Editing Bushranger

{{Short description|Australian outlaws active during the 19th century}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}} 
{{Use Australian English|date=March 2018}}
[[File:William Strutt Bushrangers.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[William Strutt (artist)|William Strutt]]'s ''[[Bushrangers on the St Kilda Road]]'', painted in 1887, depicts what Strutt described as "one of the most daring robberies attempted in [[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]]" in 1852.<ref>[http://u21museums.unimelb.edu.au/museumcollections/melbourne/ianpotter/bushrangers.html Ian Potter Museum collection: Bushrangers] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110228164026/http://u21museums.unimelb.edu.au/museumcollections/melbourne/ianpotter/bushrangers.html |date=28 February 2011 }}, u21museums.unimelb.edu.au. Retrieved on 9 January 2011.</ref>]]
'''Bushrangers''' were armed [[robbers]] and [[outlaw]]s who resided in [[The bush#Australia|the Australian bush]] between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia, and applied to [[convicts in Australia|transported convicts]] who had escaped into the bush to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "[[armed robbery|robbery under arms]]" as a way of life, using the bush as their base.

Bushranging thrived during the mid-19th century [[Australian gold rushes|gold rush]]es, with many bushrangers roaming the goldfields and country districts of [[New South Wales]] and [[Victoria (state)|Victoria]], and to a lesser extent [[Queensland]]. As the outbreak worsened in the mid-1860s, colonial governments outlawed many of the most notorious bushrangers, including the [[Gardiner–Hall gang]], [[Dan Morgan (bushranger)|Dan Morgan]], and the [[Clarke gang]]. These "[[The Wild Colonial Boy|Wild Colonial Boys]]", mostly Australian-born sons of convicts, were roughly analogous to British [[highwayman|highwaymen]] and outlaws of the [[American frontier|American Old West]], and their crimes included robbing small-town banks, bailing up coach services and raiding [[Station (Australian agriculture)|stations]] (pastoral estates). They also engaged in many shootouts with the police. 

The number of bushrangers declined in the 1870s due to better policing and improvements in rail transport and communication technology, such as [[telegraphy]]. The last major phase of bushranging peaked towards the end of the decade, epitomised by the Kelly gang, led by [[Ned Kelly]], Australia's best-known bushranger and outlaw. Although bushrangers appeared sporadically into the early 20th century, most historians regard Kelly's capture and execution in 1880 as effectively representing the end of the bushranging era.

Bushranging's origins in a convict system bred a unique kind of desperado, most frequently with an Irish political background. Native-born bushrangers also expressed nascent [[Australian nationalism|Australian nationalist]] views and have been described as "the first distinctively Australian characters to gain general recognition."<ref>Hirst, John Bradley. ''Freedom on the Fatal Shore''. Black Inc., 2008. {{ISBN|9781863952071}}, pp. 408–409.</ref> As such, a number of bushrangers became [[folk hero]]es and symbols of rebellion, admired for their bravery, rough chivalry and colourful personalities. However, in stark contrast to romantic portrayals in the arts and popular culture, bushrangers often led lives that were "nasty, brutish and short", with some earning notoriety for their cruelty and bloodthirst. Australian attitudes toward bushrangers remain complex and ambivalent.

==Etymology==
[[File:ST Gill Flight of a Bushranger.jpg|thumb|A bushranger on horseback being chased by the police in ''Hard-pressed (Flight of a Bushranger)'', painted by [[S. T. Gill]], c. 1853]]
The earliest documented use of the term appears in a February 1805 issue of ''[[The Sydney Gazette]]'', which reports that a cart had been stopped between Sydney and [[Hawkesbury, New South Wales|Hawkesbury]] by three men "whose appearance sanctioned the suspicion of their being bush-rangers".<ref name=adob>Wilson, Jane (14 April 2015). [http://adb.anu.edu.au/essay/12 "Bushrangers in the Australian Dictionary of Biography"], Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 14 June 2018.</ref> [[John Bigge]] described bushranging in 1821 as "absconding in the woods and living upon plunder and the robbery of orchards." [[Charles Darwin]] likewise recorded in 1835 that a bushranger was "an open villain who subsists by highway robbery, and will sooner be killed than taken alive".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia
  | title = Bushranging
  | encyclopedia =[[Australian Encyclopaedia|The Australian Encyclopedia]]
  | volume =2
  | pages =582–587
  | publisher =[[Australian Geographic|Australian Geographical Society]]
  |edition=5th 
  | date =1988
  | isbn =1-862760004}}</ref>

