Tony Squire - An Introduction
Buckley the Yowie and the Legend of Ned KellyBuckley the Yowie loves ChristmasBuckley the Kilcoy YowieBuckley's ReturnI'm Buckley and I'm a Yowie
G’day Goodreads!
I am reasonably new to this website so thought I'd introduce myself. I am Tony Squire and I live in Kilcoy, Australia.
It has always been my desire to become a professional author. This stems from a fortune teller informing me, when I was 12, that one day I would write a best selling novel, which would be about truth. That thought has stayed with me for all of those years, but what to write about has always been the problem. I love history and I love to hear about mysterious tales. Obviously Bigfoot and the Yeti are world famous, but it was not until I came to Kilcoy that I learned about the Yowie. I truly believe that these creatures really exist, after all thousands of people have seen them, so they can’t all be wrong. I think the reason we are seeing more and more of them is that civilisation is encroaching upon their forest homes.
So, getting back to the subject of Buckley, I thought why not write about a caring giant, and place him in to actual history. The name, Buckley, comes from his first contact with Europeans, when he meets the escaped convict, William Buckley, who is a real person who lived for over 30 years with the Watourong people around the Yarra River area in Victoria. Buckley and William become great friends for over 20 years, learning much from each other, until William is pardoned and returns to the settlers. It is then that Buckley goes on Walkabout and encounters many other characters from history, who will appear in future stories. In the early 1890s he ends up in Somerset, QLD, and is taken in by Doris and Raymond Taylor, settlers from England, who are setting up their own cattle station, ‘Doriray’, at Sandy Creek. Buckley not only helps them build their station, but befriends the whole town of Kilcoy and helps in its construction, becoming firm friends with everyone; even attending school there. This is all detailed in my first story, 'Buckley the Kilcoy Yowie'. After some sad events Buckley feels the need to clear his head, so he goes on a short walkabout. As Yowies are immortal time passes quickly and it is 90 years before Buckley returns to Kilcoy and his family, only to find that the town, but not his family, has forgotten about him. Buckley then sets about on a quest to befriend the town again and also to help them get on the world tourist map. Again, this is all detailed in my second story, 'Buckley’s Return'.
With regard to what Buckley would look like, Yowies are generally depicted as monsters, but I did not want this for him. As much as I love the cuddly Yowie logo on Kilcoy businesses I wanted to portray Buckley as legend describes him, a 3 metre tall hairy man. I’m not a great artist, so it was a challenge to create something I liked. In the end I took inspiration from the statue in Yowie Park, for it shows the Yowie as described in folklore. Really all I did was cartoonise him a little.
Now, I have been uploading posts about Buckley all over the place, adding Buckley in photos of local, and some not so local, places. Selfishly, yes this is to promote my book, but I have also been trying to promote Kilcoy and encourage people to visit. I have been sharing these pictures around Queensland and Australia via Facebook etc with the hashtag visitkilcoy. I also have a Buckley Instagram, and You Tube account which I am using to publicise Buckley and Kilcoy, plus an author account on Twitter.
I have now written 5 Buckley the Yowie books and all are available on Amazon, Fishpond, The Book Depository and many other online stores. Í have already mentioned my fist 2 books. My third novel is a story for all ages, 'Buckley the Yowie and the Legend of Ned Kelly'. It is set between the first and second book and involves a chance meeting with an 11 year old Ned Kelly and the friendship which develops between Buckley and Ned. I have also recently written and published 2 early learning reader/picture books, 'I'm Buckley and I'm a Yowie', and 'Buckley the Yowie Loves Christmas'. I hope that these will encourage youngsters to start reading.
I have many other stories in my head and hope to add more tales of Buckley the Yowie to my list in the near future.
Thankyou everyone for your time.
Tony Squire
G’day Goodreads!
I am reasonably new to this website so thought I'd introduce myself. I am Tony Squire and I live in Kilcoy, Australia.
It has always been my desire to become a professional author. This stems from a fortune teller informing me, when I was 12, that one day I would write a best selling novel, which would be about truth. That thought has stayed with me for all of those years, but what to write about has always been the problem. I love history and I love to hear about mysterious tales. Obviously Bigfoot and the Yeti are world famous, but it was not until I came to Kilcoy that I learned about the Yowie. I truly believe that these creatures really exist, after all thousands of people have seen them, so they can’t all be wrong. I think the reason we are seeing more and more of them is that civilisation is encroaching upon their forest homes.
So, getting back to the subject of Buckley, I thought why not write about a caring giant, and place him in to actual history. The name, Buckley, comes from his first contact with Europeans, when he meets the escaped convict, William Buckley, who is a real person who lived for over 30 years with the Watourong people around the Yarra River area in Victoria. Buckley and William become great friends for over 20 years, learning much from each other, until William is pardoned and returns to the settlers. It is then that Buckley goes on Walkabout and encounters many other characters from history, who will appear in future stories. In the early 1890s he ends up in Somerset, QLD, and is taken in by Doris and Raymond Taylor, settlers from England, who are setting up their own cattle station, ‘Doriray’, at Sandy Creek. Buckley not only helps them build their station, but befriends the whole town of Kilcoy and helps in its construction, becoming firm friends with everyone; even attending school there. This is all detailed in my first story, 'Buckley the Kilcoy Yowie'. After some sad events Buckley feels the need to clear his head, so he goes on a short walkabout. As Yowies are immortal time passes quickly and it is 90 years before Buckley returns to Kilcoy and his family, only to find that the town, but not his family, has forgotten about him. Buckley then sets about on a quest to befriend the town again and also to help them get on the world tourist map. Again, this is all detailed in my second story, 'Buckley’s Return'.
With regard to what Buckley would look like, Yowies are generally depicted as monsters, but I did not want this for him. As much as I love the cuddly Yowie logo on Kilcoy businesses I wanted to portray Buckley as legend describes him, a 3 metre tall hairy man. I’m not a great artist, so it was a challenge to create something I liked. In the end I took inspiration from the statue in Yowie Park, for it shows the Yowie as described in folklore. Really all I did was cartoonise him a little.
Now, I have been uploading posts about Buckley all over the place, adding Buckley in photos of local, and some not so local, places. Selfishly, yes this is to promote my book, but I have also been trying to promote Kilcoy and encourage people to visit. I have been sharing these pictures around Queensland and Australia via Facebook etc with the hashtag visitkilcoy. I also have a Buckley Instagram, and You Tube account which I am using to publicise Buckley and Kilcoy, plus an author account on Twitter.
I have now written 5 Buckley the Yowie books and all are available on Amazon, Fishpond, The Book Depository and many other online stores. Í have already mentioned my fist 2 books. My third novel is a story for all ages, 'Buckley the Yowie and the Legend of Ned Kelly'. It is set between the first and second book and involves a chance meeting with an 11 year old Ned Kelly and the friendship which develops between Buckley and Ned. I have also recently written and published 2 early learning reader/picture books, 'I'm Buckley and I'm a Yowie', and 'Buckley the Yowie Loves Christmas'. I hope that these will encourage youngsters to start reading.
I have many other stories in my head and hope to add more tales of Buckley the Yowie to my list in the near future.
Thankyou everyone for your time.
Tony Squire
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