Bushrangers of the North East - The Golden Years of Bushranging

The north east of Victoria, during the gold rush years, was a paradise for bushrangers. They were an interesting collection of characters. There were the loners; more horse-stealers than bushrangers, like Bogong Jack, Mitta Mitta Jack and Tom Toke. There were authentic bushrangers such as Dan Morgan. And there were the Gangs - Black Douglas, Captain Moonlite and the Kellys. One bushranger knew them all. Harry Power, the happy-go-lucky rogue who engaged a youthful Ned Kelly as an apprentice, only to see the apprentice become more famous than the master. During his 30 years in Victoria, Power's life spanned what could be called the golden age of Bushranging, which began with the gold rush in the early 1850s, and ended with the last flicker of the Kelly Outbreak in the 1880s. Harry is there when the book opens at Williamstown in 1856, and the book closes with his death in the Murray River at Swan Hill in 1891. The bushrangers of the North East were different in motivation and method. Some were amazingly successful and defied capture. Others were easily caught. Their stories not only tell us something of crime and punishment in Victoria in the 19th century, but also of the rip-roaring society in which they operated...