==History==
Over 2,000 bushrangers are estimated to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and drawing to a close after [[Ned Kelly]]'s last stand at [[Glenrowan, Victoria|Glenrowan]].<ref name="NMA">{{cite web|url=http://www.nma.gov.au/shared/libraries/attachments/media/media_kits/outlawed_bushrangers_of_australia/files/684/nma_outlawed_bushrangers.pdf |title=Bushrangers of Australia  |access-date=2007-04-16 |publisher=[[National Museum of Australia]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070905194756/http://www.nma.gov.au/shared/libraries/attachments/media/media_kits/outlawed_bushrangers_of_australia/files/684/nma_outlawed_bushrangers.pdf |archive-date=5 September 2007 }}</ref>

===Convict era (1780s–1840s)===
{{See also|Convicts in Australia}}
[[File:Joseph Lycett View upon the Napean.jpg|thumb|Convict artist [[Joseph Lycett]]'s 1825 painting of the [[Nepean River]] shows a gang of bushrangers with guns.]]
Bushranging began soon after British settlement with the establishment of [[New South Wales]] as a [[penal colony]] in 1788. The majority of early bushrangers were convicts who had escaped prison, or from the properties of landowners to whom they had been assigned as servants. These bushrangers, also known as "bolters", preferred the hazards of wild, unexplored bushland surrounding [[Sydney]] to the deprivation and brutality of convict life. The first notable bushranger, African convict [[John Caesar]], robbed settlers for food, and had a brief, tempestuous alliance with Aboriginal resistance fighters during [[Pemulwuy#Pemulwuy.27s War|Pemulwuy's War]]. While other bushrangers would go on to fight alongside [[Indigenous Australian]]s in [[Australian frontier wars|frontier conflicts]] with the colonial authorities, the [[Government of New South Wales|Government]] tried to bring an end to any such collaboration by rewarding Aborigines for returning convicts to custody. [[Aboriginal tracker]]s would play a significant role in the hunt for bushrangers.

Colonel [[Godfrey Mundy]] described convict bushrangers as "desperate, hopeless, fearless; rendered so, perhaps, by the tyranny of a gaoler, of an overseer, or of a master to whom he has been assigned." [[Edward Smith Hall]], editor of early Sydney newspaper ''[[The Monitor (Sydney)|The Monitor]]'', agreed that the convict system was a breeding-ground for bushrangers due to its savagery, with starvation and acts of torture being rampant. "Liberty or Death!" was the cry of convict bushrangers, and in large numbers they roamed beyond Sydney, some hoping to reach [[China]], which was commonly believed to be connected by an overland route. Some bolters seized boats and set sail for foreign lands, but most were hunted down and brought back to Australia. Others attempted to inspire an overhaul of the convict system, or simply sought revenge on their captors. This latter desire found expression in the convict ballad "[[Jim Jones at Botany Bay]]", in which Jones, the narrator, plans to join bushranger [[Jack Donahue]] and "gun the floggers down".

Donahue was the most notorious of the early New South Wales bushrangers, terrorising settlements outside Sydney from 1827 until he was fatally shot by a trooper in 1830.<ref name=adob/> That same year, west of the [[Blue Mountains (New South Wales)|Blue Mountains]], convict [[Ralph Entwistle]] sparked a bushranging insurgency known as the [[Bathurst Rebellion]]. He and his gang raided farms, liberating assigned convicts by force in the process, and within a month, his personal army numbered 80 men. Following gun battles with vigilante posses, mounted policemen and soldiers of the [[39th Regiment of Foot|39th]] and [[57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot|57th Regiment of Foot]], he and nine of his men were captured and executed.

[[File:Convicts plundering settlers' homesteads.jpg|thumb|Vandemonian bushrangers plundering and burning a homestead]]
Convict bushrangers were particularly prevalent in the penal colony of [[Van Diemen's Land]] (now the state of [[Tasmania]]), established in 1803.<ref name=adob/> The island's most powerful bushranger, the self-styled "Lieutenant Governor of the Woods", [[Michael Howe (bushranger)|Michael Howe]], led a gang of up to one hundred members "in what amounted to a civil war" with the colonial government.<ref name=boyce/> His control over large swathes of the island prompted elite [[squatting (pastoral)|squatters]] from [[Hobart]] and [[Launceston, Tasmania|Launceston]] to collude with him, and for six months in 1815, [[Governor of Tasmania|Lieutenant-Governor]] [[Thomas Davey (governor)|Thomas Davey]], fearing a convict uprising, declared [[martial law]] in an effort to suppress Howe's influence. Most of the gang had either been captured or killed by 1818, the year Howe was clubbed to death by a soldier.<ref name=boyce>Boyce, James (2010). ''Van Diemen's Land''. Black Inc.. {{ISBN|9781921825392}}. pp. 76–82.</ref> Vandemonian bushranging peaked in the 1820s with hundreds of bolters at large, among the most notorious being [[Matthew Brady (bushranger)|Matthew Brady]]'s gang, cannibal serial killers [[Alexander Pearce]] and [[Thomas Jeffrey]], and tracker-turned-resistance leader [[Musquito]]. [[William Westwood (bushranger)|Jackey Jackey]] (alias of William Westwood) was sent from New South Wales to Van Diemen's Land in 1842 after attempting to escape [[Cockatoo Island (New South Wales)|Cockatoo Island]]. In 1843, he escaped [[Port Arthur, Tasmania|Port Arthur]], and took up bushranging in Tasmania's mountains, but was recaptured and sent to [[Norfolk Island]], where, as leader of the 1846 [[Cooking Pot Uprising]], he murdered three constables, and was hanged along with sixteen of his men.

