Sam Poo: Chinese Bushranger

Sam Poo came to Australia from China to try his luck during the gold rush.

In 1865, Sam was scratching about unsuccessfully the worked-out gold claims in the Mudgee region as a "hatter" (a man who lived and worked by himself) when he decided to become a bushranger.

News soon circulated about a man of Chinese appearance who had stuck up a woman and her daughter on the Mudgee road. According to the woman, Elizabeth Golding, Poo said in pidgin-English, "if I cannot have my will of the girl, I will of you".

More reports surfaced about an armed Chinese man "bailing up" travellers on the Talbragar—Mudgee road. He had also threatened to shoot two stockmen.

Constable Ward, of Coonabaraban had been escorting a prisoner to Mudgee, when he met two men who claimed that a Chinese bushranger was robbing people at Barney's Reef. 

After finding Poo's camp, Constable Ward approached Poo and said, "What are you doing — put down your gun." Poo replied, "you policeman — me fire".  

Poo fired point blank at the constable, severely wounding him. As he fell, the constable fired at Poo, as Poo ran deeper into the bush.

Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Thursday 20 February 1936

The constable was found by two men and taken to Birriwa station and treated by Doctor William King, who rode 45 miles (72 kilometres) to treat Constable Ward. But he could not be saved. 

 

A manhunt in search of Poo ensued, until he was finally tracked down by Aboriginal tracker Henry Hughes in a gully 10 miles (16 kilometres) from Cobbora.

Poo fired at constables M'Mahon and Burns and ran off.

Tracker Hughes found Poo, and gun shots were exchanged.

Constable Todd fired and grazed Poo's head and neck, and Burns tried to grab Poo, but Poo tried to fire again. Burns hit Poo with the butt-end of his rifle, fracturing his skull.

On 10 April 1865, Poo was indicted on shooting at tracker Henry Hughes with intent to kill.

Hughes said in his testimony that Poo's gun shot hit the rim of his hat.

On 10 October 1865, at Bathurst Court House, Poo was tried for the murder of John Ward.

The government interpreter Sing Shigh, did not understand Poo's southern dialect. And Poo seemed to have no understanding of what was going on.

On 19 December 1865, Poo was hanged at the Bathurst Gaol. 

Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875), Friday 13 October 1865

Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW : 1856 - 1861; 1863 - 1889; 1891 - 1954), Saturday 30 December 1865

The First Australian Greeks

The first known Greeks to Arrive in Australia came in 1829. 

The seven Greeks were convicted of piracy by a British naval court, and were sentenced to transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales. They were later pardoned. 

Two of the Greeks, Ghikas Bulgaris, known as Jigger Bulgari, and Andonis Manolis, stayed in Australia. Jigger Bulgari married an Irish woman, and they had many children together.

Jigger is buried at Nimmitabel Pioneer Cemetery. And Andonis Manolis' grave is in the cemetery at Picton.

Ghikas Bulgaris, known as Jigger Bulgari, Nimmitabel Pioneer Cemetery.

The grave stone of Antonios Manolis, at Picton's cemetery, NSW

The first known free Greek settler to Australia was Katerina Georgia Plessos (1809–1907), who came to Sydney with her husband, Major James Crummer, in 1835.

The couple met on the island of Kalamos, where Crummer was the island's commandant. Katerina, the niece of a friend of Lord Byron, was a refugee from the Greek wars of independence.

Mary Bryant: She Escaped the Australian Penal Colony

Born Mary Broad in Cornwall, England, the daughter of a fisherman. Mary was convicted of highway robbery for the theft of a woman's bonnet and transported to Australia on the First Fleet.

Initially, Mary was sentenced to hang on 20 March 1786, but her sentence was commuted to seven years' transportation by the Judge.

Taken from Exeter jail to the hulk, Dunkirk off Plymouth, to alleviate the overcrowded jail, Mary lived with other convicted women in appalling and unhealthy conditions. These hulks were run by private individuals as floating prisons.

Conditions on the Dunkirk were so bad that the officer in charge complained: "many of the prisoners are nearly if not quite naked." The women prisoners held on board were brutalised by the marines supposed to be guarding them. (1.)

A hulk at Portsmouth In which convicts wcro housed pending deportation.

Mary was transported aboard the ship Charlotte and gave birth on the journey to a baby. However, after arriving in Australia, she married a fellow convict, William Bryant, and they had a child together. 

William was put in charge of fishing to provide food for the colony. But he was caught selling fish on the side, and received a 100 lashes. He made a plan to escape by boat.

