Bunda

USC185_0002
Brisbane, 1842: Explorer Henry Stuart Russell claimed that former convict and bunda, William Bracefell, who returned to Brisbane with him from Wide Bay should be given credit for rescuing Mrs. Fraser six years ago.

USC295_0011
The next three years were lean years while young Armitage humped his bluey from station to station looking for work "at any wages" but then in 1867 the lad who arrived in Australia during the Victorian gold rushes saw another Gold Rush at Gympie. He resisted the temptations of the fields and continued a series of outback adventures incluing an encounter with Queensland's only real bush ranger "The Wild Scotsman" and a duel with a tribal aborigine at Graham's Creek (near Maryborough). He survived the latter with a narrow escape from death and was subsequently honoured by being accepted as a "Bunda", white member of the Wide Bay Tribe. It was this status as a "Bunda" which enabled Armitage to establish such a close bond with and understanding of aboriginal culture in the Maryborough-Fraser Island area.