Yidumduma Bill Harney was born near Willeroo homestead at a place called Brandy Bottle Creek in the Victoria River area of the Northern Territory. Harney's totem is the Bulyan, the black wedge-tail eagle.
Harney was not a part of the Stolen Generation because the station where he lived and worked as a child did not want the government taking away their cheap labour. Each time the Welfare came out to the station, the managers sent Harney away to avoid being taken. During his life time, Harney worked as a stockman, mailman, pinecutter, mechanic, windmill rigger, crocodile shooter and saddler. He also made fences, poddy-dodged cattle (cattle thieving) and farmed.
In 1981, Harney helped the Wardaman people develop the Aboriginal Community Living Area on the Scott Creek pastoral lease at Djarrung near the Flora River. Then in 1986 he was the chief adviser for the documentary The Land of the Lightning Brothers, which was produced by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Film Australia, Australian Heritage Commission and the Northern Territory Government. Due to the public's interest to the documentary on his Aboriginal culture, Harney set up a tour company named Bill Harney's Jankangyina Tour, which was formed in 1989.
