Family and friends of Dr Bill Peasley AM have gathered in Bedgerabong to place a permanent memorial to the "boy from the bush" who went on to live what can only be described as a remarkable life.
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William J Peasley AM passed away in Western Australia on January 2 this year, aged 92.
Three of his siblings were surrounded by extended family members as they unveiled a memorial and buried a capsule packed with items of meaning at the Bedgerabong cemetery last Saturday.
Ray and Les Peasley and sister Heather Mann OAM were in attendance to pay tribute to their brother, sister Erla was unable to be there.
Family members and friends took the opportunity to pay tribute to a gentleman, and to reflect that they were the richer for knowing him.
"I give thanks that I knew Bill ... and I really appreciate his life's work," his brother Ray said, highlighting happy memories of his trips back to the region.
Sister Heather spoke too of the richness of the relationship they had re-established in recent years and the many happy hours sharing memories and stories.
William J Peasley left the family farm at Bedgerabong to join the army at 18, and although World War II ended while he was in training camp he was sent to Japan with the occupational forces.
When he returned, he completed his schooling in one year as an adult to qualify for university, and went on to study medicine.
Dr Bill was eventually to move his family to Broome, and to serve the remote regions with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
He was also to fall in love with the top end, and although he also spent some years working in Italy and Perth, over the decades he was to return to the west to retrace the steps of the country's explorers.
This was a passion birthed at Bedgerabong, when he found Aboriginal artifacts including stone axes on the family property.
In the coming years, Dr Bill confirmed the locations of several historical sites, rediscovered 22 Aboriginal sites and exacted the locations and registered 33 new place names.
It was while on one of these journeys the team was alerted to the plight of a couple who had eloped from their tribes into the Simpson desert many years before.
Dr Bill set out to find Warri and Yatunga, by that time frail and surviving only on the bush fruit quandong, and his record of their story became a book and a film - The Last of the Nomads.
He was a meticulous record keeper and oral historian, documenting everything from the games he played as a child in Bedgerabong to Indigenous culture of the people he loved and worked with in the top end of Western Australia.
Dr Bill kept records of his work in Hiroshima in the aftermath of World War II, and his journey across the Nullabor with his young family in a brand new 1946 Jaguar saloon.
READ MORE: Dr Bill's amazing life story
On Saturday Rob Willis, Forbes local and oral historian with the National Library, said Dr Bill's life story and - importantly - his historical records are now preserved in the National Library of Australia.
Rob and Olya Willis met Dr Bill in Broome when he was awarded his AM for significant service to the community as an inland explorer, historian and author and as a general practitioner.
The couple were recording for the library when the Advocate asked whether they could photograph Dr Bill for a story on his Queen's Birthday honours - and they were more than happy to help.
"Once you meet Bill Peasley you never forget him, and there was a story there and we didn't let that story escape," Rob said on Saturday.
Soil from each of the Peasley family properties, Billy tea, poems and photographs were among the items placed into the capsule to be buried.
Nephew David read a letter from Trevor and Maureen Herbert from Western Australia, who accompanied Dr Bill on some of his desert journeys. They were not able to attend.
"We soon found there was much more to Bill than doctor, historian, author, adventurer and bushman," they wrote.
"Bill was loved and respected in the outback towns and Aboriginal communities.
"When we visited these towns the cry would go out, Peasley! Peasley! People would greet him with great affection, hug him with tears in their eyes.
"Many from all cultures said, remember me? You helped me."
The memorial for Dr Bill is in Bedgerabong cemetery, where other members of the Peasley family have been laid to rest.
Extended family members were there for its unveiling on Saturday, but more could not attend due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and sent their apologies and reflections.
They also gathered for lunch in Forbes.
