Editing Bushranger (section)

==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>