The era of convict bushrangers gradually faded with the decline in penal transportations to Australia in the 1840s. It had ceased by the 1850s to all colonies except [[Western Australia]], which accepted convicts between 1850 and 1868. The best-known convict bushranger of the colony was the prolific escapee [[Moondyne Joe]].

===Gold rush era (1850s–1860s)===
{{See also|Australian gold rushes}}
[[File:Bushrangers Attack Gold Escort.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Bushrangers attack mounted policemen guarding a gold escort]]
The [[Australian gold rushes]] of the 1850s and 1860s marked the next distinct phase of bushranging, as the discovery of gold gave bushrangers access to great wealth that was portable and easily converted to cash. Their task was assisted by the isolated location of the goldfields and the decimation of the police force with many troopers abandoning their duties to join the gold rush.<ref name="NMA"/>

In Victoria, several major gold robberies occurred in 1852–53. Three bushrangers, including George Melville, were hanged in front of a large crowd for their role in the 1853 McIvor Escort Robbery near [[Castlemaine, Victoria|Castlemaine]].<ref name="NMA"/> Bushranging numbers also flourished in [[New South Wales]] with the rise of the colonial-born sons of poor ex-convicts who were drawn to a more glamorous life than mining or farming.<ref name="NMA"/> Much of the activity in the colony was in the [[Wyangala#Water resources|Lachlan Valley]], around [[Forbes, New South Wales|Forbes]], [[Yass, New South Wales|Yass]] and [[Cowra]].<ref name="NMA"/>

[[File:CaptureofBenHall.jpg|thumb|Ben Hall ambushed and shot dead by eight troopers, 1865]]
The [[Gardiner–Hall gang]], led by [[Frank Gardiner]] and [[Ben Hall (bushranger)|Ben Hall]] and counting [[John Dunn (bushranger)|John Dunn]], [[John Gilbert (bushranger)|John Gilbert]] and [[Fred Lowry]] among its members, was responsible for some of the most daring robberies of the 1860s, including the [[Escort Rock#History|1862 Escort Rock robbery]], Australia's largest ever gold heist. The gang also engaged in many shootouts with the police, resulting in deaths on both sides. Other bushrangers active in New South Wales during this period, such as [[Dan Morgan (bushranger)|Dan Morgan]],<ref name="NMA"/> and the [[Clarke brothers]] and their associates, murdered multiple policemen.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1867-04-29|title=Capture of the Outlaw Clarke and His Brother|pages=5|work=Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850–1875)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60839437|access-date=2020-08-04}}</ref>

As bushranging continued to escalate in the 1860s, the [[Parliament of New South Wales]] passed a bill, the ''Felons Apprehension Act 1865'', that effectively allowed anyone to shoot outlawed bushrangers on sight.<ref>{{Cite web|publisher=Parliament of New South Wales|date=8 April 1865|title=Felons Apprehension Act 1865|url=http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/num_act/faa1865n2241.pdf}}</ref> By the time that the Clarke brothers were captured and hanged in 1867, organised gang bushranging in New South Wales had effectively ceased.

[[Captain Thunderbolt]] (alias of Frederick Ward) robbed inns and mail-coaches across northern New South Wales for six and a half years, one of the longest careers of any bushranger.<ref name=adob/> He sometimes operated alone; at other times, he led gangs, and was accompanied by his Aboriginal 'wife', [[Mary Ann Bugg]], who is credited with helping extend his career.<ref name=adob/>

===Decline and the Kelly gang (1870s–1880s)===
[[File:The Last of the Bushrangers.jpg|thumb|upright|An 1870 cartoon shows a personification of New South Wales slaying "the last of the bushrangers"]]
The increasing push of settlement, increased police efficiency, improvements in [[History of rail transport in Australia|rail transport]] and communications technology, such as [[telegraphy]], made it more difficult for bushrangers to evade capture. In 1870, Captain Thunderbolt was fatally shot by a policeman, and with his death, the New South Wales bushranging epidemic that began in the early 1860s came to an end.<ref>Baxter, Carol. ''Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady: the true story of bushrangers Frederick Ward and Mary Ann Bugg''. Crows Nest, New South Wales: [[Allen & Unwin]], 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-74237-287-7}}</ref>

