What is "wylie"

Wylie may refer to:

• Wylie (surname)
• Wylie (Australian explorer), Aboriginal companion of Edward John Eyre during his crossing of the Nullarbor Plain in Australia

Wylie (c. 1825 – ?) was an indigenous Australian originally from the King George Sound tribe around Albany in Western Australia. He accompanied Edward John Eyre to Adelaide by sea in May 1840, and would have left with Eyre on his expedition to penetrate to the interior in June of the same year, but Wylie was ill. Later in the year, Eyre was at Fowlers Bay in the west, having retreated from the north, and Wylie joined him by way of the ship supplying the expedition, the Hero.

Wylie was subsequently one of the three aborigines to accompany Eyre and John Baxter on their final attempt to cross the Nullarbor Plain in 1841. He deserted for a brief time with the other older aboriginal boy, Joey, while the party rested at the sandhills of present-day Eucla, but they returned when they failed to find any food. Several weeks later he proved loyal to Eyre when Joey and Yarry (the other aboriginal boy) murdered Baxter and deserted. Despite the two aborigines accosting them and calling for Wylie to join them the following day, Wylie stayed with Eyre for the rest of the journey, impressing the French whalers they met in Rossiter Bay with his voracious appetite.

Joey and Yarry had been taken on by Eyre at Gundagai and Yarry have been the same person as Yarri or Yarree, who saved a large number Gundagai citizens during the flood of 25 June 1852 and was accused of at least one subsequent murder.

After the completion of the journey, Wylie remained at Albany. He spent a brief time as a native policeman, and also benefited from a government pension procured for him by Eyre, who remained in contact with him for some years afterward.

Wylie is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Adam Wylie
• Alexander Wylie (disambiguation), multiple people
• Andrew Wylie, first president of Indiana University
• Andrew Wylie (literary agent), American literary agent
• Ben Wylie, Irish cricketer
• Chalmers Wylie
• Charles Hotham Montagu Doughty-Wylie
• Craig Wylie
• Elinor Wylie
• Fannie B. Wylie, American politician
• Sir Francis James Wylie (1865–1952), British academic literary critic
• Sir Francis Verner Wylie (1891–1970), British civil servant in India
• Graham Wylie, Founder of the Sage Group
• Ida Alexa Ross Wylie (1885-1959), Australian/British/American writer
• James Aitken Wylie, Scottish historian
• Mike Wylie, Australian rugby league footballer
• Mina Wylie
• Norman Wylie
• Paul Wylie
• Pete Wylie
• Philip Gordon Wylie
• Richard "Popcorn" Wylie (1939-2008), American R&B pianist, songwriter and record producer
• Robert Wylie
• Shaun Wylie
• Willard Otis Wylie (1862–1944), of Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• William M. Wylie, American politician