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What does a bushranger do?
Who were bushrangers and what did they do?
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Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 1900s. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia, and applied to transported convicts who had escaped into the bush to hide from the authorities.
bushranger, any of the bandits of the Australian bush, or outback, who harassed the settlers, miners, and Aborigines of the frontier in the late 18th and 19th centuries and whose exploits figure prominently in Australian history and folklore.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Aug 24, 2023 · Things to think about. 1. Bushranging activity increased during the 1850s and 1860s. Why did this occur? 2. The Eugowra gold escort robbery was the largest gold robbery in Australian history. Investigate what happened to the stolen gold. 3. How did bushranging alter the way gold was transported? 4.
- ABC Education
What was a bushranger? Bushrangers were criminals who operated in rural areas and used the bush to hide and escape after committing a crime. They were often violent and sometimes killed members of the public and police officers.
- The Kelly Gang
- ‘Mad Dog’ Daniel Morgan
- Alexander Pearce
- ‘Gentleman Bushranger’ Martin Cash
- ‘Bold Jack’ John Donohoe
- ‘Black Douglas’ Charles Russell
- Michael Howe
- ‘Captain Thunderbolt’ Frederick Ward
- ‘Brave’ Benjamin Hall
- Frank Gardiner
Seared into the collective psyche of the Australian public is a curious sense of national pride towards the infamous Ned Kelly and his gang of bushranging outlaws, younger brother Dan Kelly and friends Steve Hart and Joe Byrne. In their brief years as outlaws, the Kelly Gangmurdered three police officers (Sergeant Michael Kennedy and Constables Tho...
Some Australian bushrangers made their name from martyrdom, others from pure madness. In the case of ‘Mad Dog’ Daniel Morgan, the source of his infamy was definitely the latter. In June of 1864, Morgan shot a bush worker near Albury, New South Wales. He asked another worker to ride for help, then, suspecting the man would ride to the police instead...
Following through with the theme of madness is the disturbing Alexander Pearce, a convict who escaped the Macquarie Harbour Penal Colony in 1822 with seven others. Desperate, starving and disoriented in the bush for several weeks, three men abandoned the group while the other five began to murder and eat each other. Pearce was the only survivor. He...
From one moral extreme to another, ‘Gentleman Bushranger’ Martin Cash was easily one of Australia’s most considerate criminals. Cash was originally sent to Sydney from Ireland in 1827 for shooting a rival suitor in the buttocks. After serving seven years, he left for Tasmania as a free man only to be charged shortly after with theft and sentenced t...
Another Irish convict-turned-bushranger was ‘Bold Jack’ John Donohoe. He arrived in Sydney from Dublin as an 18-year-old in January 1825 to serve a life sentence on a settler’s farm in Parramatta. Donohoe escaped with two other convicts and together they formed a gang known as ‘The Strippers’ – named after their technique for taking everything from...
The legendary ‘Black Douglas’ Charles Russell was an English-born bushranger who held Melbourne and its surrounding areas to ransom during the 1850s. Russell preyed on those diggers travelling to and from the goldfields between Bendigo and Melbourne. There are several accounts of victims being tied naked to a tree or fallen log with their boots ful...
Former British soldier Michael Howe arrived in Tasmania in October of 1812 to serve a seven-year sentence for highway robbery. He bolted into the bush after a year on a settler’s farm, joining a gang of 29 escaped convicts and army deserters. Howe quickly rose to become joint-leader of the bushranging bandits who ransacked the house of Magistrate A...
Despite dubbing himself with a title more fitting for a comic book hero than an Australian bushranger, ‘Captain Thunderbolt’ Frederick Ward recruited children for armed holdups and shootouts with police. Originally a drover from Paterson River, New South Wales, Ward was charged with horse thievery and sent to Cockatoo Island in August 1856 to serve...
‘Brave’ Benjamin Hall was a skilled stockman from Maitland, New South Wales who was driven to bushranging by a series of unfortunate events. In April 1862, he joined John Gilbert’s gang of bushrangers, who had been raiding Forbes since 1860. Hall quickly rose in their ranks to become an efficient leader, ensuring his men were well armed and well mo...
Frank Gardiner, born in 1830 Scotland and shipped out to Australia as a child with his parents, made an illustrious career out of horse thievery and highway robbery. On 15 June 1862, Gardiner along with Ben Hall, John Gilbert and associates held up a gold escort travelling from Forbes to Bathurst. They stole over £14,000 worth of gold and bank note...
This essay examines the lives of the ADB’s 25 bushrangers and the different eras and regions in which they operated. Bushrangers came from varied backgrounds, were subject to different influences, had diverse modus operandi, and attained various degrees of status and fame over careers of differing lengths.
A bushranger is any of the bandits of the Australian bush, or Outback, who harassed the settlers, miners, and Aboriginal peoples of the frontier in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The exploits of the bushrangers figure prominently in the history and folklore of Australia.