[[File:Moonlite gang gunfight.jpg|thumb|left|Watched by hundreds of onlookers in the surrounding hills, troopers and [[Captain Moonlite]]'s gang engage in a gunfight in 1879.]]
The scholarly, but eccentric [[Captain Moonlite]] (alias of Andrew George Scott) worked as an Anglican [[lay reader]] before turning to bushranging. Imprisoned in [[Ballarat]] for an armed bank robbery on the Victorian goldfields, he escaped, but was soon recaptured and received a ten-year sentence in [[HM Prison Pentridge]]. Within a year of his release in 1879, he and his gang held up the town of [[Wantabadgery]] in the [[Riverina]]. Two of the gang (including Moonlite's "soulmate" and alleged lover, James Nesbitt) and one trooper were killed when the police attacked. Scott was found guilty of murder and hanged along with one of his accomplices on 20 January 1880.<ref>{{Citation |title=Andrew George Scott (1842–1880) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/scott-andrew-george-4546 |access-date=2024-03-24 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref>

Among the last bushrangers was the Kelly gang in Victoria, led by [[Ned Kelly]], Australia's most famous bushranger. After murdering three policemen in a shootout in 1878, the gang was outlawed, and after raiding towns and robbing banks into 1879, earned the distinction of having the largest reward ever placed on the heads of bushrangers. In 1880, after failing to derail and ambush a police train, the gang, clad in [[armour of the Kelly gang|bulletproof armour]] they had devised, engaged in a shootout with the police. Ned Kelly, the only gang member to survive, was hanged at the [[Old Melbourne Gaol|Melbourne Gaol]] on 11 November 1880.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1880-11-23 |title=The Execution of Ned Kelly  |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2984082 |access-date=2024-03-24 |work=West Australian}}</ref>

===Isolated outbreaks (1890s–1900s)===
[[File:The hunt for the Governor gang of bushrangers. A posse of mounted police, aboriginal trackers and district volunteers. Jimmy and Joe Governor were sighted at Stewarts Brook on 12 September 1900 - (13987610188).jpg|thumb|A posse of mounted troopers, native police and volunteers searching for the Governor gang, 1900]]
Bushranging was largely considered a bygone era by the 1890s. There were however a few major cases from this point on, including the Governor gang—a trio consisting of Aboriginal fencing contractor [[Jimmy Governor]], his brother Joe Governor, and associate Jack Underwood. In July 1900 they perpetrated the Breelong Massacre, killing four members of the Mawbey family and a schoolteacher.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=The Governor Brothers {{!}} State Library of New South Wales|url=https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/discover_collections/people_places/caergwrle/bushrangers/governor/index.html|access-date=2021-12-29|website=www2.sl.nsw.gov.au}}</ref> The Governor brothers proceeded to engage in a crime spree across northern New South Wales, murdering an additional four people and triggering one of the largest [[Manhunt (law enforcement)|manhunts]] in Australian history.<ref name=":0" /> After three months, Jimmy was arrested by a group of armed locals in [[Bobin, New South Wales|Bobin]], and his brother Joe was fatally shot near [[Singleton, New South Wales|Singleton]] a few days later.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|last=Walsh|first=G. P.|title=Governor, Jimmy (1875–1901)|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/governor-jimmy-6439|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|place=Canberra|publisher=National Centre of Biography, [[Australian National University]]|language=en|access-date=2021-12-30}}</ref> Jack Underwood (who had been caught shortly after the Breelong Massacre) was hanged in [[Dubbo Gaol]] on 14 January 1901, and Jimmy Governor was hanged in [[Darlinghurst Gaol]] on 18 January 1901.<ref name=":1" />

The Kenniff brothers, [[Patrick Kenniff|Patrick]] and James, were notorious stock thieves who operated in western Queensland. In March 1902, they murdered constables George Doyle and Albert Dahlke, who were sent to apprehend them. Three months later, the brothers were captured on 23 June at now-named Arrest Creek. Both brothers were convicted of murder, with Patrick sentenced to hang, and James initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

==="Boy bushrangers" (1910s–1920s)===
The final phase of bushranging was sustained by the so-called "boy bushrangers"—youths who sought to commit crimes, mostly armed robberies, modelled on the exploits of their bushranging "heroes". The majority were captured alive; a few died in shootouts with the police.<ref>Johnson, Murray (2010). "Australian Bushrangers: Law, Retribution and the Public Imagination". In Robinson, Shirley; Lincoln, Robyn. ''Crime Over Time: Temporal Perspectives on Crime and Punishment in Australia''. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 1–19. {{ISBN|9781443824569}}.</ref>

==Public perception==
[[File:Joe Byrne 1880.jpg|thumb|300px|The body of [[Joe Byrne]], strung up as a curiosity in Benalla, 1880. Photograph by [[John William Lindt]].]]
In Australia, bushrangers often attract public sympathy (cf. the concept of [[social bandits]]). In [[History of Australia|Australian history]] and [[iconography]] bushrangers are held in some esteem in some quarters due to the harshness and [[anti-Catholicism]] of the colonial authorities whom they embarrassed, and the romanticism of the lawlessness they represented. Some bushrangers, most notably [[Ned Kelly]] in his [[The Jerilderie Letter|Jerilderie letter]], and in his final raid on [[Glenrowan, Victoria|Glenrowan]], explicitly represented themselves as political rebels. Attitudes to Kelly, by far the most well-known bushranger, exemplify the ambivalent views of Australians regarding bushranging.