Bryant obtained a chart, compass, quadrant, two muskets, ammunition and food from a Dutch mariner. And on a moonless night, William, Mary and the children, along with seven convicts, escaped in the governor's cutter.

After a hazardous voyage of sixty-nine days, the group reached Kupang, on the island of Timor, and posed as survivors from a shipwreck.

The truth soon came out that Mary, William and the others were escaped convicts, and they imprisoned by the Dutch governor. 

The fugitives were sent back to Britain to stand trial, but Mary lost William and both of her children on this journey. Of the group, only Mary Bryant, Allen, Broom alias John Butcher, Lillie, and Martin arrived back in England on 18 June 1792.

Escaping the expected death sentence, the escapees were ordered "to remain on their former sentences until they should be discharged by due course of law".

James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, took up Mary's case and lobbied the Home Secretary for royal pardons for her and the four Botany Bay escapees.

On 2 May 1793, Mary Bryant was pardoned and she was released from Newgate prison. Mary returned to her family in Cornwall, and Boswell provided her with £10 a year until his death in 1795.

This view of Newgate Prison when it was inside the old city gate, shows 'Dr Hales' machine for the ventilation of prison apartments above the battlements.

However, Allen, Broom alias Butcher, Lillie, and Martin had to wait until 2 November 1793 to be released by proclamation.

The Nanya Tribe: One of The Last to Live a Traditional Lifestyle

Nanya (c.1835-1895) was a member of the Maraura tribe of the lower Darling area. His tribe and others had been displaced due to European expansion and were living on camps and stations.

Oral tradition is that Nanya had a strong-will, and he came into conflict with his tribe because he wouldn't follow the strict marriage rules. He started a taboo relationship with a woman of his own moiety group, which is forbidden and punishable by death.

So Nanya, his lover, and another woman left his camp at Popiltah station, forty miles (64 km) north of Pooncarie and set off to the arid and unsettled land between the South Australian border and the western Anabranch of the Darling River.

Living in the remote area, known as the "Scotia blocks" for next the three decades, the group grew to include many children and grandchildren

The Nanya Clan lived off the land by hunting and gathering and obtaining water from the roots of various plants. However, by the 1890s, there were more sightings of the "wild tribe" as livestock spread into the region. 

A party led by local station owners set out in 1893 to capture the Nanya family, which now numbered 30 individuals. Later that year the clan were coerced by the party to return to the Popiltah station.

The Nanya family, shortly after their capture in 1894

The Nanya clan were in excellent physical condition and very healthy, but not for long. Within a few years, Nanya's children died from diseases to which they had no immunity, or became unhealthy and obese. One son, Billy, took his own life.

Nanya and two of his daughters

Nanya died in 1895 and was buried near the Great Anabranch.

When Burke and Wills Ran Out of Food

The Burke and Wills expedition, led by Robert O'Hara Burke and navigator William Wills, set out 20 August 1860, to cross the Australian continent from south to north.

Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, Photograph - 1862

On the return journey, the expedition ran out of food, and when the remaining camel died, they had no means to carry enough water to  allow the crossing of the Strzelecki Desert. Burke and Wills were stranded at Cooper's Creek.

The Yandruwandha Aboriginal people, however, managed to live in these harsh conditions, by collecting and processing the sporocarps (seed-like spore cases) of the Nardoo fern, to make Nardoo cakes.

Seeing the Aboriginal people eating Nardoo cakes, Burke and Wills decided to collect Nardoo fern and make their own, Nardoo cakes. But to safely eat the plant, it must be processed to remove the high levels of the enzyme Thiaminase, which causes Thiamin (Vitamin B1) deficiency or Beri-Beri.

Common nardoo, Marsilea dummondii, on a pond in the Dandenongs, Casliber

Burke and Wills didn't know about the plant poison. So, as they made and ate their cakes, they became weaker and soon died.

The Yandruwandha people did not know about the poisons in the plants either. However, they had cultural knowledge passed on by social learning.

Over their long history, especially when food sources were scarce, Yandruwandha individuals would have used trial and error and over time, made discoveries about processing the Nardoo to make it safe for consumption. This knowledge was passed through the generations, by cultural knowledge and imitation.

Social learning is a very effective means to pass on knowledge, that persists over time and this helped the Yandruwandha people to survive by processing a toxic food. Burke and Wills did not have this cultural knowledge, so the toxic food killed them.

Australia's First Attempted Political Assassination

In 1868, Prince Alfred, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria was 23 years old, when he visited Australia.

