Bushranger Cards
Description: In the 1800s Australia was home to a unique brand of outlaws called "bushrangers". Robbing travellers on the highways and also getting caught up in crimes ranging from arson to murder, bushrangers were a diverse collection of characters who often wore brightly coloured crimean shirts, moleskin trousers and cabbage tree hats creating a distinctive look.
Description: The most renowned of Australia's bushrangers, Ned Kelly has become a folk hero to many for his anti-authority stance. Known for his suit of home-made iron armour that he wore during the Glenrowan siege with its distinct cylindrical helmet, he is one of the most recognised figures in Australian history.
Description: Frederick Wordsworth Ward was a bushranger that operated under the name "Captain Thunderbolt" in the Uralla region of New South Wales. Accompanied by a range of off-siders including his wife Mary-Ann Bugg, he ruled the roads and became known as a gentleman bushranger. He held no truck with unnecessary violence or murder, turning away accomplices that had committed an act of either. He was eventually gunned down by a police constable as he tried to cross a creek on foot.
Description: Matthew Brady was one of the first major bushrangers in Australian history and led a moderately successful gang in Tasmania in the early 1800s. He earned a reputation as a gentleman bushranger through his courteous behaviour in spite of his criminality, but still found himself at the end of a rope for murder alongside cannibal and baby-killer Mike Jeffries (much to his chagrin).
Description: Born in one of the most tumultuous periods in Australian history, Joe Byrne was destined for a remarkable life. Classy, erudite and handsome, Joe was also a larrikin who could speak Cantonese and was an expert at stock theft. When he teamed up with Ned Kelly little did he know that his whole life would change completely.
Description: "I always said this bloody armour would bring us to grief!" Thus spake Joe Byrne to Ned Kelly as the pair of them reeled from their injuries during the Glenrowan siege. Joe's unique looking armour should have made him more protected from injury yet, true to his prediction, faith in the armour was unfounded - fatally so.
Description: Joe Byrne is remembered as the lieutenant of the Kelly Gang, a flash outlaw fond of song, alcohol and opium. An Outlaw's Journal portrays the side of Joe forgotten by many history books: the lover, the poet, a son struggling to live up to expectations thrust upon him in a world he doesn't fit into. Grounded by his love for his girlfriend Maggie, Joe's story is one of drama, romance and tragedy.
Description: Maggie worked at the Vine Hotel in Beechworth as General Servant, where she had been employed (I believe) since 1876. While the circumstances of their first meeting are unknown, Joe was certainly taken by the young woman and she with him. Throughout his outlawry, Joe regularly visited Maggie in her quarters at the Vine, with locals believing her lover to be Paddy Byrne, until she was overheard calling her late night visitor ‘Joe’.
Description: One of the most iconic images in Australian culture is the climactic moment from The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) when Ned Kelly finally collapses against a fallen tree and is captured. Here, that incredible visual is presented in colour to add a bit of drama to proceedings.
Description: Operating around Lambing Flat in the 1860s, Peisley was the sidekick of Frank Gardiner, who he did time with on Cockatoo Island, until he decided to branch out on his own. Peisley's penchant for booze proved to be his undoing, committing a murder in a drunken rage that resulted in him going to the gallows.
Description: Operating around Lambing Flat in the 1860s, Peisley was the sidekick of Frank Gardiner, who he did time with on Cockatoo Island, until he decided to branch out on his own. Peisley's penchant for booze proved to be his undoing, committing a murder in a drunken rage that resulted in him going to the gallows.