==Legacy==
The impact of bushrangers upon the areas in which they roamed is evidenced in the names of many geographical features in Australia, including [[Tamar River|Brady's Lookout]], [[Moondyne Cave]], the township of [[Codrington, Victoria|Codrington]], [[Mount Tennent]], [[Thunderbolts Way]] and [[List of caves within the Jenolan Caves karst|Ward's Mistake]]. The districts of [[North East Victoria]] are unofficially known as Kelly Country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ned Kelly and the myth of a republic of North-Eastern Victoria |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-693738481 |access-date=2024-03-24 |website=National Library of Australia |language=en}}</ref>

Some bushrangers made a mark on [[Australian literature]]. While running from soldiers in 1818, Michael Howe dropped a knapsack containing a self-made book of kangaroo skin and written in kangaroo blood. In it was a [[dream diary]] and plans for a settlement he intended to found in the bush.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-02-25 |title=How 'demon bushranger' Michael Howe fought off a 'drunken buffoon' governor and won |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-26/thomas-davey-lachlan-macquarie-michael-howe-hobart-history/101827778 |access-date=2024-03-24 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}</ref> Sometime bushranger Francis MacNamara, also known as [[Frank the Poet]], wrote some of the best-known poems of the convict era. Several convict bushrangers also wrote autobiographies, including Jackey Jackey, [[Martin Cash]] and [[Owen Suffolk]].

===Cultural depictions===
[[File:Thunderbolt.JPG|thumb|A statue of Captain Thunderbolt, Uralla, New South Wales]]
Jack Donahue was the first bushranger to have inspired [[bush ballad]]s, including "Bold Jack Donahue" and "[[The Wild Colonial Boy]]".<ref name="RTA – Windsor Rd">{{cite web |url=http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=heritage.show&id=4301011 |title=Old Windsor Road and Windsor Road Heritage Precincts |work=Heritage and conservation register |publisher=[[Roads & Traffic Authority]] |access-date=2007-04-20 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070903200821/http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=heritage.show&id=4301011 |archive-date=3 September 2007 }}</ref> Ben Hall and his gang were the subject of several bush ballads, including "[[Streets of Forbes]]".

Michael Howe inspired the earliest play set in Tasmania, ''[[Michael Howe, The Terror of Van Diemen's Land]]'', which premiered at [[The Old Vic]] in London in 1821. Other early plays about bushrangers include [[David Burn]]'s ''[[The Bushrangers (Burn play)|The Bushrangers]]'' (1829), [[William Leman Rede]]'s ''Faith and Falsehood; or, The Fate of the Bushranger'' (1830), [[William Thomas Moncrieff]]'s ''Van Diemen's Land: An Operatic Drama'' (1831), ''[[The Bushrangers|The Bushrangers; or, Norwood Vale]]'' (1834) by [[Henry Melville]], and ''[[The Bushrangers, a Play in Five Acts, and Other Poems|The Bushrangers; or, The Tregedy of Donohoe]]'' (1835) by [[Charles Harpur]].

In the late 19th century, [[E. W. Hornung]] and [[Hume Nisbet]] created popular bushranger novels within the conventions of the European "noble bandit" tradition. First serialised in ''[[The Sydney Mail]]'' in 1882–83, [[Rolf Boldrewood]]'s bushranging novel ''[[Robbery Under Arms]]'' is considered a classic of Australian colonial literature. It also cited as an important influence on the American writer [[Owen Wister]]'s 1902 novel ''[[The Virginian (novel)|The Virginian]]'', widely regarded as the first [[Western fiction|Western]].<ref>Graulich, Melody; Tatum, Stephen. ''Reading the Virginian in the New West''. Lincoln, Nebraska: [[University of Nebraska Press]], 2003. {{ISBN|0-8032-7104-2}}</ref>

