AUSTRALIAN
BUSHRANGERS
G'day folks,
Welcome to some background on Aussie bushrangers.
Bushranging
– living off the land and being supported by or stealing from free
settlers – was either chosen as a preferred way of life by escaped
convicts or was a result of the lack of supplies in the early settlements.
While
many bushrangers had populist reputations for being 'Robin Hood' figures; some
bushrangers were brutal and others harassed the gold escorts and diggers
returning from the goldfields. The popularity of bushrangers and their ethos of
'fight before surrender' was commemorated in bush songs and folklore.
Escaped convicts
Bushranging
began soon after the British colonisation of Australia. The bush surrounding
the settlement was unexplored, but this did not deter the desperate convicts
from escaping – happy in their aim to make their way to Batavia (now
the city of Jakarta on the island of Java, Indonesia) or China. While some
perished, others joined up with Indigenous people and others took to
bushranging.
In the
early days of Van Dieman's Land (now Tasmania), the settlement was faced with
starvation due to the failure of supply ships to arrive. In 1805, authorities
released several convicts, gave them arms and sent them into the bush to
survive from hunting. Many learnt to survive and joined others. In the early
days, a man could also choose to give himself in, receive the mandatory 50
lashes and be back in the system to serve the rest of his time. Later,
bushrangers usually suffered the death penalty after capture.
The first bushrangers, 1790s–1820s
The first
bushranger was John Caesar (alias Black Caesar), a former West Indian Negro
slave and petty thief. Black Caesar escaped into the bush in 1790 with a musket
where he later joined five or six other escaped convicts. This was the first of
many attempts by Black Caesar, who survived by hunting and fishing in the bush
as well as receiving food and musket shot provided by sympathetic settlers.
Black Caesar's repeated escapes caused Governor John Hunter to offer a reward
of five gallons of rum, which eventually resulted in him being captured and
shot.
Convicts
who bolted to the bush were also often helped by settlers or farmers
sympathetic to their plight. Among the farmers were many ex-convicts who had
served their terms and been granted a ticket-of-leave.
Wrongful
arrests and improper practices by local police also played a part in driving
men to bushranging. It could be said that these men had nothing at all to lose,
even if being outlawed meant living in constant fear and desperation.
Martin Cash – 'The only bushranger to die in his own bed',
1820–1840s
Martin
Cash was convicted in county Cork, in 1820, for jealously firing at a suitor to
his young mistress. Soon after arriving in Botany Bay in 1828, he was working
as a farmhand, innocently branding cattle, when he was told that the cattle
were stolen. Cash immediately left for Van Dieman's Land with his partner
Bessie Clifford. Twelve months later, after two false accusations which were
dismissed in court, he was convicted for beating the arresting officer and
sentenced to seven years' imprisonment.
After two
unsuccessful attempts at escape which added years to his sentence, Cash finally
escaped and formed one of the marauding gangs in Van Dieman's
Land – committing 'hold-ups, shootings, robberies, fights and brawls'.
Eventually, after they falsely arrested Bessie, he was lured into Hobart town
where he was captured.
Bushranger to constable, 1850s–1878
Sent to
Norfolk Island, Cash became a model prisoner and served only 10 years of his
life sentence before he was released. While on Norfolk Island, he married Mary
Bennett with whom he returned to Tasmania. Norfolk Island was closed down and
its prisoners transferred to Tasmania. Cash was made a constable in July 1854,
and on 19 September was granted his ticket-of-leave.
Back in
Tasmania, he was appointed as overseer of the gardeners in the Government
Domain and built a house on 160 acres of land at Glenorchy. Unfortunately,
their only son Martin, born in 1855, died of rheumatic fever in 1871. Cash was
said to have died of a broken heart in 1878 in his own bed.
'Bold' Jack Donohoe 'The last of the convict outlaws', 1825–1830s
One of
the most famous bushrangers was 'Bold' Jack Donohoe, known as the 'Wild
Colonial Boy'.
Soon
after being transported to Botany Bay from Dublin in 1825, Jack Donohoe took up
with two other Irish convicts, robbing bullock drays on the Windsor Road, west
of Sydney. Donohoe escaped his hanging after he broke free from the court.
Donohoe and a new gang of Irish and English escaped convicts ranged across the
Liverpool, Parramatta and Windsor districts, eventually extending as far as
Bathurst in the west, Yass to the south and the Hunter River to the north.
Donohoe's
gang robbed in the 'Robin Hood' style, taking from the rich and fencing their
booty through the poor settlers in the district. Once, upon recognising the
explorer Charles Sturt, when robbing his farmhouse, they returned all his
goods.
Donohoe
endeared himself to ex-convicts and sympathetic settlers. Newspaper reports
between 1827 and 1830 noted Donohoe and his gang as 'remarkably clean' bushmen,
dressed in a raffish style. 'Bold' Jack was described as fitted out in 'black
hat, superfine blue cloth coat lined with silk... plaited shirt... laced
boots'.
When he
was eventually shot and captured on 1 September 1830, Donohoe was noted as
being 'five feet four in height, brown freckled complexion, flaxen hair and
blue eyes'. On seeing the troopers, Donohoe was reported to have thrown his hat
in the air and said 'Come on... we're ready'.
The
Wild Colonial Boy
The ethos of the song is captured in the line: 'I'll fight but not surrender', cried the Wild Colonial Boy.
It is known that the Wild Colonial Boy was sung heartily in the Glenrowan Hotel, the night before Ned Kelly was captured in 1880 and later by striking shearers in Queensland during the strikes of the 1890s.
The gold diggings and Black Douglas, 1850s–1860s
After
gold was discovered in 1851, first in Bathurst, NSW and then in the central
Highlands of Victoria, bushrangers would hold up travellers and ask whether
they were 'going up' or 'coming down'. It was common on the Bendigo and
Ballarat for bushrangers to take into the bush anyone who was 'coming down',
tie them to a tree and remove their gold receipts and cheques. The bushrangers
then continued on down to Melbourne to cash the cheques and take possession of the
gold.
In 1852,
black trackers were brought in as native troops to tackle this practice of
bushranging, as well as policing the gold diggings and escorting gold to
Melbourne. Although they were very effective and popular they were disbanded in
1853.
Black
Douglas was a notorious 'Mulatto Indian' who ran a bushranging operation
between Melbourne and Bendigo. Hundreds of diggers made their way up this road
daily. One traveller, recorded seeing 'sixteen poor fellows fastened to a log'
by that 'notorious robber Black Douglas'.
Black
Douglas's headquarters were three miles from the Alma goldfield near
Maryborough, and his gang's method was to rob the diggers' empty tents during
the day and the shops at night. Black Douglas and his gang were captured when
the diggers, fed up with the thieving, surrounded their tents and burnt them to
the ground. Douglas was overpowered only after he was wounded. He was carted to
Maryborough with an escort of more than 200 miners.
Fight before surrender
Bushranging
was said to be brought under control by the Felons Apprehension Act 1865 (NSW),
which allowed anyone to shoot bushrangers without need of arrest and trial,
introduced to curb the activities of Ben Hall and his gang in 1865.
Bushranging
was said to have ended with the shooting of the Kelly Gang in 1880. The verses
of the Wild Colonial Boy reflect the popularist reputations of the
bushrangers and their ethos of 'fight before surrender'.
Clancy's comment: I love stories about bushrangers. Americans had the Wild West, but we had some amazing characters also. Some of these guys are mentioned in one of my next books - IRISH GOLD. Stay tuned folks.
I'm ...
Modern bushrangers
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