bushranger

 

bandits who terrorized the bush country of Australia in the 19th cent. The first bushrangers (c.1806–44) were mainly escaped convicts who fled to the bush and organized gangs. Their crimes were checked effectively by various Bushranging Acts passed after 1830. With the discovery of gold, however, bushrangers of a new type flourished from 1850 to 1880, largely brigand-adventurers who attacked gold convoys. The last of these were the men of the Kelly gang. This band of desperadoes was exterminated in 1880 when three members were trapped and killed at a hotel in Glenrowan, Victoria, and Edward (Ned) Kelly was hanged at Melbourne. Despite the frequent brutality of the gangs, they often held the status of folk heroes among the poor.

Bibliography

See studies by W. F. Wannan (1963) and T. A. Prior (1966).

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Bushrangers, or bush rangers were outlaws in the early years of the European settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. They were roughly analogous to the British "highwayman" or American "Western outlaws", and their crimes often included robbing small-town banks or coach services. The term evolved to refer to those who abandoned social rights and privileges to take up "robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base.^[1]

The term "bushranger"

The use of the word "bushranger" evolved in Australia in the early 19th Century. The first official use of the term was in February 1805, when the Sydney Gazette mentioned that a cart had been stopped by three men "whose appearance sanctioned the suspicion of their being bushrangers". From this time onwards, the term was used to denote criminals who attacked people on the roads or in the bush. John Bigge described bushranging in 1821 as "absconding in the woods and living upon plunder and the robbery of orchards." Charles Darwin likewise recorded in 1835 that a bushranger was "an open villain who subsists by highway robbery, and will sooner be killed than taken alive".^[2] In Tasmania, escaped convicts who became bushrangers were known as "bolters".^[3]

History

More than 2000 bushrangers are believed to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and drawing to a close after Ned Kelly's last stand at Glenrowan.^[4]

Convict bolters, 1788 to 1840s

Bushranger was originally used to describe predatory escaped convicts fleeing from the early Australian penal colonies. Most turned to stealing supplies from remote settlements and travellers and fencing the stolen goods to other free settlers.

John "Black" Caesar is generally regarded as the first bushranger.^[4] He bolted from Sydney Cove several times before being shot dead in 1796.

Bold Jack Donahue is recorded as the last convict bushranger.^[4] He was reported in newspapers around 1827 as being responsible for an outbreak of bushranging on the road between Sydney and Windsor. Throughout the 1830s he was regarded as the most notorious bushranger in the colony.^[5] Leading a band of escaped convicts,Donahoe became central to Australian folklore as the Wild Colonial Boy.^[4]

Bushranging was common on the mainland, but Van Diemen's Land produced the most violent and serious outbreaks of convict bushrangers.^[4] Hundreds of convicts were at large in the bush, farms were abandoned and martial law was proclaimed. Indigenous outlaw Musquito defied colonial authorities and led attacks on settlers.

Golden age, 1850s

The bushrangers' heyday was the Gold Rush years of the 1850s and 1860s as the discovery of gold gave bushrangers access to great wealth that was portable and easily converted to cash. Their task was assisted by the isolated location of the goldfields and a police force decimated by troopers abandoning their duties to join the gold rush.^[4]

George Melville was hanged in front of a large crowd for robbing the McIvor gold escort near Castlemaine in 1853.^[4]

Wild colonial boys, 1860s to 1870s

Bushranging numbers flourished in New South Wales with the rise of the colonial-born sons of poor, often ex-convict squatters who were drawn to a more glamourous life than mining or farming.^[4]

Much of the activity in this era was in the Lachlan Valley, around Forbes, Yass and Cowra.^[4]

Frank Gardiner, John Gilbert and Ben Hall led the most notorious gangs of the period. Other active bushrangers included Dan Morgan, based in the Murray River, and Captain Thunderbolt, killed outside Uralla.^[4]

Last hurrah, 1880s to 1900s

The increasing push of settlement, increased police efficiency, improvements in rail transport and communications technology, such as telegraphy, made it increasingly difficult for bushrangers to evade capture.

Among the last bushrangers was the Kelly Gang led by Ned Kelly, who were captured at Glenrowan in 1880, two years after they were outlawed.

In 1900 the indigenous Governor Brothers terrorised much of northern New South Wales.^[4]

Public perception

In Australia, bushrangers often attracted public sympathy. In Australian history and iconography bushrangers are held in some esteem in some quarters due to the harshness and anti-Catholicism of the colonial authorities whom they embarrassed, and the romanticism of the lawlessness they represented. Some bushrangers, most notably Ned Kelly in his Jerilderie letter, and in his final raid on Glenrowan, explicitly represented themselves as political rebels. Attitudes to Kelly, by far the most well-known bushranger, exemplify the ambiguous views of Australians regarding bushranging.