Bushrangers were a favoured subject of colonial artists such as [[S. T. Gill]], [[Frank P. Mahony]] and [[William Strutt (artist)|William Strutt]]. [[Tom Roberts]], one of the leading figures of the [[Heidelberg School]] (also known as [[Australian Impressionism]]), depicted bushrangers in some of his history paintings, including ''[[In a corner on the Macintyre]]'' (1894) and ''[[Bailed Up]]'' (1895), both set in [[Inverell]], the area where Captain Thunderbolt was once active.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="175">
File:William Strutt A Bush Hold Up.jpg|[[William Strutt (artist)|William Strutt]], ''A bush hold-up'', 1855
File:William Reay Frank Gardiner.jpg|William Reay's portrait of Frank Gardiner, 1867
File:Tom Roberts - Bailed up - Google Art Project.jpg|[[Tom Roberts]]' 1895 painting ''[[Bailed Up]]'' depicts a [[Cobb & Co]] hold up from the 1860s
File:Frank Mahony - As in the days of old, 1892.jpg|[[Frank P. Mahony]], ''As in the days of old'', 1892
</gallery>

====Film====
[[File:The Story of the Kelly Gang 1906.jpg|thumb|Actor playing Ned Kelly in ''[[The Story of the Kelly Gang]]'' (1906), the world's first feature-length narrative film]]
Although not the first Australian film with a bushranging theme, ''[[The Story of the Kelly Gang]]'' (1906)—the world's first [[feature film|feature-length]] [[fictional film|narrative film]]—is regarded as having set the template for the genre. On the back of the film's success, its producers released [[Robbery Under Arms (1907 Tait film)|one of two 1907 film adaptations]] of Boldrewood's ''Robbery Under Arms'' (the other being [[Charles MacMahon (theatre)|Charles MacMahon's]] [[Robbery Under Arms (1907 MacMahon film)|version]]). Entering the first "golden age" of Australian cinema (1910–12), director [[John Gavin (director)|John Gavin]] released two fictionalised accounts of real-life bushrangers: ''[[Moonlite]]'' (1910) and ''[[Thunderbolt (1910 film)|Thunderbolt]]'' (1910). The genre's popularity with audiences led to a spike of production unprecedented in world cinema.<ref name=chron>[http://aso.gov.au/chronology/1910s/ Australian film and television chronology: The 1910s] {{webarchive|url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20160829080323/http://aso.gov.au/chronology/1910s/ |date=29 August 2016 }}, Australian Screen. Retrieved 8 October 2015.</ref> ''[[Dan Morgan (film)|Dan Morgan]]'' (1911) is notable for portraying its title character as an insane villain rather than a figure of romance. Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner, Captain Starlight, and numerous other bushrangers also received cinematic treatments at this time.

Alarmed by what they saw as the glorification of outlawry, state governments [[bushranger ban|imposed a ban on bushranger films]] in 1912, effectively removing "the entire folklore relating to bushrangers ... from the most popular form of cultural expression."<ref>Cooper, Ross; Pike, Andrew. ''Australian Film, 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production''. [[Oxford University Press]], 1998. {{ISBN|9780195507843}}.</ref> It is seen as a major reason for the collapse of a booming Australian film industry.<ref>Reade, Eric (1970) ''Australian Silent Films: A Pictorial History of Silent Films from 1896 to 1926''. Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 59. See also [http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/18/oz_western.html Routt, William D. More Australian than Aristotelian:The Australian Bushranger Film, 1904–1914. ''Senses of Cinema'' 18 (January–February), 2002] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101224214514/http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/18/oz_western.html |date=24 December 2010 }}. The banning of bushranger films in NSW is fictionalised in [[Kathryn Heyman]]'s 2006 novel, ''Captain Starlight's Apprentice''.</ref> One of the few Australian films to escape the ban before it was lifted in the 1940s is the [[Robbery Under Arms (1920 film)|1920 adaptation]] of ''Robbery Under Arms''.<ref name=chron/> Also during this lull appeared American takes on the bushranger genre, including ''[[The Bushranger (1928 film)|The Bushranger]]'' (1928), ''[[Stingaree (1934 film)|Stingaree]]'' (1934) and ''[[Captain Fury]]'' (1939).

''[[Ned Kelly (1970 film)|Ned Kelly]]'' (1970) starred [[Mick Jagger]] in the title role. [[Dennis Hopper]] portrayed Dan Morgan in ''[[Mad Dog Morgan]]'' (1976). More recent bushranger films include [[Ned Kelly (2003 film)|''Ned Kelly'']] (2003), starring [[Heath Ledger]], ''[[The Proposition (2005 film)|The Proposition]]'' (2005), written by [[Nick Cave]], ''[[The Outlaw Michael Howe]]'' (2013), and ''[[The Legend of Ben Hall]]'' (2016).

