Buckley’s Chance

Or “Buckley’s or none”. These are (or used to be) two common sayings in Australia indicating that the chances of survival were pretty slim. I have posted some other remarkable survival stories here such as those of Hugh Glass, John Colter and Everts for example. William Buckley’s survival in the wilds of Victoria in the C19th shrinks them all into insignificance. 32 years alone in the wilderness!

You can read William Buckley’s account  – in his own words here:

(briefly) George Langhorne 1837: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196210545

and in more detail here: John Morgan 1891: https://archive.org/details/lifeandadventur00morggoog

Here also is an interesting article about him by Michael Connor from Quadrant: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021/06/whos-afraid-of-william-buckley/ 

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