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First published in 2006

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For children.ISBN 978 174114 298 3.

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CONTENTSWHY BUSHRANGERS?

1Slave, runaway, stowaway,

thief: Black Caesar 1

2He wrote in blood: Michael Howe 7

3Gangster or gentleman?

Matthew Brady 15

4Cash converted: Martin Cash 24

5Wild Colonial Boy: Jack Donohoe 33

6Call Me Captain: Melville, Thunderbolt

and Moonlite (and Mad Dan) 41

7Like a dog shot down: Ben Hall 57

8last but not least? Ned Kelly 65

9But wait, there’s more! 81

Quiz 84

Where to find out more 87

Thanks 87

Index 88

WHY BUSHRANGERS?

Long, long ago, when I was young, I was taught that bushrangers

were good men driven to bad deeds. They were Australian Robin

Hoods, robbing from the ruthless rich who ran the country and

doing good deeds for poor people.

Now I’ve taken a close look at what the bushrangers really

got up to – and I warn you, it’s not a pretty picture. There are

shootouts and robberies, sieges and man-hunts, and grown men

running around in the bush with no clothes on. If you’re brave

enough, you can read all about the wild men of our history, the

ones who broke the rules and lived outside the law. Were they

driven to it, or were they bad to the bone? You be the judge.

1

1SLAVE, RUNAWAY, STOWAWAY, THIEF:

BLACK CAESAR

Australia’s first bushranger was an African giant. He

became a bushranger for one simple reason. He wanted

to survive.

John Caesar was one of the convicts of the First Fleet.

He had been kidnapped from his West African home

and sold as a slave in the West Indies. But who’d like to

be a slave? Not Caesar. He escaped and stowed away on a

ship bound for England.

In London he stole money and food to survive,

but was soon caught. The judge sentenced him to be

transported to Australia. He arrived at Sydney Cove

with the First Fleet in 1788.

Steal or starve

Life in Sydney Town was tough. Black Caesar, as he came

to be known, couldn’t keep going on the small amounts

of food given to convicts. Caesar was a huge man, and he

needed more. He had to steal food or starve.

But stealing was very, very risky – Governor Phillip

had said that anyone caught stealing food would be

flogged (whipped), or even hanged.

No wonder convicts were desperate to escape.

WAS CAESAR GREEDY?The food ration given to each male

convict per week was:

B Either 3 kilograms of dried salted beef or 1.8 kilograms of dried salted pork

B 3 kilograms of stale, weevil-infested bread• 450 grams of weevil-infested flour

B 400 grams of rancid butterB 225 grams of rice

B 31⁄2 litres of dried peas (the only vegetable!)

For a man doing hard labour in chains, this was a rock-bottom diet. Women were even worse off. Female convicts and soldiers’ wives only received

two-thirds of the male ration.

3

Only a few weeks after the First Fleet landed, Caesar

was caught robbing the food stores. He was given 500

lashes. This was an unbelievably brutal punishment,

but one that Caesar would endure many times.

He kept on stealing, and each time he was caught

and flogged. The Governor never sentenced him to

hang, though – as the strongest worker in the colony,

he was too useful.

No more Mr Nice Guy

Finally Caesar had had enough of starving and

getting flogged. In May 1789 he stole a gun and some

ammunition and escaped. He stayed in the bush for

a month, stealing food from settlers’ gardens. After

being recaptured, he was flogged again, escaped again,

and this time tried to join an Aboriginal group.

5

There’s a story that he fought with Pemulwuy,

an Aboriginal leader, and was so badly injured that

he limped back to Parramatta and surrendered.

Pemulwuy was also badly hurt, and took many months

to recover.

Once more Caesar escaped, and this time he was

joined by six or seven other runaways (or ‘bolters’).

Caesar became the leader of a gang.

The gang held up travellers and raided farms for

food, guns and ammunition.

Rum reward

Finally, a new Governor, John Hunter, set a ‘bounty’

on Black Caesar’s head. He put out a notice saying

that anyone who brought in Caesar and his weapons

would be rewarded with five gallons (about 23 litres)

of rum. He also said that anyone who gave the gang

ammunition or help would be treated as accomplices

and punished – probably flogged.

At this time, people in Sydney Town used rum as

a type of money. In fact, getting five gallons of rum

6

was like winning the lottery. People everywhere started

looking for Caesar, hoping to earn the reward.

The African giant’s bushranging career did not last

much longer. In February 1796 he was shot and killed

by a settler at Liberty Plains, near the present-day

Sydney suburb of Burwood. The lucky settler was a

man named Wimbow. No one now knows if he drank

or spent his reward.

7

2HE WROTE IN

BLOOD: MICHAEL HOWE

Demons in Van Diemen’s Land

Tasmania today is a quiet, peaceful island. Some people

think that the most exciting thing to happen there is

the apple harvest.

Two hundred years ago, things were very different.

Tasmania (then called Van Diemen’s Land) was one of

the most dangerous, crime-ridden places in the world.

It was where Australian bushranging really took off.

The capital city of Van Diemen’s Land, Hobart,

was a prison settlement. It was home to the worst and

8

most desperate criminals – the ones who were too bad

to stay in Sydney.

Fewer than 2000 people lived there, and most of

them were either convicts, or soldiers guarding the

convicts. There was plenty of bush to escape into, and

farms to rob if you decided to become a bushranger.

Howe do you do?

A man called Michael Howe arrived in Hobart in

1812 on the ship Indefatigable. He’d been a soldier

in England, but he deserted from the army and then

tried to hold up a coach. He was convicted of highway

robbery. (Highwaymen were the British versions of

bushrangers, so you could say Howe was a bushranger

before he arrived in Australia.) His punishment was

transportation to Van Diemen’s Land.

Howe hadn’t even set foot on Hobart’s dusty streets

before he tried to escape. He jumped over the side of

the ship as it berthed at Hobart docks. But his freedom

didn’t last long – someone plucked him from the

Derwent River straight away.

Anty cruelty campaign

Michael Howe wasn’t going to be put off by a dip in

the Derwent. A few weeks later he ran away again

and joined a gang of 30 escaped convicts led by John

Whitehead. The gang was renowned for its cruelty.

One man who had given the police information about

the gang was tortured by being forced to wear a pair of

shoes filled with bull-ants. Bitten hundreds of times by

angry ants, the man died in agony.

The gang stole sheep, burned farmhouses, and

shot people who tried to stop them. Soldiers combed

the bush looking for them. The soldiers were tough

customers too. They hanged any bushranger they

caught and left the body to rot by the roadside, as a

warning to others.

In October 1814 Whitehead was caught by some

soldiers and shot dead. The gang needed a new leader,

and Michael Howe stepped forward.

WHITEHEAD BEHEADEDJohn Whitehead knew that soldiers

would hunt him down. He asked Howe to cut off his head and hide it so that

no one could claim a reward for capturing him. Howe must have done so. Two years later,

a newspaper report told of a head found wrapped in a handkerchief, It was probably Whitehead’s

head. (And it must have been a very big

handkerchief!)

10

Crime diary

After taking over the gang, Howe soon made some

strange changes. The other gang members had to swear

on a prayer book that they would obey him. He also

kept a diary, bound in kangaroo hide, of the gang’s

crimes. To make it really special, he wrote it in blood.

(Do you think this man was weird?)

11

Howe organised raids on Aboriginal camps,

kidnapping women that he and others could take as

‘wives’. Aboriginal men who tried to defend the women

were shot.

‘Governor of the Woods’

Howe wrote a letter to the Lieutenant-Governor of

Van Diemen’s Land, Thomas Davey. He signed it

‘Lieutenant-Governor of the Woods’. Howe said that

he’d never committed murder and had only been

violent when he had to avoid capture. (Do you think

this man was forgetful?)