 Alfred (Alfred Ernest Albert; 6 August 1844 – 30 July 1900, Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954), Sunday 31 January 1954

It was on 12th of March, that the Prince was a guest at the Sailor's Picnic at the harbourside suburb of Clontarf, New South Wales, when Henry O'Farrell, aged 35, came up behind the Prince and fired a revolver into his back.

Henry James O'Farrell, author of the assassination attempt on Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, ca. 1868

A local coach-maker named William Vial tackled O'Farrell. Immediately assisted by other bystanders, who outraged and enraged by O'Farrell's actions, came close to lynching him. 

The police arrived and whisked O'Farrell away after he had been beaten severely by the mob.

The prince sustained a serious injury to the right of the spine and was in hospital for two weeks.

A period of intense anti-Catholic and general, anti-Irish sentiment, followed, despite religion or affiliation. 

After his trial, O'Farrell was convicted and sentenced to death by judge Alfred Cheeke.

Alfred Cheeke (10 March 1810 – 14 March 1876) was a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier (NSW : 1872 - 1881), Friday 31 March 1876

O'Farrell was hanged on 21 April 1868 in the Darlinghurst Gaol.

 Darlinghurst Gaol. It's not a bird cage, it's the scaffold. Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Sunday 27 April 1913

The Lady Bushranger With Convict Father and Aboriginal Mother

Born 7 May 1834, Mary Ann Bugg would grow up to become a notorious bushranger along with her significant other, Frederick Ward, otherwise known as Captain Thunderbolt.

Born at the Berrico outstation of the Australian Agricultural Company near Gloucester, NSW, to father, James Bugg, who had been transported from England for stealing two lambs, a wether sheep and two pigs. And an Aboriginal mother named Charlotte, Mary Ann received education in Sydney, but just after her fourteenth birthday, she married a man named Edmund Baker.

Mary Ann may have had a child during her marriage, but this is uncertain.

The marriage didn't last long, and soon, Mary Ann was in a relationship with another man, John Burrows. With him, she gave birth to two sons.

In 1855 Mary Ann was in a relationship with ex-soldier James McNally, with whom she had another three children. At This time, she was living near Mudgee.

in 1860, Bugg met ticket-of-leave convict Frederick Ward, who would later to become the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt.

Soon after meeting Frederick Ward (Captain Thunderbolt), Mary Ann was pregnant, and so, Ward took her back to her father's farm near Dungog.

Leaving Mudgee caused Ward to be in breach of the ticket-of-leave regulations. But he was also late for the convict muster and, he had returned to Mudgee on a horse that the owner claimed had been "stolen".

With his ticket-of-leave revoked, Ward was sent back to Cockatoo Island to serve the remaining six years of his previous ten-year sentence, along with an additional three years for the stolen horse.

Cockatoo Island - Old Sydney - 1819, Kaye

Meanwhile, Mary Ann gave birth to their daughter Marina Emily in 1861.

On 11 September 1863, Ward and, Frederick Britten, managed to escape Cockatoo Island, after hiding for two days, then swimming from the north side of the island, possibly to Woolwich.

Ward and Britten made their way to the New England district and robbed a shepherd's hut at Gostwyck, near Uralla on 24 October 1863.

A few days later, whilst concealing themselves near Big Rock and waiting to ambush the mail, the pair were spotted by troopers and Ward was shot in the back of the left knee.

Ward's crime spree had begun. However, it was during the Rutherford toll-bar robbery on 21 December 1863, when Ward woke the customs officer by banging loudly on the door, that he adopted his name Captain Thunderbolt. Delaney, the customs officer is said to have exclaimed, "By God, I thought it must have been a thunderbolt."

Returning to collect Mary Ann at Dungog, Ward, Mary Ann and two of the children travelled to north-west of Walgett and lived quietly for a time. 

Mary Ann was on the run with Ward as he committed robberies from the Hunter Region north to Queensland and from Tamworth nearly as far west as Bourke. She was the lookout, the scout and the food provider. 

Mary Ann Bugg (7 May 1834 – 22 April 1905) 

Mary Ann also had her own brushes with the law, such as being convicted of stealing 12 yards of fabric. But after a public outcry, it was found that Mary Ann was "wrongfully convicted", and she was released.

The relationship between Ward and Mary Ann Bugg came to an end in 1867. She would, however, marry another man and give birth to at least five more children.

Frederick “Captain Thunderbolt” Ward was eventually shot by Constable Walker in 1870, after he first shot Thunderbolt’s horse, in swampland near Uralla.

Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907), Saturday 4 June 1870, 

Photo of Fred Ward (Captain Thunderbolt) after autopsy, having been shot in 1870.