There were many famous bushrangers during the Gold Rush Australia eg Mad Dog Morgan (1830–65), Captain Moonlight (1842–80), Capt Thunderbolt (1835-70), Capt Midnight (1855-78), Ben Hall (1837-65) and Ned Kelly (1854–80). Many bushrangers were shot on site or hanged after court, for committing murder and theft. Their average life expectancy was only c33 years!
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Wanted poster for Captain Thunderbolt
with a huge reward, date?
Pinterest
I have written about Ned Kelly and his gang of bushrangers whose stories entered Australian legendary history. For ages the bushrangers’ exploits thrilled the Australian public, and in the most notorious cases, horrified them. Contemporary newspapers fed eager readers with stories of bushranger crimes and deadly police hunts.
The famous bushrangers passed into folklore as romantic subjects of bush stories, paintings and songs. But the reality was often a miserable life of poverty, hiding and being chased by police. Once a bushranger was declared an outlaw, it was legal for anyone to shoot him on sight. Facing inevitable hanging when captured, most cornered bushrangers preferred to fight on, rather than laying down their arms. This was the fate facing most of the infamous Kelly Gang at Glenrowan Victoria, in 1880.
New South Wales also had plenty of notorious bushrangers. In fact, it was not long after the First Fleet arrived that ex-convict bolters like John Black Caesar fled into the bush around Sydney. Later, during the Gold Rushes, bushranging hit its height as robbers jumped on diggers returning from the goldfields with treasure.
As a young man, Frederick Ward became an expert horse-man while working as a horse-breaker and drover on the Tocal Run on the lower Paterson River. With his strong self-reliance and physical endurance, Ward could survive in the bush for long periods. His first arrest in Apr 1856 was for attempting to drove 45 stolen horses to the Windsor sale-yards. Found guilty, he spent 4 years gaoled on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, before being freed on a ticket of leave for good behaviour
In 1860, he met Mary Ann Bugg and when she became pregnant, Ward settled her in the Dungog area. He was soon in trouble with the authorities again and was arrested for breaking the terms of his parole and for horse stealing. Ward was sent straight back again to Cockatoo Island ☹
Wanting freedom in Sept 1863, Ward escaped Cockatoo Island with another prisoner Fred Britten by swimming ashore. Travelling north toward New England, Ward went on a robbing spree. Enduring bushranger mythology claimed that Ward took the name Capt Thunderbolt when Ward entered the tollbar house on the road between Rutherford and Maitland and shocked the customs officer from sleep. The startled officer remarked: 'By God, I thought it must have been a thunderbolt'.
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Thunderbolt roamed across NSW, from the Hunter Valley to the Queensland border. A crime spree in Dungog started in Nov 1863, when the police and volunteers chased them through rugged hill country. The family escaped! For 6+ years from early 1865, Ward and 3 other men robbed mail coaches, travellers, inns and stations across much of northern NSW. But the gang disbanded after John Thompson was shot and grabbed near Moree.
In 1870 after a dramatic showdown, off-duty policeman Constable Walker shot Thunderbolt’s horse out from under him in swamp land near Uralla. The bushranger refused to surrender and was shot dead.
Hundreds flocked to see bushranger Capt Thunderbolt’s body after his death and they bought shilling postcards of his bullet-ridden body. It was a sad end to the last of NSW’s professional bushrangers. Ward had become something of a folk hero in his short life.
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And Cockatoo Island? From 1839-69, it operated as a penal colony where convicts suffered harsh living conditions and backbreaking labour. Although it was a brutal part of early European life in Australia, the island’s remaining convict structures invite visitors to examine an era when men were put to work on the colony’s building projects.
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The famous bushrangers passed into folklore as romantic subjects of bush stories, paintings and songs. But the reality was often a miserable life of poverty, hiding and being chased by police. Once a bushranger was declared an outlaw, it was legal for anyone to shoot him on sight. Facing inevitable hanging when captured, most cornered bushrangers preferred to fight on, rather than laying down their arms. This was the fate facing most of the infamous Kelly Gang at Glenrowan Victoria, in 1880.