Davey was replaced by William Sorell, who began

cracking down on crime. Howe was nearly captured

several times. He and his Aboriginal ‘wife’ Mary were

ambushed, and in the shooting that followed he shot

her, probably by mistake, before running away.

Howe became nervous. He wrote another letter,

to Sorell. This time he called himself ‘Lieutenant-

Governor of the Ranges’ and he offered to give

OUTLAW, OUT OF LUCKAn outlaw is someone who is, as the name says,

outside the law. If a person was declared an outlaw, then anybody could capture – or kill – him or her. They would not be charged with kidnap or murder.

13

information about his fellow bushrangers’ hideouts in

return for a pardon. Sorell accepted.

For a time Howe walked the streets of Hobart as a

free man, and a bit of a celebrity. But he heard rumours

that he would soon be arrested, and once more took

to the bush. He was declared an outlaw, with (a £100)

hundred-pound bounty (reward) to anyone who

captured him.

Lone ranger

Howe’s gang no longer trusted him, so he found

himself on his own, with bounty-hunters scouring

the bush looking for him. Two former convicts found

14

him asleep in the bush, and tied him up. But somehow

Howe broke free, killing one man and wounding the

other. The second one died soon after from his wounds.

Howe’s end came soon after. In 1818 a kangaroo-

hunter led soldiers William Pugh and John Worrall to

Howe’s camp. Howe made a run for it, but he slipped

while going down a bank. Realising he was trapped,

he challenged Worrall to a duel: ‘Black beard against

grey beard,’ he said. Worrall’s bullet hit Howe, sending

him crashing to the ground. Then Pugh rushed up and

clubbed him to death with the butt of his rifle.

The two soldiers cut off Howe’s head and took it

back to Hobart as proof that they had killed the famous

bushranger. (What’s with these heads?) Thus died the

‘Governor of the Ranges’.

Despite his grim record, some people saw Michael

Howe as a hero. It’s hard to see a killer who informed

on his own gang as a hero, but he certainly led a risky,

colourful life.

15

3GANGSTER OR GENTLEMAN? MATTHEW BRADY

Basket case

Matthew Brady was a soldier in the English army.

As a boy he received some schooling,

but he also got into some mischief.

He got into trouble for

stealing a basket containing

some butter, some rice

and a piece of bacon.

16

Later he tried to pay off a debt by forging the signature

of his boss on a cheque. He was caught, and sent to

Van Diemen’s Land for seven years.

Brady did not like being a prisoner. He often tried to

escape, but like many others he was tracked down each

time and flogged. By 1824 he had received a total of

350 lashes as punishment for trying to escape, and for

being a ‘troublemaker’.

Row, row, row your boat

The worst convicts in Van Diemen’s Land were sent

to a terrible place called Macquarie Harbour.

This was the end of the line for a convict, a freezing,

wind-blasted place far, far away on the west coast.

The harbour had a narrow, treacherous entrance

called Hell’s Gate, which made it a perfect prison.

Even if you managed to escape, you then had to

somehow get a boat and manage to slip unseen through

the harbour entrance (without sinking!), or walk across

Tasmania through some of the most rugged country

in Australia.

17

Some did try, including some who survived by

eating their companions, but that is another story.

Through Hell’s Gate

The authorities soon decided that Brady was indeed

one of the worst, and he was sent to Macquarie

Harbour in 1824. But not even the bleak surroundings

of Macquarie Harbour could stop Brady from trying

to escape. One dark night, 14 convicts, including Brady,

stole a whaleboat (a large rowboat). They managed

to navigate through Hell’s Gate and row all the way

around the southern coast to the Derwent River,

near Hobart.

But it was no good going to Hobart. They knew

they would be quickly recaptured and returned to

Macquarie Harbour. The escaped prisoners had no

choice but to become bushrangers.

The gang robbed a settler of food, clothes and guns

and set up a camp in the bush. For the next two years

they roamed the Tasmanian countryside, robbing

farmhouses and travellers.

18

Flirting in farmhouses

Brady was the first of many bushrangers to receive

the name ‘the Gentleman Bushranger’. He was very

good-looking, and liked to flirt (joke and chat) with

the ladies when he held up a farmhouse or coach.

He became very popular with the women of Tasmania.

The men were less impressed!

Brady usually robbed magistrates and army officers,

rather than poorer people. He also tried to be friendly

19

to the convicts and farm workers, thinking this would

make them less likely to inform on him and his gang.

In fact, some of them helped with food, shelter,

weapons; others even joined Brady’s gang.

One time Brady invaded a farmhouse while the

wealthy owner was away. He had the servants prepare

a huge meal. When the owner returned, Brady made

him watch as servants and bushrangers gorged

themselves on his most expensive food and wine.

Then he stole all the family’s jewellery and watches

and escaped.

Another time Brady’s gang took over the town of

Sorell. They released all the convicts in town, and threw

all the troopers in jail. Poor people saw Brady as a hero.

Tit for tat, Guv

But the Governor, George Arthur, was not so impressed

by Brady’s exploits. The gang had grown to 100 men.

It was becoming a real pain for the government.

Law-abiding citizens – especially rich ones – demanded

that Arthur do something.

Arthur proclaimed a reward of £25 for the capture

of one of the bushrangers, and more than 300 guineas

(over £300 – a huge sum) for whoever brought in

Brady himself. Even his head would be enough!

A convict who captured Brady (or his head) would get

a full pardon and a ticket back to England.

Brady had a cheeky answer to this. He rode into

Hobart and pinned a notice to the wall of an inn.

It said, ‘It has caused Matthew Brady much concern

that such a person as Sir George Arthur is at large.

Twenty gallons of rum will be given to any person that

can deliver this person unto me.’ Arthur was furious!

21

Eventually, Brady’s gang was chased down by

soldiers who had been told where to find them by a

convict spy. Several of Brady’s men were shot dead,

but Brady escaped. Soon after, a group of Aboriginal

trackers commanded by John Batman ran Brady to

ground near Launceston. He was shot in the leg during

a fight and then taken to Hobart for trial.

But it was not all bad news. The convict spy who

betrayed Brady received a pardon, the reward and

a ticket back to England. John Batman got a reward,

but it wasn’t money. He asked instead for a pardon for

a young woman who had ‘captured his heart’. She had

escaped from her overseers, and that made her an

outlaw. She was pardoned, and soon after became

Batman’s wife.

Pardon me?

Brady was tried in front of a packed courthouse.

The sentence? Death by hanging.

Governor Arthur was swamped with letters and

petitions asking him to pardon Brady. Meanwhile,

22

Brady received baskets of flowers and gifts of cakes

and fruit. Most of these gifts, and most of the letters to

Governor Arthur, came from women. It seems he was

still popular with the ladies.

The pleas fell on deaf ears. Several women sobbed

aloud as Brady was taken to the public gallows and

hanged on 4 May 1826.

Rum and rules

Was Brady really a gentleman bushranger? It’s true

that he was polite to the ladies, but he also caused a lot

of trouble. Sometimes, to make sure that the servants

didn’t remember much about the robberies, he made

them drink so much rum that they passed out. One of

23

these unfortunate people later died of alcohol poisoning.

Brady had very strict rules for his gang. His men

had to treat women gently (one who didn’t was kicked

out) and never injure an unarmed person. He told

them violence was to be used only as a last resort.

But Brady’s men were not always as gentlemanly as

their leader. Some people were killed, despite Brady’s

rules. And Brady himself shot one man dead. It seems

that, for bushrangers, violence and death went hand

in hand.

Shortly before he was hanged, Brady said,

A bushranger’s life is wretched and miserable. There is

constant fear of capture and the least noise in the bush is

startling. There is no peace, day or night.

But at least he kept his head.

