This month’s Gazette features articles about Ned Kelly, Mary Ann Bugg, the Queensland Native Police, bushranging around Sydney, and the launch of new websites for Tasmanian bushrangers. Continue reading Bushranging Gazette #14
Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 – 1857), Tuesday 14 March 1843, page 3 Domestic Intelligence. BUSHRANGERS.— On Sunday last the township of Richmond was put into great excitement by a report that Cash, Kavenagh, and Jones were in the neighbourhood. “What is to be done?” was the general inquiry, there being only two or three constables at the place. These, with the Police Magistrate and Captain Forth, were soon in pursuit, and in the end two men with a woman were apprehended ; the latter being an assigned woman from a farm near the township. It appears that being … Continue reading Spotlight: Cash and Co. near Richmond (14 March 1843)
We got to the place agreed on, and where I could see the main land at about two miles distance. We must get across to it, and had no boat. I was a very bad swimmer. and two miles was a long pull for a new beginner. But my two companions did not hesitate, but pulled off their trousers and plunged into the water, with me after them, with my trousers thrown over my neck, for I was determined to get over to the mainland or be drowned in the attempt. After swimming about a mile, one of my companions — and very soon after the other — was seized, and drawn down by the sharks. I was left alone to the mercy of the waves, expecting the same fate every minute. At last, after a desperate struggle, I got to the land, but had lost my trousers and shirt, and scrambled ashore quite naked. In this state I found myself alone in a bush that I did not know, and greatly grieved at the death of my two companions. I made a bed in the long grass and picked up some shellfish that kept me alive for three days. On the fourth day the constables saw me, and I was brought back to Port Arthur once more, where I was punished with 90 days’ solitary confinement and 12 months’ “E.H.L.C.” (extension with hard labour in chains). Continue reading Spotlight: A Bushranger’s Autobiography (part four)
Clipper (Hobart, Tas. : 1893 – 1909), Saturday 21 August 1897, page 4 EXIT SOLOMON BLAY. AN OLD TIME IDENTITY GONE. One of the connecting links between Vandemonia and Tasmania was severed on Wednesday last, when old Solomon Blay, erstwhile hangman, shuffled. Old Sol. of late years has been a constant source of interest to a certain class of the rising football-cycling generation, and his tales of the olden times would have been of some moment had they been half as truthful as they were useless. An ancient identity, cognomened Gypsy Smith, who lives out somewhere in the wilds of … Continue reading Spotlight: Exit Solomon Blay
A report on the trial of Lawrence Kavanagh, of Cash & Co., for highway robbery in Epping Forest. Continue reading Spotlight: Trial of Kavenagh.
A contemporary report on the second day of proceedings for Martin Cash’s murder trial. Continue reading Spotlight: The Trial of Martin Cash – Second Day
A contemporary report on the first day of proceedings for Martin Cash’s murder trial. Continue reading Spotlight: The Trial of Martin Cash – First Day
A report on the committal hearing of Martin Cash for the murder of Constable Peter Winstanley, featuring eye-witness accounts. Continue reading Spotlight: Apprehension and Committal of Martin Cash
In late January through early February of 2021, followers of A Guide to Australian Bushranging on social media would have seen a series of posts about Tasmania as writer and historian Aidan Phelan travelled through many historic locations, accompanied by … Continue reading A Guide to Tasmanian Bushranging (2021)
Cash and his party, about ten o’clock on Monday morning last stopped the Launceston coach on Epping Forest. They came up in a direction from the South Esk River, by a by-road which leads to one of Mr. Gibson’s farms… Continue reading Spotlight: Cash & co. rob a coach in Epping Forest.