Indigenous Australia

Wylie (c. 1825–?), explorer and guide, was a Noongar man from the King George Sound district, Western Australia. In May 1840 he was taken by ship from Albany to Adelaide by Edward John Eyre. He had disappeared in June when Eyre left to explore an overland route to Western Australia, but, at Eyre’s request, he was onboard the Hero, which arrived at Fowler’s Bay with provisions in January 1841. Wylie was older than the two South Australian Aboriginal men who, with Eyre and his assistant Baxter, made up the party that left Fowler’s Bay in February. By April food supplies had dwindled and tensions were running high. Wylie left the camp with one of the South Australian Aboriginal men on 22 April, returning three days later.

On the night of 29 April the food store was raided and Baxter was killed. Wylie raised the alarm, but Eyre suspected that he had known of the plot. Eyre maintained that the other two Aboriginal men were responsible for Baxter’s death, but Mirning sources suggest that Eyre himself killed Baxter in a fit of rage because Baxter was drunk. Wylie and Eyre found the horses and broke camp, pursued, in Eyre’s account, by the deserters; however, according to Mirning sources, the two South Australian Aboriginal men fled in fright and were speared by Mirning people who were observing the expedition’s progress through their territory.

By May 1841 provisions had run extremely low. Wylie supplemented their diet by hunting and gathering. Quick, observant, and a very good shot, he brought in kangaroos, opossums, ducks, and swans. He also found yams, roots, crabs, and precious water. On 22 June the whaling vessel Mississippi rescued them. Wylie enjoyed his stay on the French ship, especially the generous rations, including tobacco, cans of treacle, and rice.

On the return journey Wylie met a member of his clan at Rossiter Bay (near Esperance) and learnt that he had been mourned by his people. A sudden shrill cry, picked up by Aboriginal people in the area, soon brought an excited crowd to greet him.

Wylie made a statement about Baxter’s death to the magistrate at Albany, and was commended to the governor for remaining ‘faithful to his white friend when forsaken by his countrymen’ (Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal 1841, 2). He was rewarded with a weekly ration of flour and meat by the government and with £2 and a medal by the Agricultural Society of Perth. For a time he served as a police constable. In 1848 Eyre arranged for his small ration to be increased. Nothing certain is known of his later life.

♦♦  This article was revised on 18 July 2025