The 16 Year Old Heroine of the South West

I’d like to bring to your attention, the story of one Grace Ellen Vernon Bussell and the family’s stockman, Sam Yebble Isaacs, the son of a Native American mariner and a local Wardandie tribe mother.

While they’re not part of my family tree, the Bussell family are intertwined with mine, the first of their family arrived at the Swan River Colony with my great-great-great grandfather, John Foss Tonkin, on the ship Warrior,  in 1830.

This story is about the heroic, brave actions of this young girl and the stockman who worked for her father. They lived on a large property in what is now part of the Margaret River area while the nearby town of Busselton is named after the prominent family.