William Buckley

Who was William Buckley?

William Buckley was an English convict who was transported to Australia, escaped, was given up for dead and lived in an Aboriginal community for many years.

Buckley's improbable survival is believed by many Australians to be the source of the vernacular phrase "you've got Buckley's or none", which means "no chance", or "it's as good as impossible". The Macquarie Dictionary supports this theory, although the ANU Australian National Dictionary Centre tends to support a second theory: that the expression was a pun on the name of a now defunct Melbourne department store chain, Buckley & Nunn.