==Notable bushrangers==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Name!!Lived!!Area of activity!!Fate !! Portrait
|-
|[[The Angel (bushranger)|The Angel]] (alias of Thomas Hobson)||c. 1858–1885||Northern New South Wales||Shot by police
|-
|[[George Clarke (convict)|The Barber]] (alias of George Clarke)||1806–1835||Liverpool Plains in New South Wales||Hanged
|-
|[[Bluecap (bushranger)|Bluecap]] (alias of Robert Cotterell)||c. 1835–?||New South Wales||Imprisoned, cause of death unknown||[[File:Blue Cap Robert Cotterell Penzig collection.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Matthew Brady]]||1799–1826||Van Diemen's Land||Hanged||[[File:Matthew Brady.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Edward Broughton]]||1803–1831||Van Diemen's Land||Hanged
|-
|[[Mary Ann Bugg]]||1834–1905||Northern New South Wales||Died of old age
|-
|[[Richard Burgess (murderer)|Richard Burgess]]||1829–1866||New South Wales<br>Victoria||Hanged
|-
|[[Michael Burke (bushranger)|Michael Burke]]||1843–1863||New South Wales||Shot||[[File:Mickey Burke the bushranger.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Joe Byrne]] ||1857–1880||North East Victoria||Shot by police || [[File:Joe Byrne the 19th-century outlaw.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[John Caesar]]||1764–1796||Sydney area||Shot
|-
|[[Johnny Campbell (bushranger)|Johnny Campbell]]||c. 1846–1880||South East Queensland||Hanged || [[File:Johnny Campbell, Aboriginal outlaw, captured at Tewantin, 1880.png|170px]]
|-
|[[Frank McCallum|Captain Melville]] (alias of Frank McCallum)||c. 1823–1857||Goldfields region of Victoria||Suicide
|-
|[[Captain Moonlite]] (alias of Andrew George Scott)||1842–1880||Victoria<br>New South Wales||Hanged || [[File:Andrew George Scott, alias Captain Moonlite.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Frank Pearson|Captain Starlight]] (alias of Frank Pearson)||1837–1889||New South Wales<br>Queensland||Imprisoned, died a free man
|-
|[[Captain Thunderbolt]] (alias of Frederick Ward)||1835–1870||New South Wales||Shot by police ||[[File:Fred Ward (alias Captain Thunderbolt) Australian bushranger after being shot in 1870.jpg|frameless|203x203px]]
|-
|[[Martin Cash]]||c. 1808–1877||Van Diemen's Land||Imprisoned, died a free man || [[File:Bushranger Martin Cash.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Clarke brothers]]||1840/1846–1867||New South Wales||Hanged || [[File:Clarke brothers bushrangers.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Patrick Connell (bushranger)|Patrick Connell]]||1835–1866||New South Wales||Shot by police
|-
|[[Frederick Cranley]]||c. 1847–1877||New South Wales||Shot by police
|-
|[[Patrick Daley]]||1844–?||New South Wales||Imprisoned, died a free man || [[File:Patrick Daley bushranger prison photograph Sept 1863.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Edward Davis (bushranger)|Edward Davis]]||?–1841||Northern New South Wales||Hanged
|-
|[[Jack Donahue]]||c. 1806–1830||Sydney area||Shot by police || [[File:John Donohoe 1830 Thomas Mitchell a928129.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[John Dunn (bushranger)|John Dunn]]||1846–1866||Western New South Wales||Hanged || [[File:Dunn the bushranger.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Ralph Entwistle]]||c. 1805–1830||New South Wales||Hanged
|-
|[[Joe Flick]]||c.1865–1889||[[Gulf Country]] of Queensland||Shot by police
|-
|[[John Francis (bushranger)|John Francis]]||c. 1825–?||Goldfields region of Victoria||Imprisoned, cause of death unknown
|-
|[[Frank Gardiner]]||c. 1829–c. 1882||Western New South Wales||Imprisoned, died a free man || [[File:Frank Gardiner bushranger.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[John Gilbert (bushranger)|John Gilbert]]||1842–1865||Western New South Wales||Shot by police || [[File:JohnGilbert(bushranger).jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Jimmy Governor]]||1875–1901||New South Wales||Hanged||[[File:Oscar Friström portrait of Jimmy Governor.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Ben Hall (bushranger)|Ben Hall]]||1837–1865||Western New South Wales||Shot by police || [[File:BenHallPainting.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Steve Hart]]||1859–1880||North East Victoria||Possible suicide || [[File:SteveHart.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Michael Howe (bushranger)|Michael Howe]]||1787–1818||Van Diemen's Land||Shot by police
|-
|[[Jack the Rammer]] (alias of William Roberts)||?–1834||South Eastern New South Wales||Shot
|-
|[[Thomas Jeffrey]]||1791–1826||Van Diemen's Land||Hanged||[[File:Thomas Jeffries SLNSW FL1076950 detail.jpg|frameless|170px]]
|-
|[[George Jones (bushranger)|George Jones]]||c. 1815–1844||Van Diemen's Land||Hanged
