Mask, enamel on board, 122x92cm
Spear and Sorrow, enamel on board, 122x92cm
Above and Below, enamel on board, 122x92cm
Sullivan’s Bay Quickstep, enamel on board, 122cmx92cm
Red Spear, Green Background, enamel on board, 122x92cm
