Bushrangers

"STAND AND DELIVER"
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The convict system spawned the earliest bushrangers. They were mainly prisoners in Van Diemens Land who had been provided with guns to hunt kangaroos and who decided to escape, form gangs and take their chances in the bush.

One of the most conspicuous of them was Michael Howe who led a gang of 28 which cut a swathe of terror through Tasmania from 1812 to 1818, stealing sheep, burning crops and houses. He had a mountain hide-out, acquired a devoted aboriginal 'wife', Black Mary, and fancied himself as a Dick Turpin who robbed from the rich and helped the poor. He was shot and beheaded by bounty hunters in 1818.

Matthew Brady led a gang which shot its way out of countless police ambushes. He was finally captured by the settler John Batman, the future founder of Melbourne, and hanged in 1826.

Alexander Pearce, who tended to eat his companions when he was very hungry on the run, was executed and also beheaded. Martin Cash, an Irishman who became the last romantic Tasmanian bushranger, absconded four times from Port Arthur and lived to the age of 67 as a farmer.
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The gold rushes of the 1850's produced an outbreak of bushrangers in Victoria with most of the offenders still escapees from Van Diemen's Land. A resurgence occurred in New South Wales, in the 1860's, and by this time the marauding bands were not only made up of ex-convicts. There were also 'wild colonial boys' ... native-born Australians like Frank Gardiner, Ben Hall and John Gilbert.
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Black Jack Donahoe, celebrated in ballad as the wild colonial boy, was in fact an Irishman who had been sentenced to transportation for life in Dublin in 1823. He was killed by a squad of mounted police in September 1830.
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Of all the bushrangers, the one most celebrated in myth was virtually the last ... Ned Kelly. The Kelly Gang - his brother Dan, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne - began its career in March 1878 when Ned wounded a constable who was attempting to arrest Dan for cattle thieving. In October the Kellys shot three policemen dead.
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After they had committed audacious bank robberies in Euroa and Jerilderie, the governments of Victoria and New South Wales put a price of $8000.00 on the heads of the gang. This was enough to tempt Aaron Sherritt, one of their early associates and a former school mate of Joe Byrne, to turn informer. The gang promptly executed him. The Kelly gang was destroyed in a final shootout at Glenrowan on June 26, 1880. The sole survivor was Ned, who was badly wounded. He was hanged in Melbourne in November 1880.

Ned Kelly to his gang as police advanced at Glenrowan:

"Come out, boys, and we'll whip the lot of them"

Ned Kelly, after being shot in the legs at Glenrowan:

"I am done. I am done."

Ned Kelly to Mr Justice Sir Redmond Barry at his trial for murder:

"I do not fear death, and I am the last man in the world
to take a man's life away."

Ned Kelly to Judge Barry:

"I daresay the day will come when we shall all have
to go to a bigger court than this."

Ned Kelly to Judge Barry after being sentenced to death:

"I will meet you there."

Ned Kelly in jail, awaiting execution:

For my own part, I do not care a straw about my life...
I fear it (dying) as little as to drink a cup of tea.

Ned Kelly's mother to him in the condemned cell:

"Mind you die like a Kelly, Ned".

Ned Kelly on the fallows:

"Ah well, I suppose it has come to this!....

Such is Life!"

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	Often they did die game. They were young too, as this sad table shows...
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	Black Caesar	shot dead, 32
	Alexander Pearce	hanged, 34
	Bold Jack Donahoe	shot dead, 25
	Ben Hall	shot dead, 27
	Johnny Dunn	hanged, 19
	Matthew Brady	hanged, 27
	Ned Kelly	hanged 25
..	Johnny Gilbert	shot dead 25
	Steve Hart	shot dead, 22
	Joe Byrne	shot dead 23
	Frederick Ward (Captain Thunderbolt)	shot dead, 34
	Andrew Scot (Captain Moonlight)	hanged, 37
	Dan Morgan	shot dead, 35
	Michael Howe	shot dead, 33
	Fred Lowry	shot dead, 27
	Johnny Piesley	hanged 28