The bushrangers

The bushrangers of the 'gold rush' era were active around the goldfields areas. Some were ex-convicts, but many were just unfortunate victims of hard economic times who took to the roads as an easy way to exist.

Many were born in the bush and had an expert knowledge of horses and firearms, and the plains and mountain ranges they roamed in search of fortune and adventure. They had little regard for authority and no sympathy for weakness. The rush for gold following massive discoveries in Victoria in the 1850's presented ideal circumstances for them to exploit their skills.

Law and order in the colonies had been hampered by the mass exodus of law enforcement officers from jails and the police force to the goldfields. Thousands of head of livestock (скот) went unattended as shepherds and farm workers walked off the land to seek their fortunes. A bush-ranger found this easy pickings (воровство), supplying stolen horses, cattle and sheep to the earnest diggers, while the depleted law enforcement authorities had little chance and few resources to restrain them.

They next turned to the easier business of stealing gold as it was transported from the diggings to the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne. It became dangerous to travel the roads around the diggings and even well-armed parties were under threat if it was know they were carrying bullion (слиток золота).

While few of the bushrangers ever achieved the riches to enable them to escape their circumstances, many gained notoriety, and some even achieved the status of folk heroes. Sections of the poorer classes in Australia identified with the bushrangers's contempt for authority.

The names of Ben Hall, Ned Kelly, Frank Gardiner, 'Mad Dan' Morgan, Johnny Dunn, Johnny Vane, Martin Cash, and the Gilbert brothers are names linked with the rich, colourful and dangerous history of the gold rush.

Originally, the term bushranger referred to any person who worked in or made a living from the bush. It included hunters, wood splitters, etc. Eventually it came to mean any criminal who lived in the bush and made his living out of plundering travelers and bush dwellings.

Today, the word bushranger has adopted a more romantic meaning, referring to skill in bushcraft, knowledge of the bush, horsemanship, daring and gallantry and the concept of roaming the bush, wild and free, in defiance of authority‚ rather than the emphasis of banditry, robbery, murder, plundering, horse and cattle duffing (воровать скот, менять клеймо) and other serious crime which more properly defines the real activities of the bushranger.