General News
22 August, 2025
Historical Duff children story gets national exposure
The three children who went missing for nine days in thick bushland west of Natimuk are one of the Wimmera's most iconic stories and were the subject of a recent 30-minute film made by church group 'The Incredible Journey' that aired on Channel 9.
It would have been every squatter parent's nightmare in 1864.
One hundred and sixty-one years ago, on August 12, Isaac, 9, Jane, 7 and Frank, 4, were sent by their mother to gather materials for their home from the surrounding bush, but got hopelessly lost, sparking a search led by their father, John Duff and involving many men from the area.
It ultimately relied on the skills of indigenous workers to follow their tracks; they were brought in after a few days from 30 miles north by Peter McCartney following a heroic night ride to Mount Elgin near Nhill to raise the alarm.
The search party had been diminishing in numbers following a rain storm on the seventh night.
Still, the tracks were rediscovered by a nearby station owner, Alexander Wilson, the morning of the ninth day (August 20), and the search party knew the children had recently still been alive and they were closing in, but time was short; they did not want them to endure another cold night.
With the men racing to catch up with them before the sun had set, it was their father whose frantic scanning of the horizon ahead in the late afternoon had something different catch his eye – the children, desperately weak but still alive, were lying motionless under a small clump of trees; they had been found.
The children took weeks to recover, but the happy ending remains a story that has inspired generations.
It transpired that both Isaac and Jane did their best to help their youngest brother, Frank, and Jane had used her hand-sewn lilac-coloured dress to cover all of them in the winter nights; the dress became a family treasure.
All the children lived into adulthood, and their descendants are alive today.
Also, about this time last year, it was reported that the upper part of the Jane Duff Memorial on Natimuk-Frances Road had been removed for repair.
West Wimmera Shire Council told The Wimmera Mail-Times this week that they were happy to report repairs were completed earlier this year.
The documentary uses footage in part from the 1973 Education Department film, 'Lost in the Bush', which used locals to play the roles.
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