24

4CASH CONVERTED:

MARTIN CASH

You would think that a person called Cash would never

need to steal money. But there was an Irishman of

that name who said he did.

Cash’s crime

Most of what we know about Martin Cash

comes from the autobiography he wrote in

1870, when he was an old man. But that might not tell

the complete story. It might just tell us what Martin

Cash wanted us to think were the true facts.

25

Martin Cash grew up in Ireland in the early 1800s.

According to his book, he was 17 years old when he

shot and wounded another youth who was ‘embracing’

his girlfriend, Mary. It was a ‘crime of passion’, he

wrote later.

This may be just a Cash whopper. Historians who

have studied old court records think that his real crime

was breaking into houses.

But whatever crime he committed, we know for

certain that in 1827 Martin Cash was transported to

New South Wales for seven years. Convicts in New

South Wales were often set to work on farms. Martin

was sent to a cattle station in the Hunter Valley, near

Newcastle. He was a model prisoner, worked hard and

rarely got into trouble. He served his seven years, and

then stayed on in the area working as a stockman.

Three years later, disaster struck.

Unlucky?

Martin was asked by a friend to help brand some cattle.

He claimed in his book that he thought his friend had

bought the cattle. He hadn’t, he’d stolen them, and

a neighbour tipped off the police. Cash decided not

to wait around to be arrested, and slipped south to

Tasmania with his girlfriend Bessie.

Once again, trouble followed the ex-convict. Cash

was accused of stealing a watch, but he was found

not guilty of the crime. All the same, he punched the

trooper who arrested him and got into more strife.

Then one day some chickens were stolen from a farm.

Cash was arrested, and this time he was found guilty.

His sentence was by no means chicken-feed. He had

to serve another seven years as a convict, building

roads. Like other convicts doing this back-breaking

work, he had chains and

heavy iron balls

attached to

his legs.

27

This time Martin Cash was not a model prisoner.

He escaped from a chain gang at Coal River, slipping

into the bush when the guards were looking the other

way. Over the next two years he found that it was

possible to escape from the chain gangs, but also easy

to be captured again. After escaping and being caught

for the third time, he was sent to Port Arthur for

eleven years.

Swimming with sharks

Port Arthur was a grim, violent jail several days journey

east of Hobart. Like Macquarie Harbour, it was kept

for the very worst convicts. Prisoners had to toil all

day building boats, chopping down trees or mining

coal. Warders flogged prisoners often and hard, and

sometimes locked them away for days or weeks in total

darkness inside cramped, tiny cells with no windows.

Treatment like this could drive a man mad.

Everybody thought that escape from Port Arthur

was impossible. The only way out by land was along

a very narrow strip of land called Eaglehawk Neck.

28

It was only a few hundred metres wide, and was

guarded by soldiers and a line of chained, half-starved

and very fierce dogs.

But what about escape by water? The only way to

do this (unless somehow you could steal a boat, but

the boats were very well guarded) was to swim through

shark-infested waters. Cash really wanted to escape.

‘Better sharks than dogs,’ he decided.

Cash escaped prison with two companions,

Lawrence Kavanagh and George Jones. When they

reached Eaglehawk Neck, they stripped off their clothes

to make swimming easier and tied them to their bodies

with their belts.

The naked truth

The good news was that they didn’t meet one shark.

The bad news? The water was icy cold, they were

buffeted by huge waves and they lost their clothes.

Naked, cold and exhausted, they spent a very

uncomfortable night sheltering under a prickly bush.

It was a very scratchy start to their bushranging career.

29

Next morning, their luck changed. Sneaking through

the bushes they came across a deserted hut. Inside were

clothes, boots and food.

Over the next weeks and months, Cash and his

companions carried out many robberies. Soon they

were known throughout the colony as ‘Cash and

Company’, and their reputation as ‘good’ bushrangers

began to grow. They were nearly always polite to the

people they robbed, and told people that they stole

only from the rich. But this was not always true.

30

Shootout

In 1843, Martin heard that his girlfriend Bessie was

going to marry another man. He was madly jealous.

He wanted to kill them both.

Burning for revenge, Cash disguised himself as a

sailor and travelled to Hobart. Before he could reach

Bessie, some troopers saw him, and there was a fight.

He ran away, but took a wrong turn and was trapped

at the end of a one-way lane. A police constable came

out from a nearby inn to see what was going on. He

recognised Cash and tried to grab him, but Martin

fired his pistol. The unfortunate constable fell to the

ground, dead.

Now for Norfolk

Cash was tried for murder, found guilty and sentenced

to death. But Martin Cash’s good luck didn’t desert him.

Just one hour before he was due to hang, the Governor

decreed that Cash should live. Perhaps his reputation as

a ‘gentleman bushranger’ had spread to the Governor.

31

Cash was transported to Norfolk Island, an even

harsher prison than Port Arthur. There could be

no escape this time. Norfolk Island was a speck of

land in the middle of the Tasman Sea, more than

1500 kilometres from Sydney. Not even Martin Cash

could swim to freedom from there!

Change for Cash

But there was no need to worry about Cash escaping.

He was a changed man. Maybe he was tired of criminal

32

life. He became a convict overseer, and then a police

constable. He met and married Mary Bennet, a servant

of one of the prison officials.

Then Norfolk Island prison was closed down,

and all the convicts were sent back to Tasmania.

Cash arrived back in Hobart in 1854, a free man

once more. He and Mary had a son, and he left the

police force to become the

overseer of the government

gardens and eventually

a farmer. Unlike other

bushrangers, Martin

Cash died peacefully in

his own bed.

Of all the bushrangers,

Martin Cash is perhaps closest to being a ‘gentleman’.

It seems that he was wrongly accused of some crimes,

and he didn’t harm the people he robbed. But he did

end up killing one man (the constable) and possibly

wounded another (the rival kissing his first girlfriend).

If he was alive today, he would certainly not be looked

on as a hero. He would be sent to jail.

33

5WILD COLONIAL BOY: JACK DONOHOE

Dono-who?

‘The Wild Colonial Boy’ is a famous Australian song.

It tells the story of a poor but honest lad who fell foul

of the law and became a bushranger. Here is verse 1.

There was a wild colonial boy, Jack Doolan was his name,

Of poor but honest parents, he was born in Castlemaine.

He was his father’s only son, his mother’s pride and joy,

And dearly did his parents love this Wild Colonial Boy.

34

This wild colonial boy is called ‘Jack Doolan’.

In other versions of the same and other songs he is

called Jack Dugan, Jack Doogan, Jack Donohue, Jack

Donahue, Jack Donahoo, Jack Donohoo and Jack

Donahoe. At least they all got the ‘Jack’ part right!

In fact his real name was Jack Donohoe. He was

born in Dublin, Ireland, and arrived in Sydney in 1825

as an 18-year-old convict. Like many convicts, he was

soon in trouble, and was put on a chain gang building

roads around Sydney.

After a while he was promoted – to looking after a

pig farm near Quakers Hill. Like many other convicts,

he ran away. Perhaps he and the pigs didn’t get along.

Whatever the reason, Jack suddenly found himself as

a bushranger.

Runaway and robber

Jack’s first forays into crime were fairly mild. He joined

up with two other escapees holding up slow-moving

bullock wagons on the Windsor Road. Three months

later his small gang was arrested, and all three were

35

soon standing in the dock in a Sydney law court.

The judge took a dim view of their bushranging

ways. After hearing the evidence, the judge sentenced

all three to hang.

As the three condemned prisoners were being led

from the court-house back to the police cells,

Jack Donohoe took a chance. He broke

away from the troopers and fled. The

troopers gave chase,

but Jack was a

fast runner

and was

soon well

away.

The

other

two were not

so lucky. Both were hanged.

