Bushrangers
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Bushrangers
Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base. Bushranging thrived during the gold rush years of the 1850s and 1860s when the likes of Ben Hall, Bluecap, and Captain Thunderbolt roamed the country districts of New South Wales. These " Wild Colonial Boys", mostly Australian-born sons of convicts, were roughly analogous to British "highwaymen" and outlaws of the American Old West, and their crimes typically included robbing small-town banks and coach services. In certain cases, such as that of Dan Morgan, the Clarke brothers, and Australia's best-known bushranger, Ned Kelly, numerous policemen were murdered. The number of bushrangers declined due to better policing and improvements in rail transport and communication technology, suc ...
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Bluecap (bushranger)
Bluecap (born Robert Cotterell; 1847 – after 1873) was an Australian bushranger. Born and raised in New South Wales, he began bushranging in 1867, leading a gang responsible for robberies throughout the Riverina region. He suffered from ophthalmia, and earned his alias on account of a piece of cloth he wore to protect his eyes from sunlight. Captured in November 1867, Bluecap was tried and convicted of armed robbery. He was imprisoned in Parramatta Correctional Centre, Parramatta Gaol and released in 1874. Biography Early life Robert Cotterell was born on 27 March 1847 in Sydney (Parish of St Andrew, St. Andrew's parish), the son of Robert Cotterell and Jane (''née'' Regan). Cotterell was “practically raised” by Thomas White of ‘Burrangong’ station near Young.Death of Mr. Thomas White
''Young Witness'', 20 July ...
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Ben Hall (bushranger)
Ben Hall (9 May 1837 – 5 May 1865) was an Australian bushranger and leading member of the Gardiner–Hall gang. He and his associates carried out many raids across New South Wales, from Bathurst to Forbes, south to Gundagai and east to Goulburn. Unlike many bushrangers of the era, Hall was not directly responsible for any deaths, although several of his associates were. He was shot dead by police in May 1865 at Goobang Creek. The police claimed that they were acting under the protection of the ''Felons Apprehension Act 1865'' which allowed any bushranger who had been specifically named under the terms of the Act to be shot and killed by any person at any time without warning. At the time of Hall's death, the Act had not yet come into force, resulting in controversy over the legality of his killing.
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Clarke Brothers
Brothers Thomas (c. 1840 – 25 June 1867) and John Clarke (c. 1846 – 25 June 1867) were Australian bushrangers from the Braidwood district of New South Wales. They committed a series of high-profile crimes which led to the enacting of the Felons' Apprehension Act (1866), a law that introduced the concept of outlawry in the colony and authorised citizens to kill bushrangers on sight. Thomas was proclaimed an outlaw on 31 May 1866. Active in the southern goldfields from 1865 until their capture, Thomas and John were joined for a time by their brother James and several associates. They were responsible for a reported 71 robberies and hold-ups, as well as the death of at least one policeman; they are also suspected of killing a squad of four policemen looking to bring them in. The Clarkes also murdered one of their own gang members and a man they wrongly assumed was a police tracker, and shot several other victims. They were captured during a shoot-out in April 1867 and hanged tw ...
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Dan Morgan (bushranger)
Daniel Morgan (30 April 1830 – 9 April 1865) was an Australian bushranger. Morgan has been described as "the most bloodthirsty ruffian that ever took to the bush in Australia"Australian Bushrangers: Daniel Morgan
''Wagga Wagga Advertiser'', 1 August 1908, page 5.
and “one of the most determined and bloodthirsty of colonial freebooters”. Many accounts of his activities, particularly in the years after his death, emphasise his brutality and erratic behaviour but Morgan had many sympathisers and informants in the districts where he carried out his activities. He was an expert bushman with superb horse-riding skills, a combination of abilities which enabled him to evade capture by the authorities for a significant period of time. After Morgan killed a police sergeant in June ...
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Captain Thunderbolt
Frederick Wordsworth Ward (1835 – 25 May 1870), better known by the self-styled pseudonym of Captain Thunderbolt, was an Australian bushranger renowned for escaping from Cockatoo Island, and also for his reputation as the "gentleman bushranger" and his lengthy survival, being the longest-roaming bushranger in Australian history. Early years Frederick Ward was the son of convict Michael Ward, ("Indefatigable" 1815) and his wife Sophia, and was born in 1835, the youngest of ten around the time his parents moved from Wilberforce, New South Wales to nearby Windsor. Ward entered the paid workforce at an early age, and was employed at the age of eleven by the owners of "Aberbaldie Station" near Walcha, New South Wales as a "generally useful hand" although he remained with them for only a short time. He worked at many stations in northern NSW over the next 10 years, including the famed horse-stud Tocal, and his horsemanship skills soon became evident. Buckbreaking became one of his ...
