Australian Crimes - BUSHRANGERS. Bushranger. History[edit] More than 2000 bushrangers are believed to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and drawing to a close after Ned Kelly's last stand at Glenrowan.[3] 1850s: gold rush era[edit] The bushrangers' heyday was the Gold Rush years of the 1850s and 1860s 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 a police force decimated by troopers abandoning their duties to join the gold rush.[3] George Melville was hanged in front of a large crowd for robbing the McIvor gold escort near Castlemaine in 1853.[3] 1860s to 1870s[edit] Bushranging numbers flourished in New South Wales with the rise of the colonial-born sons of poor, often ex-convict squatters who were drawn to a more glamorous life than mining or farming.[3] Much of the activity in this era was in the Lachlan Valley, around Forbes, Yass and Cowra.[3]
Australian Bushrangers. Bushranger. Early Australian bushrangers. McFarlane & Erskine, Gold escort attacked by bushrangers, 187-, print: lithograph. Image courtesy of the : nla.pic-an8420450. Bushranging - living off the land and being supported by or stealing from free settlers - was either chosen as a preferred way of life by escaped or was a result of the lack of supplies in the early settlements. Australia's bushranging period spanned nearly 100 years, from the first convict bushrangers active from 1790 to the 1860s, through the of the 1860s and 1870s who were able to be shot on sight, to the shooting of the in 1880. While many bushrangers had populist reputations for being 'Robin Hood' figures; some bushrangers were brutal and others harassed the and diggers returning from the goldfields. The popularity of bushrangers and their ethos of 'fight before surrender' was commemorated in and .
Escaped convicts Bushranging began soon after the . The first bushrangers, 1790s - 1820s Martin Cash - 'The only bushranger to die in his own bed', 1820 - 1840s 1. 2.