Jack Donohoe travelled west, and carried on his

career as a bushranger in earnest. Sydney had become

dangerous for him, so he crossed the Blue Mountains

and joined other outlaws in terrorising landowners

36

around Bathurst. After a while his gang moved east

again, robbing travellers and isolated farmhouses

between Windsor and Campbelltown.

Once he approached a farmhouse intent on robbery,

but then he discovered that it belonged to the famous

explorer Charles Sturt. Sturt was a hero to Jack, and so

he ordered his gang to find another farmhouse.

Jack wasn’t so kind to the Reverend Samuel

Marsden, ‘the flogging parson’, who was famous for the

severe punishments he dealt out to convicts. He took

£4 from the reverend gentleman.

Star status

Jack Donohoe became the people’s idol. The

newspapers printed stories about his daring acts.

They reported that he was seen in the streets of Sydney

drinking ginger ale, that he only robbed people who

were cruel to their servants or workers, that he shook

hands with people he robbed, and that his gang was

clean and well dressed.

Jack was a celebrity before the word had been

‘NO SINGING, GOT THAT?’Ballads (songs) were written about the exploits

of ‘Bold Jack’, although most of the exploits were invented. The Governor, Sir Ralph Darling, became angry that this young Irish upstart was becoming so popular. He decreed that singing songs about

Donohoe was against the law.

One of the offending songs included the lines

‘I’d rather roam these hills and dalesLike a wolf or kangaroo,

Than work one hour for the Government,’Cried bold Jack Donohue.

You can see why the government didn’t like it.

invented. If they’d had pop stars in those days, he

would have been one.

38

Jack the stripper

This time, it seems the stories may be close to the

truth. Bold Jack was careful not to rob from the poor,

although he would take as much as possible

from rich people. Sometimes he even

took their clothes, leaving them

naked! One report described

him wearing

a black hat,

a blue coat

lined with

silk and

a pair of

plaited

boots.

Maybe he’d

stolen them.

The more popular Bold Jack became, the more

determined Governor Darling was to capture him.

He lifted the reward for Jack’s capture to £200, a fortune

in those days. Soon after, in September 1830, soldiers

39

spied Jack in the bush near Campbelltown. They

sneaked up to him and opened fire.

Donohoe and his two companions fired back.

Then a trooper’s bullet struck Bold Jack in the head

and he dropped to the ground, dead. His two

companions managed to escape, but one was

ambushed and killed a month later, and the other was

captured soon after.

Jack Donohoe’s body was sent to Sydney and strung

up on a public gallows to persuade other young men

not to take up bushranging. This gruesome display did

not work. Many bushrangers took to the hills over the

next 50 years, and most were much wilder than the

very mild Wild Colonial Boy, Bold Jack Donohoe.

Days after Jack’s death, one shop in Sydney started

selling special smoking pipes. Carved into them was

a figure of Jack Donohue with a tiny bullet hole in

the head.

THE DEATH OF DONOHOE

Jack Donohoe’s death is described in ‘ The Wild Colonial Boy ’:

As he closed his mournful eyes, He bade the world adieu [goodbye],

‘ Convicts all, pray for the soul of bold Jack Donohue! ’

What really happened was not quite as romantic as this. Apparently, just before Jack died he let fly with

a string of swear words directed at the troopers. His last words mostly contained four letters, but

they didn’t include ‘pray ’, ‘soul ’ or ‘bold ’!

41

6CALL ME CAPTAIN: MELVILLE, THUNDERBOLT

AND MOONLITE (AND MAD DAN)

Some bushrangers took on heroic names to make

them seem more important than they really were.

Others had different aims – like ‘Mad Dog’ Morgan,

who probably wanted to frighten people rather than

impress them.

42

‘Captain Melville’ goes for gold

The discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851 attracted

thousands of new settlers, all keen to make their

fortune on the goldfields. It also brought criminals

keen to steal fortunes from lucky diggers. One of

them was Frank McCallum, an ex-convict from Van

Diemen’s Land. He decided to change his name to

‘Captain Melville’ – much more dashing and heroic

than ‘Frank’.

The bushranging career of Captain Melville started

in 1852, but it didn’t last long. In fact it lasted just one

week. With his offsider, William Roberts, McCallum

went on a crime spree. For one very busy week they

stole gold, money and horses from travellers and sheep

stations between Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.

There was one good story about the ‘Captain’.

McCallum held up two gold miners on their way

to Geelong. They had made a lucky strike, and

were heading to town to celebrate. When they told

McCallum this, he returned part of the loot so they

could at least afford some celebration.

43

At the end of their first (and only) week of

bushranging, McCallum – oops, I mean the dashing

and heroic Captain Melville – and Roberts ended up in

Geelong. Celebrating their sudden good fortune, they

went to an inn and got drunk. The dashing Captain

boasted about his exploits, and one of the inn workers,

eager to get the £100

reward, sneaked

away and told

the police.

After a

chase and

a brief

struggle,

McCallum

was captured.

McCallum was found guilty of highway robbery and

sentenced to 12 years jail. He only served four. During

an unsuccessful escape attempt he killed a prison guard

with a hammer. Later he was found dead in his cell,

strangled with a scarf.

The murderer was never found.

EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF

Bushranging was common during the gold rushes. One traveller on the road to the diggings wrote:

Everyone had to go armed, as there was so much sticking up and horse stealing. Many a poor fellow had been put out of the way [killed] during those times and never heard of any more. It was every

man for himself . . . Bushrangers stick up returning diggers, tie them to trees, rob them of their gold,

whether concealed in belts or boots . . .

44

Fred swims to freedom

After Frank, there was Fred. Like ‘Frank’, ‘Fred’ is just

an ordinary name. But ‘Captain Thunderbolt’, now

there’s a fine, heroic name! Here’s the story of Fred

Ward, also known as Captain Thunderbolt.

Fred Ward started his life of crime as a simple

horse-thief. In 1855 he was caught stealing horses from

the owner of the station he worked at in the Hunter

Valley of New South Wales. He was sent to Cockatoo

Island, a prison in the middle of Sydney Harbour.

It was an unpromising start to his career.

After five years he was released, but soon was sent

back to the island prison, convicted of another horse

theft. Fred was obviously a slow learner.

Even though it was not all that far from shore, most

prisoners on Cockatoo Island didn’t dare try to swim to

freedom. Can you guess why? Yes – sharks!

Having a large iron ball chained to their

ankles was an extra reason not to plunge

into the water.

Ward’s partner, Mary Anne Baker,

travelled to Sydney. There’s a story

that she swam to the island at

night and gave Ward a file so he

could saw through

his chains.

Several

nights

later, she

stood on

46

the shore at Balmain waving a lantern to guide Ward as

he swam to freedom. Did these events really happen?

We don’t know for sure, but they make a great story.

Once free, Ward took on a new and memorable

name: Captain Thunderbolt. Over the next seven

years he roamed north-western New South Wales,

especially the New England area around Armidale.

He held up inns, farmhouses, coaches and travellers,

always managing to evade the police who doggedly

followed him.

FAST GETAWAY

Captain Thunderbolt was a superb horseman who rode

stolen racehorses. That probably explains why he was

able to escape from the police so easily. The police were

riding pretty average horses. It would be like a modern

criminal in a Ferrari being chased by police in a small

hatchback.

As Thunderbolt’s fame and crime list grew, the

reward for his capture went up and up, from £25 to

£100 to £200 to £400.

47

SAVED BY MARY

Despite this, Thunderbolt had a longer career (about

eight years) than most bushrangers, thanks to Mary

Anne Baker. She was the daughter of a convict man and

an Aboriginal woman. She could read and write, hunt

and track. When they ran out of food, Mary Anne could

usually find some bush tucker, and her tracking and

bushcraft skills saved them from disaster many times.

