A Tale of Two Hearts Entwined

The untold story of resistance and interracial love amid Australia’s silent war of colonisation.

Genre: Period Drama, MA 15+

Log-Line: In 1800s Australia, a British convict on the run and a spirited Indigenous musician fall in love, but as gunslinging settlers encroach to grab the land, their lives are torn apart struggling to survive and protect ancestral land and it’s people.

Information: "MagicLands" is a captivating period drama based on a true story and events set in the wilds of early 1800s Southern Australia that explores the bloodline and relationship of Purramurnin Tullawurnin, a gifted Wadawurrung musician and resistance fighter, and William Buckley, an escaped British convict who lived among the Wadawurrung People for 32 years before colonisers arrived to seize land and form the settlements of Geelong and Melbourne. All of the books have missed an important part of the story, the Australian Aboriginal perspective and bloodline, which is what this period drama will communicate.

Story: The year is 1803, and the HMS Calcutta arrives with its human cargo of convicts, civilians, and marines, sent by the British Crown to establish a penal colony. William Buckley, a British convict sentenced to life in exile, seizes the opportunity to escape tyranny and his chance for freedom. Enduring months on the run battling nature, the blaze of a sweltering summer, and the threat of dehydration and starvation, his fight leads him to the brink of death until a Wadawurrung family finds him in a burial ground holding a broken spear of their recently deceased elder warrior, Murrangurk. They believe him to be a spiritual reincarnation, a ghost spirit (murrup) returned from the dead, and Buckley, fearing for his life, suddenly finds a new home, adopted in and treated as one of their own by the family as the British abandon their settlement efforts.

After years of adapting to a new life and immersing in a world rich with ancient traditions and spiritual connections to the land, Buckley's tranquil life is shattered by violent conflict and the loss of his family after a trading session turns bloody, driving him into isolation. Fate and the spirit of the lands lead him to Purra, a resilient Wadawurrung musician escaping an arranged marriage by her family. Their love blossoms over many moons under the stars until suddenly they face the looming threat of colonial encroachment and her tribe's traditions that tear them apart. Purra is forced to return as Buckley confronts colonial settlers hungry for land to stop the bloodshed. Thrust into the role of peacemaker and the inevitable force of colonisation coming to the magic lands, Buckley becomes an interpreter between two colliding worlds to gain his freedom from being labeled as a convict, while Purra stands with the resistance, both ensnared in a struggle and fight to preserve a world on the verge of dramatic and violent transformation.

Amidst the chaos of land being taken and dispossession of Indigenous families, the rise of Geelong and Melbourne settlements is born. Buckley clashes with his allegiance to Purra under increased pressure as the commander of the Natives for the British Government to survive. Their bond becomes a flickering symbol of hope amidst the violent dispossession of Indigenous families of their ancestral lands.

"MagicLands" weaves a compelling narrative of love, identity, and resilience, inviting audiences on a cinematic odyssey to a pivotal time in history where the battle for survival casts a long shadow over the magic land, they once called home.

In the face of an encroaching British empire, can Buckley and Purra's love withstand the ferocious waves of colonisation, or will the tide wash away the world they found solace in?Acknowledgement

The MagicLands producers and creative team acknowledge the country's Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Victoria, Australia and Internationally in recognition of their continuing connection to the land, waters, and culture. We respect the First Peoples language groups, communities, and Elders past, present, and emerging across Victoria, Australia and internationally with strict Indigenous protocol in recreating historical story content.

Timeline of Australian History

50,000-60,000 BC – Oldest known archaeological sites of human occupation in Australia in Arnhem Land.

42,000 BCE – archaeological evidence that Tasmanian Aborigine People were living in this area north of Hobart.

1520’s – Portuguese explorers claim to discover the island.

1606 - Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon records the first landing and names the island New Holland.

1642 - Abel Tasman was the first known European expedition to reach Van Diemens Land and New Zealand.

1770 – British explorer James Cook claims the land was terra nullius ('no one's land'), despite what he saw on a voyage up the east coast of Australia. On the 29th of April, he arrived on land and named the area Botany Bay.

1788 – First British ships arrived at Botany Bay and established a penal colony, the first colony of New Holland, which is later named Sydney.

1797- George Bass explore Southeast New Holland and names Western Port.

1798 – George Bass and Mathew Flinders circumnavigated Van Diemen’s Land.

1801-02 – Mathew Flinders circumnavigates New Holland and calls the island Australia.

1802 – John Murray surveys Port Phillip Bay on Boonwurrung Land for a month and names a mountain, Arthurs Seat.

1802 – Circumnavigating Australia, Matthew Flinders spots a French Ship, Geographe in Southern Australia before arriving at Port Phillip Bay. He climbs the You Yangs on Wathaurong Land, returning to Great Britain with word of good land along the Bass Coast, in many parts, a fertile appearance."

1803 -

The Story begins….