Entertainment

In the same way that outlaws feature in many films of the American western genre, bushrangers regularly feature in Australian literature, film, music and television.

Bold Jack Donohue was the first bushranger to have inspired bush ballads.^[5]

Robbery Under Arms, by Thomas Alexander Browne (writing as Rolf Boldrewood) was published in serial form in the Sydney Mail from 1882 to 1883.^[6] It is an early description of the life and acts of fictional bushrangers. It has been the basis of several films and a television series.^[7]

Ned Kelly was the subject of the world's first feature length film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, released in 1906.^[8] In the 1970 release Ned Kelly, he was portrayed – to limited popular acclaim – by Mick Jagger. Kelly has been the subject of many more movies, television series, written fiction and music.

Dan "Mad Dog" Morgan was the subject of a feature film, Mad Dog Morgan (1976), starring Dennis Hopper.^[9]

Ben Hall and his gang were the subject of several Australian folk songs, including "Streets of Forbes".

Notable bushrangers

Name	Lived	Area of activity	Fate
Mary Ann Bugg	1834–1867	Hunter Valley-Tamworth-New England	Pneumonia
Joe Byrne, one of the Kelly Gang	1857 - 1880	North East Victoria	Shot by police
Martin Cash	c. 1808–1877	Tasmania	Prison sentence, released after 13 years
John Caesar	1764–1796	Sydney area	Shot
John Donahue, known as Bold Jack Donahue	c. 1806–1830	Sydney area	Shot by police
John Dunn	1846–1866	Western New South Wales	Hanged
John Francis	c. 1825–?	Victoria Gold Fields (1853)	Released after giving Queen's Evidence
John Fuller, known as Dan Mad Dog Morgan	c. 1830–1865	New South Wales	Shot
Frank Gardiner	c. 1829–c. 1904	Western New South Wales	Prison sentence, then moved to California
John Gilbert	1842–1865	Western New South Wales	Shot by police
Ben Hall	1837–1865	Western New South Wales	Shot by police
Steve Hart, one of the Kelly Gang		North East Victoria	Shot by police
Joseph Bolitho Johns, known as Moondyne Joe	c. 1828–1900	Western Australia	Numerous Prison sentences and died a free man
Henry Johnson, known as Harry Power	1819–1891	North East Victoria	Prison sentence, released
Dan Kelly, brother of Ned	c. 1854-1880	North East Victoria	Shot by police
Ned Kelly	c. 1854–1880	North East Victoria	Hanged
James Alpin McPherson, known as The Wild Scotchman	1842-1895	Gin Gin, Queensland	Died a free man
George Melville	1822–1853		Hanged
Musquito	c. 1780–1825	Tasmania	Hanged
Johnny O'Meally	1843–1864	Western New South Wales	Shot by farmer
John Paid, known as Wolloo Jack		from Stanwell Park terrorised Sydney area in the 1820s
Harry Redford known as "Captain Starlight - The gentleman bushranger"[10]	c. 1842 - 1901	Longreach, Queensland	Found not guilty at trial
Sam Poo	?–1865	Coonabarabran, New South Wales	Hanged
Billy Roberts (probably), known as Jack the Rammer		South Eastern New South Wales (1834)
Codrington Revingstone		South-West Victoria (1850)
Andrew George Scott, known as Captain Moonlite	1842-1880	near Gundagai, New South Wales	Hanged
Owen Suffolk	1829 - ?	Victoria	Died in prison?
Frederick Ward, known as Captain Thunderbolt	1833–1870	Hunter Valley-Tamworth-New England (1864–1870)	Shot by police
William Westwood, known as Jackey Jackey	1820–1846		Hanged
Jimmy Governor	1875–1901	New South Wales	Hanged

References

Crime in Australia
Regional crime	Timeline · Melbourne · Northern Territory · Western Australia · Sydney · Newcastle · Brisbane
Australian law	Courts · Criminal law · Law enforcement
Australian people	Bushrangers · Bank Robbers · Convicts · Criminals · Fraudsters · Murderers · Rapists · Prisoners
Australian prisons	ACT · NSW · NT · QLD · SA · TAS · VIC · WA
International	Crime by country

External links

• Bushrangers Trail at PictureAustralia]

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