New South Wales also had plenty of notorious bushrangers. In fact, it was not long after the First Fleet arrived that ex-convict bolters like John Black Caesar fled into the bush around Sydney. Later, during the Gold Rushes, bushranging hit its height as robbers jumped on diggers returning from the goldfields with treasure.
As a young man, Frederick Ward became an expert horse-man while working as a horse-breaker and drover on the Tocal Run on the lower Paterson River. With his strong self-reliance and physical endurance, Ward could survive in the bush for long periods. His first arrest in Apr 1856 was for attempting to drove 45 stolen horses to the Windsor sale-yards. Found guilty, he spent 4 years gaoled on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, before being freed on a ticket of leave for good behaviour
In 1860, he met Mary Ann Bugg and when she became pregnant, Ward settled her in the Dungog area. He was soon in trouble with the authorities again and was arrested for breaking the terms of his parole and for horse stealing. Ward was sent straight back again to Cockatoo Island ☹
Wanting freedom in Sept 1863, Ward escaped Cockatoo Island with another prisoner Fred Britten by swimming ashore. Travelling north toward New England, Ward went on a robbing spree. Enduring bushranger mythology claimed that Ward took the name Capt Thunderbolt when Ward entered the tollbar house on the road between Rutherford and Maitland and shocked the customs officer from sleep. The startled officer remarked: 'By God, I thought it must have been a thunderbolt'.
A posse of mounted police, aboriginal trackers and district volunteers.
They will hunt for a gang of bushrangers.
State Library of NSW
In 1870 after a dramatic showdown, off-duty policeman Constable Walker shot Thunderbolt’s horse out from under him in swamp land near Uralla. The bushranger refused to surrender and was shot dead.
Hundreds flocked to see bushranger Capt Thunderbolt’s body after his death and they bought shilling postcards of his bullet-ridden body. It was a sad end to the last of NSW’s professional bushrangers. Ward had become something of a folk hero in his short life.
Cockatoo Island,
Sydney Harbour
The Art Newspaper
The barracks, planned to accommodate 328 men maximum, actually housed up to 500 men. Solitary confinement cells were carved into the exposed sandstone foothill still reminds the modern visitor of the exhausted convict inhabitants’ life: the claustrophobic individual cell and thick rods that half closed the small window. The other convict structures were Fitzroy Dock, the only extant convict-built dry dock here. Other convict landmarks are the Island’s Guard house, Mess Hall, Grain Silos, Solitary Confinement Cells and Biloela House, all built from sandstone quarried by convicts.
Cells for solitary confinement,
Cockatoo Island
Sydney Uncovered
From the mid-1850s, Cockatoo Island developed as a ship building and ship repair facility, contributing significantly to Australia's maritime affairs. In fact shipbuilding increased so much that by 1913, the island became the official dock yard of the Royal Australian Navy.
Meanwhile, prisoners were transferred from the island to Darlinghurst; the prison buildings became a tough industrial school for girls and in 1871 it became a tougher reformatory.
In July 2010, Cockatoo Island Convict Site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The sites of the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property feature notable examples from the convict era. The island has also been inscribed on the National Heritage List since Aug 2007. The Harbour Trust’s role is to display heritage conservation works that reveal the island’s convict legacy.
You may like to read a biography of Capt Thunderbolt
Meanwhile, prisoners were transferred from the island to Darlinghurst; the prison buildings became a tough industrial school for girls and in 1871 it became a tougher reformatory.
In July 2010, Cockatoo Island Convict Site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The sites of the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property feature notable examples from the convict era. The island has also been inscribed on the National Heritage List since Aug 2007. The Harbour Trust’s role is to display heritage conservation works that reveal the island’s convict legacy.
You may like to read a biography of Capt Thunderbolt