William John (W J) Peasley – December 23 2018

Photo: Olya Willis, Forbes Advocate

Bill was born in 1927 and spent his boyhood on his father’s farm in central west New South Wales. Sent away as a boarder,  Bill refused to return after one year of secondary school and remained at Bedgerabong until he was old enough to leave school at 14. At 18, he joined the army then served with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan after WWII. On returning to Australia, he completed the Leaving Certificate in one year and studied medicine in Sydney. He went on to work as a general practitioner and flying doctor and was able to pursue his interest in Aboriginal culture and the journeys of some of the early Western Australian explorers. His other books include In the Hands of Providence: The Desert Journeys of David Carnegie, and Through Spinifex and Sand to the Last Desert Family: A Journey through the Gibson and Little Sandy Deserts of Western Australia, an account of his travels and encounters with the traditional family who were to become known as the ‘Browns’. Bill has also compiled a book for his family about life in Bedgerabong in the 1930s and 40s. Bill received the Order of Australia in 2015 for significant service to the community as an inland explorer, historian, author and general practitioner.

The Last Outposts: From Port of Pearls to Desert Sands. A Flying Doctor in North Western Australia by William J Peasley
Hesperian Press, 2014; ISBN 9780859055864
In 1956 Bill Peasley set off overland to WA with his family, a beloved jaguar, and a medical degree. He started practice in Derby and there commenced an affair with the bush which is still going strong. This book covers his time in the NW and Kimberley, the people and places, incidents both clinical and recreational and is a welcome read for all old hands of the North.

The Last of the Nomads by W J Peasley
Fremantle Press, 2009; ISBN 9780949206879
[First published 1983]
Warri and Yatungka, the young couple who broke tribal law when they fell in love and eloped into the Gibson Desert, were believed to be the last of the Mandildjara tribe of desert nomads to live permanently in the traditional way.  Their ‘rescue’ became the inspiration for The Last of the Nomads which tells the extraordinary journey of the search party Bill was asked to lead to find them. Their deaths in the late 1970s marked the end of a tribal lifestyle that stretched back more than 30,000 years. The book has also been made into a film.
‘Peasley’s description of the events … is informative, compassionate, exciting and at times deeply moving.’ – Australian Book Review