Ngarram Teaser
The teaser for Ngarram- Purra and Buckley’s Chance was created in collaboration with First Nations and local communities, offering an early glimpse into the cinematic world of MLA’s first major community project. Alongside the teaser, three independent short films were also produced independantly with First Nations communities with no budget as part of the creative and cultural development journey toward the feature film.
POSTER PREVIEW
Story
In early 1800s Australia, an escaped British convict and a courageous Wadawurrung woman fall in love as the British Empire expands across their lands. Torn between survival, resistance, and two colliding worlds, they fight to protect culture, family, and Country during the violent rise of the Melbourne and Geelong settlements.
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….
Ngarram: Purra and Buckley’s Chance
The untold story of resistance and interracial love amid Australia’s silent war of the land grab.
Genre: Period Drama, MA 15+
Project Overview
Ngarram: Purra and Buckley’s Chance is an epic historical period drama inspired by true events set across Wadawurrung Country in Southern Australia during the early years of colonisation.
At the heart of the story is the relationship between Purramurnin Tullawurnin (“Purra”), a gifted Wadawurrung musician and strong cultural woman, and William Buckley, an escaped British convict who lived among the Wadawurrung People for more than 32 years before the establishment of Geelong and Melbourne.
While much has been written about Buckley’s extraordinary survival, Indigenous perspectives, relationships, resistance, and cultural continuity surrounding this history have rarely been explored on screen. Ngarram seeks to bring those perspectives forward through a deeply human story of love, identity, survival, and the devastating transformation of Country during colonisation.
Story Synopsis
The year is 1803.
The HMS Calcutta arrives on the southern coast of Australia carrying convicts, marines, and settlers sent by the British Crown to establish a new penal colony. Among them is William Buckley, a convict sentenced to exile for life.
Desperate for freedom, Buckley escapes into the unforgiving wilderness. Battling starvation, dehydration, and isolation across the harsh Australian landscape, he collapses near death before being discovered by a Wadawurrung family beside a burial ground. In his possession is the broken spear of the recently deceased warrior Murrangurk.
Believing Buckley to be the returned spirit — a murrup — of their ancestor, the family adopts him into their community. As the British abandon the struggling settlement, Buckley begins an entirely new life immersed in Wadawurrung culture, law, spirituality, and connection to Country.
Over many years, he learns language, ceremony, hunting, kinship, and survival within a world shaped by ancient knowledge systems and deep custodianship of land and sky.
But peace is fragile.
Following a violent conflict between neighbouring groups during a trading gathering, Buckley loses those closest to him and withdraws into isolation. It is during this time that he encounters Purra — a spirited Wadawurrung musician and cultural woman resisting an arranged marriage and searching for her own freedom.
Together they form a powerful connection that grows across seasons, rivers, ceremonies, and starlit skies. Yet as their relationship deepens, the distant force of colonisation begins moving toward Wadawurrung Country.
British settlers arrive seeking land, power, and expansion.
Violence spreads across the region as Indigenous families are displaced and sacred lands are seized to establish what will become Geelong and Melbourne. Caught between two worlds, Buckley is drawn back toward colonial society and forced into the role of interpreter and intermediary between the British authorities and the Wadawurrung People.
While Buckley attempts to prevent further bloodshed, Purra stands alongside those resisting invasion and dispossession. Their love becomes strained by impossible choices, cultural obligations, survival, and the accelerating force of empire.
As conflict escalates and the old world begins to fracture, both must confront what they are willing to sacrifice to protect culture, family, and the future of their people.
Ngarram: Purra and Buckley’s Chance is a sweeping cinematic story of love, resistance, identity, and survival set against one of the most transformative and devastating periods in Australian history.
Acknowledgement
The producers and creative collaborators of Ngarram: Purra and Buckley’s Chance acknowledge the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities throughout Victoria and across Australia. We honour their continuing connection to land, waters, sky, culture, language, ancestors, and story. We pay our respects to Elders Past, Present, and Emerging, and acknowledge the enduring strength and resilience of First Nations peoples and communities. This project is being developed through ongoing collaboration, consultation, and cultural guidance with Indigenous communities and advisors, with deep respect for cultural protocols, historical truth-telling, and the protection of Indigenous knowledge and story.
