Black Bunny's Bushrangers (T) - James Nesbitt. Gundagai, New South Wales, Australia
By Black Bunny on 28-Jan-21. Waypoint GA6012

Bushranger Series - James Nesbitt

James Nesbitt

James Nesbitt, was a member of the Wantabadgery Bushrangers led by Andrew George Scott alias Captain Moonlight. Nesbitt met Scott while both were serving time in Pentridge Prison. Growing up in a poor household with an abusive father, Nesbitt turned to crime at a young age and had been in and out of jail for petty theft since he was a teenager. Little is known about their relationship in Pentridge except that a day was added to Nesbitt’s sentence for ‘taking tea to Prisoner Scott’. Scott was released from Pentridge after serving less than 7 years, his sentence being reduced from 10 for good behaviour. Nesbitt, who had been released a year before, waited for him at the gates. Together they moved into a rundown boarding house in Fitzroy.

The Wantabadgery Bushrangers

Late October 1879 Andrew George Scott lead a group of men out of Melbourne looking for work. This group included Nesbitt, 19-year-old Frank Johns, 22-year-old ex-con Thomas Rogan and young 15-year-old Augustus Warnecke. Latter 18-year-old Graham Bennet joined their group. When no work was to be found hunger and desperation got the better of them and they held up Wantabadgery Station earning them the reputation as the Wantabadgery Bushrangers.

While they were holed up in the farmhouse of Edmund McGlede the police pursued them, leading to a gunfight. During the gunfight Nesbitt was shot in the head. It was reported that Scott pulled Nesbitt into his arms and held him as he died, sobbing uncontrollably.

Augustus Warnecke also died in the gunfight at the McGlede farm.

One police officer, Constable Bowen was mortally wounded in the gunfight; it is unknown who shot him but forensic evidence suggests it was not Scott or Nesbitt.

For further interesting reading, see:  https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2015/november/1446296400/jeff-sparrow/queer-bushranger

Bushrangers

Over 2,000 bushrangers are estimated to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and drawing to a close after Ned Kelly's last stand at Glenrowan.

Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term "bushranger" had evolved to refer to those who abandoned social rights and privileges to take up "robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base.

Bushranging thrived during the gold rush years of the 1850s and 1860s when the likes of Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner and John Gilbert led notorious gangs in the country districts of New South Wales. These Wild Colonial Boys typically robbed small-town banks and coach services.

In other infamous cases, such as that of Dan Morgan, the Clarke brothers, and Australia's best-known bushranger, Ned Kelly, numerous policemen were murdered.

The number of bushrangers declined due to better policing and improvements in rail transport and communication technology, such as telegraphy. Kelly's capture and execution in 1880 effectively represented the end of the bushranging era.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushranger and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Nesbitt_(bushranger)

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