She was finally caught with their two children, one

only a baby, at their mountain hideout, and was sent

to jail. Thunderbolt got away. He later took up with

another part-Aboriginal woman, Louisa or Yellilong.

By now he was ill with tuberculosis and his life of

adventure would soon be over.

CAPTAIN THUNDERBOLT HIDES

BEHIND A ROCK

In fact, Thunderbolt’s career came to a sudden end in

1870. Hiding behind Split Rock, a large boulder beside

the Walcha–Uralla road, Ward saw some travelling

48

salesmen coming towards him. He jumped in front of

them, shouting, ‘Bail up!’

After robbing them, Thunderbolt forced the men

to go with him to a nearby inn. One of the salesmen,

Giovanni Cappisotti, managed to get away and rode to

nearby Uralla to raise the alarm.

‘GIVE UP!’

Two troopers raced to the inn, and arrived just in time

to see Thunderbolt riding away. One trooper, Alexander

Walker, gave chase. There was a wild pursuit through

the bush, until the bushranger came to Kentucky Creek.

49

He leapt from his horse and tried to lead it across to the

opposite bank. Walker shot the horse, and then called

on Thunderbolt to give himself up.

Thunderbolt replied with a shot from his pistol,

but missed. Walker plunged into the creek to try to

capture the bushranger with his bare hands. There was

a struggle, which ended suddenly when Walker shot

Thunderbolt in the chest.

Thunderbolt’s body was taken to Uralla and

buried next day. For his trouble, Constable Walker was

promoted and got the £400 reward.

50

LEGEND LIVES ON

Even though Frederick Ward had robbed the citizens

of New England for seven years, they claimed him as

a local hero. Split Rock – now renamed Thunderbolt’s

Rock – and his grave in Uralla cemetery are popular

tourist stops. The Thunderbolt legend lives on today.

During his years as a bushranger, Thunderbolt

never shot anyone. Some say that he aimed to miss, not

wanting to hurt another living soul.

There was a poem about Thunderbolt that went:

I’m Frederick Ward,

I’m native to this isle,

I rob the rich to feed the poor

And make the children smile.

It isn’t the greatest poem ever written, but it did

help Thunderbolt’s image as a ‘good’ bushranger.

The sun goes down on Captain Moonlite

Andrew Scott was a small-time criminal and trickster

who arrived in Victoria in 1868. He became a preacher

at the Anglican church of Egerton, near Ballarat. Of

course he was not a real preacher. He pretended to be

one to get people’s trust before he robbed them.

A couple of months after moving to Egerton, Scott

carried out his first major crime. He covered his face

with a mask and, armed with a pistol, entered the local

bank and confronted the bank manager, Ludwig Brunn.

Ludwig Brunn happened to know Scott well.

For his plan to work, Scott needed

a very good disguise

and the skill of an

Academy

Award actor.

He didn’t

have either.

52

Brunn instantly recognised Scott and thought he was

playing a practical joke.

Brunn soon changed his mind as Scott forced him

to hand over £1000 worth of cash and gold from the

safe. Before he left, Scott wrote a note saying Brunn

had tried to protect the money, so Brunn wouldn’t get

into too much trouble. He signed the note ‘Captain

Moonlite’, copying an American criminal who used

that name. Perhaps this explains the poor spelling.

After Moonlite left, Brunn went to the police and

told his story. But the police didn’t believe that the

local preacher could possibly rob a bank. They charged

Brunn with the robbery. These charges were soon

dropped for lack of evidence, but Brunn lost his job.

Brunn followed Scott to Sydney, and found that

the criminal had already been arrested for fraud.

(A police boat caught him as he set sail for Fiji in a

boat he hadn’t paid for.) After serving his sentence in

New South Wales, Scott was returned to Victoria and

convicted of the Egerton robbery. He was jailed for

seven more years.

During his trial, Scott became a minor celebrity.

53

By the time of his release, though, he had been

forgotten by the public. A new bushranging hero called

Ned Kelly had grabbed the limelight. Captain Moonlite

had faded in the public eye.

HEY, LOOK AT ME!

Moonlite wanted to be

a celebrity again.

He tried to get some

attention by giving public

lectures on the terrible life

he had led in jail, but

people stayed away.

There was only

one thing for it.

He’d become a

dashing bushranging

Captain.

Gathering five young

friends, Moonlite went north to New South Wales in

November 1879.

54

The gang held up the store at Clarendon,

near Wagga Wagga. Soon after that, they came to

Wantabadgery station. They rushed into the homestead

and took about 30 people hostage, including the station

workers and the local schoolteacher.

After a two-day siege the bushrangers escaped, but

were trapped by police at a nearby farmhouse. This was

an exciting event. Three hundred locals gathered to

watch. In the battle that followed, a policeman was shot

dead, along with two of the young bushrangers. Scott

and another two were captured – and the fifth man,

Rogan, was found next day, hiding under a bed.

The four bushrangers were taken to Sydney to be

tried for murder. All were found guilty, and Scott and

Rogan were hanged.

Strangely, even though he was a murderer and

probably half-mad, Moonlite was one of many

criminals to be called ‘the Gentleman Bushranger’.

Would he be remembered today if he’d kept the name

Andrew Scott? What do you think?

55

Nobody’s hero: Mad Dog Morgan

The three Captains tried to make themselves popular

by taking on a romantic name. But nobody pretended

that Daniel Morgan was anything but mean and

vicious. He didn’t bother with all that ‘Captain Nice’

stuff. He actually liked to be known as Mad Dog

Morgan, Mad Dan Morgan, or just plain Mad Morgan.

Any way you said it, Dan was Mad.

There was a very good reason for these nicknames.

Morgan never wanted to be a gentleman, or to be on

the side of the poor. In fact, he didn’t seem to mind

killing people.

Dan Morgan was not even his real name. He was

born John Fuller, and was known at one stage as

‘Native Bill’. At his first court appearance he was tried

(and convicted) for theft under the name John Smith.

He took on the name of a famous pirate, Daniel

Morgan, in the 1860s, terrorising the citizens of

southern New South Wales. Morgan usually worked

alone, and often killed his victims. Of all the

bushrangers, he was the least nice to know.

ANOTHER HEADLESS BUSHRANGER

Dan Morgan was finally killed in 1865 after a siege near

Wangaratta in Victoria. His body was photographed

and his beard ripped off his face as a souvenir.

A policeman asked for the skin from the face so he

could ‘peg it out and dry it like a possum skin’. Then

Dan’s head was cut off and sent to Melbourne for

scientific research. It was a nasty end for a nasty man.

57

7LIKE A DOG SHOT DOWN: BEN HALL

Unlike the three Captains and bad

Mad Dan, Ben Hall didn’t feel the

need to name himself after a pirate

or to take on a fancy title. He kept the

same name from the day he was born

until the day he died 28 years later.

In other ways, though, Ben Hall’s

story is familiar. People thought he

was a champion of the poor, even though he stole

from struggling farmers just as often as he stole from

rich squatters. His gang even robbed small children.

58

Members of his gang also murdered three people,

including two policemen.

Fine and frank

Ben Hall started life as an honest man, only falling into

bushranging after a stroke of bad luck. Both of Ben’s

parents were convicts, but early on he showed no signs

of following in their criminal footsteps. In his teens he

worked as a stockman near Forbes, New South Wales,

and when he was 19 he married a young girl called

Bridget Walsh.

By the time he was 23 years old he had started his

own cattle station on the banks of the Lachlan River.

He was handsome and popular. A local described

him as ‘a rather tall, robust-looking man, with a fine,

frank-looking face’. He looked set for a rosy future.

Soon, though, things went very wrong. Some of the

local men he mixed with were involved in bushranging.