|-
|[[Lawrence Kavenagh]]||c. 1805–1846||Van Diemen's Land||Hanged || [[File:Bushranger Lawrence Kavanagh.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Dan Kelly (bushranger)|Dan Kelly]]||c. 1861–1880||North East Victoria||Possible suicide||[[File:DanKellyOutlaw.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Ned Kelly]]||c. 1854–1880||North East Victoria||Hanged || [[File:Ned Kelly in 1880.png|170px]]
|-
|[[Patrick Kenniff]]||1865–1903||Queensland||Hanged || [[File:StateLibQld 2 41055 Patrick Kenniff on trial for murder.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[John Kerney]]||c. 1844–1892||South Australia||Imprisoned, died a free man
|-
|[[Fred Lowry]]||1836–1863||New South Wales||Shot by police || [[File:Bushranger Fred Lowry.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[John Lynch (serial killer)|John Lynch]]||1813–1842||New South Wales||Hanged
|-
|[[James Alpin McPherson|James McPherson]]||1842–1895||Queensland||Imprisoned, died a free man || [[File:StateLibQld 2 124486 Bushranger James MacPherson, 1866.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Major the Outlaw]]
|c. late 1880s - 1908
|Western Australia
|Shot by police
|
|-
|[[Henry Manns]]||1839–1863||New South Wales||Hanged || [[File:Henry Manns Bushranger.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Midnight (bushranger)|Midnight]] (alias of Thomas Law)||c. 1850–1878||New South Wales<br>Queensland||Shot by police
|-
|[[Moondyne Joe]] (alias of Joseph Johns)||c. 1828–1900||Western Australia||Imprisoned, died a free man || [[File:Moondyne Joe.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Dan Morgan (bushranger)|Dan Morgan]]||c. 1830–1865||New South Wales||Shot by police || [[File:Mad Dog Morgan.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Musquito (bushranger)|Musquito]]||c. 1780–1825||Van Diemen's Land||Hanged||[[File:Musquito bushranger.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[James Nesbitt (bushranger)|James Nesbitt]]||1858–1879||New South Wales||Shot by police
|-
|[[John O'Meally]]||1841–1863||New South Wales||Shot
|-
|[[George Palmer (bushranger)|George Palmer]]||c. 1846–1869||Queensland||Hanged || [[File:Bushranger George Palmer.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Alexander Pearce]]||1790–1824||Van Diemen's Land||Hanged || [[File:WP Alexander Pearce (cropped).jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[John Peisley (bushranger)|John Peisley]]||1834–1862||New South Wales||Hanged
|-
|[[Sam Poo]]||?–1865||New South Wales||Hanged
|-
|[[Harry Power]]||1819–1891||North East Victoria||Imprisoned, died a free man || [[File:Bushranger Harry Power.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[John Whelan (bushranger)|Rocky]] (alias of John Whelan) ||c. 1805–1855||Van Diemen's Land||Hanged
|-
|[[Charles Rutherford (bushranger)|Charles Rutherford]] ||c. 1846–1869||New South Wales||Shot
|-
||[[Owen Suffolk]]||1829–?||Victoria||Imprisoned, cause of death unknown
|-
|[[James Sutherland (bushranger)|James Sutherland]]||1865–1883||Tasmania||Hanged || [[File:James Sutherland Tasmanian Bushranger.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Sydney Jim]] (alias of William Thornton)||1816–1858||Tasmania||Shot by police || 
|-
|[[John Tennant (bushranger)|John Tennant]]||1794–1837||New South Wales||Hanged
|-
|[[John Thompson (bushranger)|John Thompson]]||c. 1847–?||New South Wales||Imprisoned, cause of death unknown || [[File:John Thompson Bushranger.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[John Vane (bushranger)|John Vane]]||1842–1906||New South Wales||Imprisoned, died a free man || [[File:John Vane the bushranger.jpg|170px]]
|-
|[[Wild Toby]]||c. 1840–1883||Queensland||Shot by police
|-
|[[William Westwood (bushranger)|William Westwood]]||1820–1846||New South Wales<br>Van Diemen's Land||Hanged || [[File:William Westwood Jackey Jackey death mask.jpg|170px]]
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}
{{Commons category|Bushrangers}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120519224235/http://www.pictureaustralia.org/trail/bushrangers Bushrangers trail at Picture Australia]}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20091205010019/http://www.australianhistory.org/bushranger-act.php Bushrangers at Australianhistory website]}}
*[http://nma.gov.au/exhibitions/irish_in_australia/bushrangers/ Bushrangers on the National Museum of Australia website]

{{Bushrangers}}
{{Convicts in Australia}}
{{Australian crime}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Bushrangers|*]]
[[Category:History of Australia (1788–1850)]]
[[Category:History of Australia (1851–1900)]]
[[Category:Australian robbers]]
[[Category:Rural culture in Oceania]]