What does a bushranger look like anyway?

Here are just some of the cads you will find on this site. They were all bushrangers.

The Term 'Bushranger' was first used in February 1805, in the Sydney Gazette which mentioned men "whose appearance sanctioned the suspicion of their being bushrangers". From this time, the term was used to describe those who attacked people on the roads or in the bush. Over 2000 bushrangers roamed the Australian countryside, from the convicts who escaped until just after the Kelly Gang's last stand.

Besides being called bushrangers (and all being dead) what else do all these men have in common? Oh yes they lived in AUSTRALIA but what else?

Well we all know Ned Kelly came from Irish stock and he had a gang and one of the gang was his brother. We also know he was tried and hung. So what about the others?

 

Henry Johnson was from Ireland, was convicted for stealing a pair of shoes and changed his name to Harry Power.

 

Thomas Rogan (middle row at left) had stolen horses before the age of 22 when he joined a gang of bushrangers, and he was later tried and hung.

Ben Hall's parent's were sent to gaol for minor stealing offences, he loved horses and died in a shootout with police. He was at one stage called 'Brave Ben Hall'.

Frederick Wordsworth Ward's father was a convict. He had worked with horses and went to prison for receiving stolen horses. There is mystery about his death with some thinking he died in a police shootout and others saying it was his relative. He was called Captain Thunderbolt.

Steve Hart was born to Irish parents, he worked as a jockey, he was in the Kelly gang. He may have died at the Glenrowan Inn shootout but some say he and Dan Kelly escaped.

 

So there seem to be some common threads such as Ireland and convicts and stealing but no one thing they all had in common. Maybe it was falling on hard luck.

What is a cad?
  Origin: 1780–90
  Meaning: bounder, rotter, rascal, rogue; heel.