One of the criminals Ben was seen with was Johnny

Gilbert, a member of Frank Gardiner’s gang. Gardiner

was a well-known bushranger famous for leading the

robbery of the gold coach at Eugowra Rocks.

Ben soon found himself accused of helping in a

robbery. He spent a month in prison, but the police

could not prove he was guilty and he was set free.

But things went from bad to worse. About the

same time, his wife left him for a neighbouring farmer.

Not only that, he found his farm in ruins, his house

burnt down and his cattle and sheep stolen.

Ben was devastated. He decided he had nothing to

lose. The police seemed to think he was a bushranger,

so he thought he might as well become one.

In 1862 Ben Hall joined Gilbert and the other

members of Gardiner’s gang, holding up travellers and

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farmhouses between Forbes and Young. The next year

Gardiner left the district, and Ben Hall took over as

leader of the gang.

Robinson’s rock ’n’ roll

The little town of Canowindra fell victim to Ben

Hall’s gang not once, but twice. The first time was in

September 1863, when they rode into town at dusk.

They hitched their horses outside Robinson’s Hotel in

the main street, and strode inside. After overpowering

the barkeeper, the gang set about rounding up the

townspeople. Before long they held 40 terrified

prisoners in the hotel.

The people need not have worried. Hall made

Robinson feed the hostages, and soon a party was in

full swing. The bushrangers and their prisoners danced

the night away, with Mrs Robinson providing the

music on the piano.

Early one morning a month later, the gang rode

into town again. They returned to Robinson’s Hotel,

and once again rounded up the townspeople. Another

61

party followed, this one lasting three days. The Hall

gang captured the local trooper, and made him march

up and down the hotel verandah, on mock guard duty.

The local people thought this was very funny.

Last laugh

But just two weeks later, the gang was not laughing

any more. It all began when they held up a homestead

owned by a wealthy man called Henry Keightley.

Keightley saw the bushrangers approach, and grabbed

his rifle.

62

Micky Burke, a young horse thief who had been a

member of the gang for just two months, crept towards

the front door of the homestead. Keightley took aim

and fired, and Burke dropped to the ground, wounded

in the stomach. He was in such agony that he shot

himself in the head.

The gang said

they would spare

Keightley’s life in

exchange for £500.

Mrs Keightley rode

into town and woke

the bank manager

to get the money,

returning just before the time was up. After this, the

reward for capturing any of the four members of the

Hall gang was raised to £1000.

Police fail on the trail

Over the next two years the Hall gang terrorised

travellers and station owners in many parts of southern

63

New South Wales. Ben Hall was a good leader. His men

were well-armed and fast, riding stolen racehorses.

Hall himself did not kill anyone (as far as we know)

although members of his gang killed two policemen

and a storekeeper. Police set out many times to capture

the bushrangers, but each time they failed.

By early 1865 the police and the government were

fed up. A law was passed that made the Hall gang

outlaws. Now they could be shot on sight by anyone.

The three remaining members of the gang – Gilbert,

John Dunn and Hall – split up. They didn’t last long.

Gilbert and Dunn fled to the farmhouse of Thomas

Kelly, Dunn’s grandfather, near the little town of

Binalong. A troop of police rushed the house, guns

blazing. Gilbert and Dunn escaped through a rear

window, but a single rifle shot brought Gilbert down

as he tried to wade though a creek. Dunn managed

to escape, but seven months later was caught and

convicted of murder. He was hanged at Darlinghurst

Gaol, Sydney, in March 1866.

His leader, though, did not live that long. On 4 May

1865, nine days before Gilbert’s death, Hall set up camp

64

at Goobang Creek, a billabong not far from Forbes.

An Aboriginal tracker called Billy Dargin led a troop

of six policeman to Hall’s camp. They hid in nearby

bushes all night, waiting for their chance.

It came early next morning as Hall emerged from

the scrub to tend his horse. Three policemen rushed

towards him, guns blazing. Hall fell dead, but the police

kept firing at him in a frenzy. At least fifteen bullets

ripped into his lifeless body.

The police draped Hall’s body over a horse and

took it to Forbes, where it was paraded along the main

street as a warning to others.

Ben Hall’s grave is in

the Forbes cemetery.

65

8LAST BUT NOT

LEAST: NED KELLY

And so we come to the last of the

bushrangers, and the most famous

of them all.

People today see Ned Kelly as a

hero, a man who stood up to the

rich, powerful politicians and

landowners who oppressed the poor.

The startling way he was captured –

clad in armour, wearing a metal helmet,

guns blazing as he emerged from the

Glenrowan Inn – only adds to his fame.

66

Red, then Ned

Ned Kelly was born near Melbourne in 1854, into a

criminal family. His father was an ex-convict known

as Red Kelly because of his enormous bushy red beard.

Ned’s mother was born Ellen Quinn. Her father John

Quinn was a cattle thief, and a friend of the bushranger

Harry Power.

Ellen herself was known to the police. When Ned

was 11, she was fined £2 (worth about $500 now) for

abusing and threatening her neighbour. She later ended

up in prison.

It’s not surprising that young Ned also ended up

on the wrong side of the law. He was about 14 when he

was first arrested, suspected of assaulting and robbing

a Chinese gold miner called Ah Fook. Ned was released

after a week as the police could not prove their case.

Helping Harry

Ned soon took up with his grandfather’s bushranger

friend, Harry Power. Ned was 15, and Harry nearly 50.

They worked as a team, holding up travellers and mail

coaches. At first Ned’s job was quite simple. He had to

mind Harry’s horse while Harry did the bailing-up.

Once again the police moved in, arresting Ned on

suspicion of robbery with Power. Once again he was

released due to lack of evidence.

Soon Ned moved on to more impressive crimes.

He was sent to jail for three years for horse-stealing.

On his release in 1874 he stayed out of trouble for three

years, doing gold-prospecting and working in a timber

mill. He also stole some horses, but the police didn’t

find out about that.

68

Flattening Fitzpatrick

Then, in 1878, Ned was suddenly in a lot of trouble.

A policeman called Fitzpatrick came to the Kellys’ little

hut to arrest Ned’s younger brother Dan on a charge

of horse-stealing. At least that is what he later claimed.

His real reason was probably that he wanted to ‘get to

know’ Ned’s sixteen-year-old sister Kate.

What really happened that night is uncertain. Later

Fitzpatrick said that Ned shot him in the wrist and

Ned’s mother Ellen hit him with a shovel. Ned Kelly’s

version is very different. He said he wasn’t even there at

the time. Fitzpatrick had come to the house drunk and

tried to grab Kate. Dan had come to her aid, and in the

scuffle Fitzpatrick cut his wrist on the door latch.

Of course the police believed Fitzpatrick’s story, and

accused Ned and Dan of trying to murder Fitzpatrick.

The two Kelly boys fled to the nearby Wombat Ranges

and hid. The police came again to the family hut and

arrested Ellen Kelly. She was sentenced to three years

jail for assisting in the attempted murder of Fitzpatrick.

Ned was enraged.

Parrot alert

Ned and Dan were joined at their bush camp (Harry

Power’s old hideout in the hills) by two friends.

Steve Hart was a part-time jockey and a friend of

Dan. Joe Byrne was a tall, good-looking dairy farmer.

Both Byrne and Hart had spent time in jail for theft.

Six months after Fitzpatrick’s visit to the Kelly

house, four policemen rode into the Wombat Ranges

in search of the Kelly Gang. One of them made the

mistake of trying to shoot a parrot. The sound of the

gunfire alerted the Kellys that the police were nearby.

The police then

showed

exactly

where

they were

by lighting

a large fire.

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The four bushrangers crept up on the unsuspecting

police and bailed them up. The gunfight that followed

left three policemen dead, but the fourth, Thomas

McIntyre, fled on horseback. The Kellys were now

wanted for murder – and this time there was no lack

of proof.