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John Caesar
John Caesar (1764 – 15 February 1796), nicknamed "Black Caesar", was the first Australian bushranger and one of the first people of African descent to arrive in Australia. Biography It is believed that Caesar was born in Madagascar or the West Indies. He moved to England and was a servant living in the parish of St Paul, Deptford, England, in 1786. Transportation to Australia On 17 March 1786, he was tried at Maidstone, Kent for stealing 240 shillings. His sentence was transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales for seven years. He was imprisoned on , a convict transport ship that left England in May 1787 as part of the First Fleet. His occupation was listed as servant or labourer. ''Alexander'' arrived in Botany Bay in January 1788. According to the ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Caesar gained a reputation in the colony as a conscientious and hard worker. First escape On 29 April 1789 he was tried for theft and sentenced to a second term of transportati ...
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Ned Kelly
Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout with the police. Kelly was born in the then- British colony of Victoria as the third of eight children to Irish parents. His father, a transported convict, died shortly after serving a six-month prison sentence, leaving Kelly, then aged 12, as the eldest male of the household. The Kellys were a poor selector family who saw themselves as downtrodden by the Squattocracy and as victims of persecution by the Victoria Police. While a teenager, Kelly was arrested for associating with bushranger Harry Power and served two prison terms for a variety of offences, the longest stretch being from 1871 to 1874 on a conviction of receiving a stolen horse. He later joined the " Greta Mob", a group of bush larrikins known for stock theft. A violent confro ...
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Glenrowan, Victoria
Glenrowan is a town located in the Wangaratta local government area of Victoria, Australia. It is 236 kilometres north-east of Melbourne and 14 kilometres from Wangaratta and near the Warby Ranges and Mount Glenrowan. At the , Glenrowan had a population of 963. History Glenrowan was named after farmers James and George Rowan who ran farms in the area between 1846 and 1858. The township was settled in the late 1860s, the Post Office opening on 22 February 1870. It is famous for the bushranger Ned Kelly, who made his last stand and was eventually captured there in 1880 after a siege and shootout with police. The local railway station opened in 1874 and closed to passengers in 1981. The town gives its name to the Glenrowan wine region which was formally defined in 2003, with the first grape vines planted in 1866. The town today Glenrowan is a popular rest point for those travelling on the Hume Freeway. In the township of Glenrowan, off the highway, tourists can ...
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The Wild Colonial Boy
"The Wild Colonial Boy" is a traditional anonymously penned Irish-Australian folk ballad which tells the story of a bushranger in early History of Australia#Colonisation, colonial Australia who dies during a gunfight with local police. Versions of the ballad give different names for the bushranger involved: some based on real individuals and some apparently fictional. A common theme is romanticisation of the bushranger's battle against colonial authority. According to a report in ''The Argus (Melbourne), The Argus'' in November 1880, Ann Jones, the innkeeper of the Glenrowan, Victoria, Glenrowan Hotel, had asked her son to sing the ballad when the Kelly gang were at her hotel in June that year. Identity of the bushranger Versions of the ballad depict bushrangers with the first name of "Jack" and surnames such as "Dolan," "Doolan," "Duggan" and "Donahue." It is unclear if the ballad originally referred to an actual person. One possible origin is Jack Donahue (also spelled Donohoe) ...
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William Strutt Bushrangers
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will, Wills, Willy, Willie, Bill, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie or the play ''Douglas''). Female forms are Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the given name ''Wilhelm'' (cf. Proto-Germanic ᚹᛁᛚᛃᚨᚺᛖᛚᛗᚨᛉ, ''*Wiljahelmaz'' > German ''Wilhelm'' and Old Norse ᚢᛁᛚᛋᛅᚼᛅᛚᛘᛅᛋ, ''Vilhjálmr''). By regular sound changes, the native, inherited English form of the name should b ...
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Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental concept in science. In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey. Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates. His studies at the University of Cambridge's Christ's Col ...
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Australian Encyclopaedia
The ''Australian Encyclopaedia'' is an encyclopedia focused on Australia. In addition to biographies of notable Australians the coverage includes the geology, flora, fauna as well as the history of the continent. It was first published by Angus and Robertson in two volumes, one each in 1925 and 1926. The most recent edition, the sixth, is of eight volumes published in 1996. Origin and First Publication The ''Australian Encyclopedia'' is a national representation of the defining aspects of Australia. This includes information related to the nation’s history, the geography of Australia and information regarding the Aboriginal people. When the encyclopedia was first established (1925-1926), it consisted of 2 volumes and was originally published by Angus & Robertson in New South Wales. The second edition, published in 1958, was then extended to 10 volumes. Four years later, the encyclopedia was under the responsibility of the Grolier Society of Australia. Following this change, th ...
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