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Australian bushrangers

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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Australian bushrangers
    Posted: 24-Mar-2011 at 21:05

Ned Kelly was a legendary Australian outlaw who robbed the British-owned banks, killed 3 policemen and became a folk hero for working class Irish settlers. He is best known for wearing homemade armor during his final shootout at Glenrowan.
Although Ned is the most famous Bushranger he was not the first. Escaped convicts with colorful names like Mad Dog Morgan, Jack the Rammer, Moondyne Joe, Captain Thunderbolt, Bold Jack Donahue, Captain Moonlight and Captain Starlight made a living as highwaymen as early as the 1790s. Who can tell me more about these Australian gunfighters?

Edited by Nick1986 - 24-Mar-2011 at 21:06
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  Quote Cryptic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Mar-2011 at 00:16
Originally posted by Nick1986

 
Who can tell me more about these Australian gunfighters?
 
The U.S. magazine Smithsonian published a long, detailed article about Ned Kelly many years ago.  It might be available on line through their web site.  
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Mar-2011 at 11:30
Jeffries the Monster certainly lived up to his name. He was a Scottish sailor from Edinburgh who worked as a hangman until he had to flee into the bush for torturing a prisoner. He killed five people for no reason, raped a woman and dashed out the brains of her baby.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GdANAAAAQAAJ&dq=bushrangers&pg=PA90#v=onepage&q&f=false
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Mar-2011 at 19:38
Or what about Cornishman Moondyne Joe who roamed the Outback in clothes made of kangaroo skin? Unlike many other bushrangers he wasn't killed or executed but lived to the age of 74
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040544b.htm
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Mar-2011 at 20:24
Michael Howe, said (in 1855) to be the worst of the bushrangers, was born in Pontefract in 1787 and deported from England in 1811 for highway robbery. He escaped in 1812 and joined a gang of 28 bushrangers whom he betrayed to the government. He lived the rest of his life on the run, tracked by his vengeful lover and haunted by fear of capture. He kept a diary in a book made of kangaroo skin and written with kangaroo blood
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8PERAAAAYAAJ&dq=bushranger&pg=PA236#v=onepage&q&f=false
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Mar-2011 at 22:41
In other words the many famous outlaws of the American old west had serious competition 'down under'.
 
Great stuff thanks Nick.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Mar-2011 at 10:30
That's right. Less than a decade after Ned's hanging he was already being depicted in the press as a folk-hero similar to Jesse James. An earlier example of a criminal who became a superhero was Spring-Heeled Jack, a fire-breathing London sex-offender and one of the inspirations for Batman
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Mar-2011 at 14:57
Haha great stuff... btw did you know that ole Spring-heel became a NPC in the fantasy game Elder Scrolls-Oblivion. The qwest line was great...and as I had remembered old Jack from your aforementioned it made it even better.
 
But back to the thread....them Aussie outlaws were tough boys no doubt.
 
Thanks
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-May-2011 at 19:43
Indeed. The first Australian outlaws started out over 40 years before the Americans conquered the West
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-May-2011 at 20:52
They always remind me of those great Aussie Bush poets. Banjo atterson and so forth.
 
That guy was as good as any I have ever read to include London, Kipling and Robert Service.Thumbs Up


Edited by Centrix Vigilis - 19-May-2011 at 20:53
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31-May-2011 at 20:15
Australia even has its own cowboys. Mad Dog Morgan (made famous in a Dennis Hopper film) worked as a stockman before becoming a gold-miner. He soon turned to bushwhacking and horse-theft as this was a quicker way of getting rich. He was an alcoholic known for his violent temper who killed two policemen before being tracked down and shot while robbing the Macpherson family at Peechelba station in 1865. Banjo Paterson, writer of Waltzing Matilda, befriended Christina Macpherson who was a baby at the time of the robbery
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Jun-2011 at 19:31
One of the most famous robberies occurred during the 1853 Gold Rush. On St Kilda Road a gang of 8 or 9 robbed gold-buyer Edmund Ritter. When the outlaws were caught punishment was surprisingly lenient: rather than being hanged they were sentenced to 10 years hard labor (though they did have to wear shackles)
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  Quote johnbriner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Jun-2011 at 23:53
Great stuff! I wonder how they made home-made armor. Of course it is simple as it said the armor was home-made, but I was amazed to the fact that it was done at home. Great! Thanks for sharing!
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Jun-2011 at 07:06
Their armor was made from plowshares either by the gang themselves or a sympathetic blacksmith. Bullets just bounced off the chestplate but Ned's legs were unprotected. A shotgun blast brought him down
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Sep-2011 at 19:23
Australian archaeologists believe they have finally found Ned's remains at a former Melbourne prison. The skeleton had a bullet hole in the leg and a high level of wear concurrent with living in the bush
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Sep-2011 at 19:23
For the full story, click here
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Sep-2011 at 08:37

Captain Thunderbolt the "Gentleman Bushranger" was jailed for stealing a horse in 1856 but escaped from prison in 1863. He continued his robberies until he was killed in 1870. His crimes, several of which carried the death sentence, included 30 mail robberies, 80 horses, 16 stores, 16 residences, 6 travellers, a tollgate, arson, and five shootings, although he never killed anyone
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Sep-2011 at 18:01
The first bushranger was Black John Caesar who stole a marine's musket and escaped into the bush in 1789. He survived by stealing food from Aborigines until he was recaptured and flogged. He escaped twice more but was shot dead in 1795
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Sep-2011 at 19:23
Bold Jack Donahue, the "Wild Colonial Boy" was one of Australia's first Irish nationalists. Transported from Dublin in 1825, he soon escaped and led a gang who stripped wealthy victims of their clothes. The landowners' servants provided the gang with information on their employers and sheltered them from the authorities. A bounty of £200 was placed on Donahue's head, resulting in his death in a shootout with soldiers in 1830
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Sep-2011 at 20:20
For years the Aussies have been singing folk songs about their outlaw heroes. Even Jewish-American entertainer Tiny Tim honored them:
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