Big bank bust

The gang fled north, hoping to cross into New South

Wales. But their way was blocked by the flooded

Murray River, so they returned to the Victorian bush.

A month later they held up a station owner and his

family, and then the bank at Euroa, robbing it of £2000

(worth about half a million dollars today). They took

the bank staff back to the farm, had a picnic tea with

their hostages and put on a display of riding skill.

Two months later, in February 1879, the gang struck

again. This time they had crossed the border to the

New South Wales town of Jerilderie. The gang locked

the police in their own jail, stuck up the hotel next to

the bank, and again escaped with £2000. At both places,

71

the gang cut down telegraph wires so no one could get

a message out, and told their hostages not to raise the

alarm for at least three hours.

Ned was cunning. He knew that he had to keep the

ordinary people onside, or they would inform on him

and he would be quickly tracked down. No one was

injured at either Euroa or Jerilderie, and Ned gave some

of the money to his supporters and to poor people.

Ned began to get a name as a friend of the poor.

Sherritt Shot

With no help from ordinary people, the police had

to find another way of capturing the increasingly

troublesome gang. The Victorian and New South

Wales governments jointly offered a reward as well,

for information that would help them catch the gang.

The reward was set at £8000 – the same as $2 million

today. It was a huge temptation – surely someone

would cave in and give the gang away? But, just in case

they didn’t, the police also brought in six Aboriginal

trackers from Queensland.

72

At about this time, the gang began to suspect

that an ex-friend of Ned’s, Aaron Sherritt, was

giving information to the police. Some people today

claim that in fact Sherritt was giving the police false

information to get them off the Kelly Gang’s scent, but

we will never know for sure. What we do know is that

Dan Kelly and Joe Byrne visited Sherritt at his home on

the evening of Saturday 26 June 1880. Sherritt opened

the front door in answer to their knock, and Byrne shot

him dead before he could utter a word.

73

One part of the story, if true, supports the idea that

Sherritt was informing on

the gang. According

to this story, there

were four policemen

inside the house,

but they were

hiding under a

bed. They stayed

there until Kelly

and Byrne had

gone.

Plans derailed

The two bushrangers then rode 40 kilometres to the

little town of Glenrowan. Ned and Steve Hart had

already taken over the Glenrowan Inn, a bark and

weatherboard hut, and were holding 60 townspeople

prisoner. Among them were some children who’d been

on their way to Sunday school.

74

The gang had already worked out a plan. They

forced some railway workers to rip up a section of

the track near Glenrowan station. They hoped that a

trainload of police would be sent to the town. The plan

was to capture some policemen to use as hostages when

the train derailed. A number of armed supporters

were supposed to be waiting in the hills, ready to join

the battle.

A typically clever schoolteacher

But Ned’s grand plan quickly went pear-shaped.

One of the people being held in the hotel was the

local schoolteacher, Thomas Curnow. Bushranger Ned

was smart, but schoolteacher Curnow was smarter.

Right from the start he pretended to be helpful to Ned

and his gang. He told them where the local police were.

He warned them about locals who might be armed, or

try to stop them. He gained Ned’s trust.

Just after midnight, he asked if he could take his

sister and wife home, and Ned agreed. As soon as he

had delivered the women home, Curnow strode down

NED WRITES A LETTERAt Jerilderie, Ned left a 57-page written account of his bushranging life. In it he justified killing the three policemen in the Wombat Ranges as self-defence, called for justice for poor farmers, and outlined his complaints against the police. This letter is now known as the Jerilderie Letter.

He wanted it published in a newspaper, but it never was.

Ned Kelly saw himself as a champion of the oppressed. His popularity grew with poor farmers

who themselves had been harassed by the police or were unable to make a living because rich people owned all the good farming land. Some of them

helped him with food or warnings of police activity.

75

the railway line waving a lantern and scarf to warn

the approaching train driver that the track had been

ripped up.

Unlike many bushrangers, Thomas Curnow had

kept his head in a crisis.

76

Into a hail of gunfire

Luckily the train driver saw Curnow and stopped the

train short of the damaged section of track. Seventeen

police quickly got off and quietly surrounded the inn.

The siege at Glenrowan had started.

But inside the bark-hut hotel, the Kelly Gang

had another surprise for the police. As the troopers

advanced in the darkness, the gang clambered into suits

of armour made from scrap metal donated by local

farmers. Then they walked out into a hail of gunfire.

They stood in a line on the verandah like extras in

a robot movie, firing wildly at police while bullets

bounced off their thick metal jackets.

The police quickly realised that the ‘armour’ only

covered the gang’s bodies, and shot at both Ned and

Joe Byrne’s arms and legs. Byrne, Hart and Dan Kelly

went back into the inn, where some terrified hostages

remained lying on the floor.

77

An eerie sight

By the next morning,

police numbers

had doubled to

30. Ned returned

and managed to

sneak back into the

inn. Soon after a

bullet struck Byrne,

and he died in agony.

That night

the remaining hostages

managed to slip away.

Then, at daybreak, the

police saw an amazing

sight. A ghostly, clanking figure advanced through

the mist – Ned, in armour and cloak, walking into a

barrage of police gunfire. Bullets ricocheted off the

armour. The police started firing at the unprotected

bits of Ned’s body. Hit twice in the legs, Ned stumbled

and fell backwards. Like a beetle flipped onto its back

78

he struggled to roll over so he could get away, but the

police quickly overpowered him.

When his armour was removed, the police

discovered that Ned was wearing a green sash given

to him when he was a teenager for saving the life of a

drowning boy.

Later that day, firing from the inn ceased. The police

set fire to the building, and after the flames had died

away the bodies of Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart

were found inside. Joe Byrne’s body was strapped to a

door so photographers could take pictures of it.

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Hanged by the neck . . .

Ned had suffered nearly 30 wounds to his hands, arms,

legs and feet. He was taken to Melbourne, where he

recovered from his injuries. But he did not survive

for much longer. After a short trial, with no witnesses

for Ned’s side, the jury found him guilty of murder.

Judge Redmond Barry sentenced him to death. Ned Kelly

was hanged on 11 November 1880 in Melbourne.

At his trial, Ned said,

I fear death as little as to drink a cup of tea . . . Let the hand

of the law strike me down if it will; but I ask that my story

be heard and considered.

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Like many

other bushrangers,

Ned lost his

head. After his

execution, his

head was cut off

and studied by

scientists who

were trying to find

if they could tell a

person’s character

by studying

the bumps on

their skull.

We don’t know if the phrenologists (as these odd

scientists were called) ever found Ned’s evil bumps, but

we do know that for many people Ned Kelly is a hero, a

champion of poor people. Others see him as a criminal

and a murderer. Either way, Ned Kelly is still Australia’s

best-known bushranger.

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9BUT WAIT,

THERE’S MORE!Ned Kelly was the last famous bushranger, but he

wasn’t the last one of all. Two unusual bushrangers

operated in New South Wales early last century.

Bushrangers or freedom fighters?

Some Aboriginal people were once labelled

‘bushrangers’ because they attacked white settlers.

But now we can see that many of them were trying to

defend their land and their families. They were more

like freedom fighters than bushrangers.

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Jimmy Governor was different. He claimed to

be a bushranger, and most people would agree that

he was not a freedom fighter. In 1900, Jimmy killed

two women and three children. He said the women

had insulted his wife. (And it seems that one of them

shouted, ‘You black rubbish! You should be shot

for marrying a white woman!’) Then, with Jacky

Underwood and his brother Joe, Jimmy went on a

rampage through central-western New South Wales

that left another five people dead, and 30 homes

robbed and ransacked.

