Did you know that frogs are cannibals, fashion can be fatal and the dinosaurs never died? Or that redheads were once burned at the stake as witches? Find out why rubbish tips are like lasagna, and how maggots help solve crimes!
First published in 2006 Copyright © text John Barwick 2006 Copyright © illustrations Stephen Axelsen 2006 Series design copyright © Ruth Grüner All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Allen & Unwin 83 Alexander Street Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 Email:
[email protected] Web: www.allenandunwin.com National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Barwick, John, 1953– . It’s true! Bushrangers lost their heads. Bibliography. Includes index. For children. ISBN 978 174114 298 3. ISBN 1 74114 298 9. 1. Bushrangers – Australia – Juvenile literature. I. Title. (Series : It’s true! ; 23) 364.15520994 Series, cover and text design by Ruth Grüner Set in 12.5pt Minion by Ruth Grüner Printed by McPherson’s Printing Group 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Teaching notes for the It’s True! series are available on the website: www.itstrue.com.au
CONTENTS WHY BUSHRANGERS?
1 Slave, runaway, stowaway, thief: Black Caesar 1
2 He wrote in blood: Michael Howe 7
3 Gangster or gentleman? Matthew Brady 15
4 Cash converted: Martin Cash 24
5 Wild Colonial Boy: Jack Donohoe 33
6 Call Me Captain: Melville, Thunderbolt and Moonlite (and Mad Dan) 41
7 Like a dog shot down: Ben Hall 57
8 last but not least? Ned Kelly 65
9 But 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 SLAVE, 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, 1
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 butter B 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.
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 3
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.
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 5
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.
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2 HE 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 7
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. 8
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 BEHEADED John 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!)
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?) 10
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 11
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 ‘LieutenantGovernor of the Ranges’ and he offered to give
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.
OUTLAW, OUT OF LUCK An 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.
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 13
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 kangaroohunter 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.
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3 GANGSTER 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. 15
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. 16
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. 17
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 18
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. 19
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!
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, 21
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 22
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. 23
4 CASH 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. 24
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 25
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.
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. 27
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. 28
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.
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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. 30
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 31
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. 32
5 WILD 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.
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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 34
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 35
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 36
invented. If they’d had pop stars in those days, he would have been one.
‘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 dales Like 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.
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 38
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.
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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 ’!
6 CALL 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.
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‘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. 42
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. 43
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 . . .
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 44
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
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. 46
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 47
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. 48
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. 49
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.
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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.
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. 52
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. 53
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?
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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. 55
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.
7 LIKE 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. 57
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 58
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
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 60
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. 61
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 62
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 63
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.
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8 LAST 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. 65
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. 66
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.
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. 68
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.
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, 70
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. 71
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. 72
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. 73
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 74
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.
NED WRITES A LETTER At 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.
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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.
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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 77
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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9 BUT 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. 81
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’.
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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 7b
8d
ANSWERS: 1 d
9c
10 b
2b
3c
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11 a 4b
12 d 5a
6b
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 MORE Books
Geoff Hocking, Bail Up! A Pictorial History of Australia’s Most Notorious Bushrangers, Five Mile Press, Melbourne, 2002
Allan 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
Websites
• http://scs.une.edu.au/
Bushrangers/home.htm
Pamela Rushby, Bushrangers, Harcourt Education, Melbourne, 2003
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.
Randolph Stow, Midnite: the story of a wild, colonial boy, Penguin, Melbourne, 1970
• www.nedkellysworld.com.au
For teachers
Robert Coupe, Australian Bushrangers, New Holland, Sydney, 1998
This site is mainly about Ned Kelly but also has a section on other Australian bushrangers.
THANKS Thanks to the people who invented books and the Internet, because finding 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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INDEX Aborigines 4, 5, 11, 12, 21, 47, 64, 71, 81, 82 Arthur, Governor George 19–21 Baker, Mary Anne 45, 46, 47 Black Caesar 1–6 beheadings 10, 14, 79–80, 82 Brady, Matthew 15–23 Byrne, Joe 69-78 Captain Melville 42–3 Captain Moonlite 51–4 Captain Thunderbolt 44–50 Cash, Martin 24–32 cattle-duffing 25–6, 66, 83 Cockatoo Island 45 convict rations 2, 3 Curnow, Thomas 74–6 Darling, Governor 36, 37, 38 Davey, Thomas 11, 12 Donohoe, Jack 33–40 Fitzpatrick, Constable 68, 69
floggings 2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 27, 35 Gilbert, Johnny 58, 60, 63 Glenrowan 65, 73–8 gold rushes 42, 44 Governor, Jimmy 82 Governor, Joe 82
outlaws 13, 22, 35, 63 parties 19, 60–1 Phillip, Governor Arthur 2, 3 phrenology 79 Port Arthur 27, 28, 31 Power, Harry 66–7, 69 Quinn, Ellen 66, 68
Hall, Ben 57–64 Hart, Steve 69–78 heads 20, 23 Hickman, Jessie 83 highwaymen 8 Hobart 7, 8, 13, 14, 17, 20, 21, 27, 30, 32 Howe, Michael 7–14 Hunter, Governor John 5
rum 5, 6, 20, 22 rewards 5, 6, 10, 13, 19, 21, 43, 46, 49, 62, 71
Jerilderie 70, 71, 75 Jerilderie Letter 75
Underwood, Jackie 81, 82
Kelly, Dan 68–78 Kelly, Ned 53, 65–80
Van Diemen’s Land 7, 8, 11, 16, 42
McCallum, Frank 42–3 Macquarie Harbour 16–17, 27 Morgan, Daniel (Mad Dog Morgan) 41, 55–6
Walker, Alexander 48–9 Wantabadgery 54 Ward, Fred 44–50 Whitehead, John 9, 10 ‘Wild Colonial Boy’ 33–40 Wombat Ranges 68–9, 75
Norfolk Island 30
88
Scott, Andrew 51–4 sharks 28, 45 Sherritt, Aaron 72–3 Sorell, William 12, 13 Sturt, Charles 36