More than 200 police and 2000 civilians scoured

the countryside in search of Jimmy, Joe and Jacky.

With that kind of man-hunt going on, they didn’t

stand a chance. Their bushranging career ended four

months later. Joe was shot dead, and Jimmy and

Jacky hanged in early 1901, a couple of weeks after

Federation. And guess what? Joe’s head was taken away,

for ‘scientific study’.

WHAT ABOUT THE WOMEN?

Yes, some bushrangers were women. Take Jessie Hickman. She was one of the very last bushrangers, hiding out in central New South Wales in the 1920s. An ex-circus performer, she used her extraordinary horse-riding skills to avoid capture for several years

while she made a living cattle-duffing (stealing). She was finally captured at her hideout in the Nullo

Mountains in 1928.

But there was good news for Jessie. Some of her friends managed to ‘steal’ the stolen cows from her herd before the trial. There was no evidence,

so she was found not guilty.

QUIZ

1 Black Caesar needed lots of food because:(a) he had a wife and seventeen kids to feed N

(b) he was greedy N (c) he enjoyed rancid butter and weevils N (d) he was really, really, REALLY big N

2 Michael Howe’s diary was bound with:(a) apple skin N (b) kangaroo leather N (c) leather made

from a bushranger’s head N (d) stolen sheep N

3 Matthew Brady’s fans were mainly:(a) Governors N (b) law-abiding citizens N

(c) women N (d) farmers N

4 Martin Cash found Eaglehawk Neck guarded by:(a) fierce, chained, half-starved sharks N (b) fierce,

chained, half-starved dogs N (c) fierce, chained, half-starved convicts N (d) fierce, chained,

half-starved constables N

5 Of these, Donohoe’s favourite person was:(a) Charles Sturt N (b) Governor Darling N

(c) Samuel Marsden N (d) Mad Dog Morgan N

6 Why do we remember Captain Melville?(a) He was dashing and heroic N (b) He had the shortest

career in the history of bushranging N (c) He was a champion boaster N (d) He started the gold rushes N

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7 Thunderbolt was:(a) a champion racehorse N (b) a bushranger N

(c) a big rock N (d) a cyclone N

8 Captain Moonlite would probably succeed in:(a) a spelling bee N (b) an intelligence test N (c) practical joking N (d) none of the above N

9 Mad Dog Morgan chose his name because:(a) he liked poodles N (b) ‘Captain Mad Dog’ had already been taken N (c) it was the name of his

favourite pirate N (d) he wanted to be remembered as a polite, kind person N

10 Ben Hall’s parents were:(a) both troopers N (b) both convicts N (c) both

captains N (d) Johnny Gilbert and Frank Gardiner N

11 In the Wombat Ranges in 1878, Ned Kelly knew the police were nearby when:

(a) he heard them shoot at a parrot N (b) he heard them getting into their armour N (c) he heard them shoot a

wombat N (d) he heard the train coming N

12 The scientific study of head bumps is called:(a) bumpology N (b) skullduggery N (c) headology N (d) phrenology N

ANSWERS: 1 d 2 b 3 c 4 b 5 a 6 b

7 b 8 d 9 c 10 b 11 a 12 d

85

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J O H N B A R W I C K says ‘To write this book, perhaps I should have gone back in time 100 years ago, robbed a few banks, and holed up in the hills to evade the police. Then I would have really understood what a bushranger’s life was like. But that didn’t happen. In real life I’m a school principal. I don’t rob banks or hurt people.

‘Although . . . Some children I’ve taught may claim to have been cruelly tortured (by bad jokes), and may like the idea that I will lose my head. And some would say I could easily be more than 100 years old.

‘So perhaps . . . it’s true!’

S T E P H E N A X E L S E N says that if he’d been a bushranger, he would have been the gentleman kind, tipping his hat and giving a bit of loot back to polite victims. ‘My boots would be gleaming, I’d never ever spit, and my horse would be called Philip. I wouldn’t have been a top bushranger,

though, because I’m too lazy to rob banks. But at least I could have drawn my

own “Wanted“ poster!’

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WHERE TO FIND OUT MOREBooksAllan Baillie, My story: riding with

Thunderbolt, the diary of Ben Cross, Scholastic, Gosford, 2004

Jill Bruce, Bushrangers, heroes, victims or villains, Simon & Schuster, Sydney, 2003

Pamela Rushby, Bushrangers, Harcourt Education, Melbourne, 2003

Randolph Stow, Midnite: the story of a wild, colonial boy, Penguin, Melbourne, 1970

For teachersRobert Coupe, Australian

Bushrangers, New Holland, Sydney, 1998

Geoff Hocking, Bail Up! A Pictorial History of Australia’s Most Notorious Bushrangers, Five Mile Press, Melbourne, 2002

Websites

• http://scs.une.edu.au/Bushrangers/home.htm

The Bushranger Site created by the University of New England, has a wealth of information, including profiles of bushrangers, poems and songs, and quotes by bushrangers.

• www.nedkellysworld.com.au

This site is mainly about Ned Kelly but also has a section on other Australian bushrangers.

THANKSThanks to the people who invented books and the Internet, becausefinding things out would be an awful lot harder without them.

And thanks to the bushrangers, for being such an interesting bunch and giving me lots to write about. I’d like to say that each one was a-head of his time.

John Barwick

The publishers would like to thank National Library of Australia, pages i, viii, 40, 49; State Library of Queensland, page 57; La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria, pages 65, 78, 79, 80; State Library of New South Wales, page 72. Thanks also to istockphoto.com and Stefan Klein for the blank poster used throughout the text.

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INDEXAborigines 4, 5, 11,

12, 21, 47, 64, 71, 81, 82

Arthur, Governor George 19–21

Baker, Mary Anne 45, 46, 47

Black Caesar 1–6beheadings 10, 14,

79–80, 82Brady, Matthew

15–23Byrne, Joe 69-78

Captain Melville 42–3Captain Moonlite

51–4Captain Thunderbolt

44–50Cash, Martin 24–32cattle-duffing 25–6,

66, 83Cockatoo Island 45convict rations 2, 3Curnow, Thomas

74–6

Darling, Governor 36, 37, 38

Davey, Thomas 11, 12Donohoe, Jack 33–40

Fitzpatrick, Constable 68, 69

floggings 2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 27, 35

Gilbert, Johnny 58, 60, 63

Glenrowan 65, 73–8gold rushes 42, 44Governor, Jimmy 82Governor, Joe 82

Hall, Ben 57–64Hart, Steve 69–78heads 20, 23Hickman, Jessie 83highwaymen 8Hobart 7, 8, 13, 14,

17, 20, 21, 27, 30, 32Howe, Michael 7–14Hunter, Governor

John 5

Jerilderie 70, 71, 75Jerilderie Letter 75

Kelly, Dan 68–78Kelly, Ned 53, 65–80

McCallum, Frank 42–3

Macquarie Harbour 16–17, 27

Morgan, Daniel (Mad Dog Morgan) 41, 55–6

Norfolk Island 30

outlaws 13, 22, 35, 63

parties 19, 60–1Phillip, Governor

Arthur 2, 3phrenology 79Port Arthur 27, 28, 31Power, Harry 66–7, 69

Quinn, Ellen 66, 68

rum 5, 6, 20, 22rewards 5, 6, 10, 13,

19, 21, 43, 46, 49, 62, 71

Scott, Andrew 51–4sharks 28, 45Sherritt, Aaron 72–3Sorell, William 12, 13Sturt, Charles 36

Underwood, Jackie 81, 82

Van Diemen’s Land 7, 8, 11, 16, 42

Walker, Alexander 48–9

Wantabadgery 54Ward, Fred 44–50Whitehead, John 9, 10‘Wild Colonial Boy’

33–40Wombat Ranges

68–9, 75