THE BUSHRANGER'S PUB

SLY GROG SHOP. Source: history up close.

As you probably are aware, the blog posts are about outback and colonial Australia. The posts always feature a family member and will continue to do so. My family are an interesting and notorious bunch, they’ve come in many shades;  pioneers, participants in history-making events, hard drinkers, horse riders, reckless, storytellers, making fortunes, losing fortunes, thieves, gentry, convicts, soldiers. Last but not least, entrepreneurial.   

My ancestor, Daniel Geary had been a convict, policeman and hero during his time, but in the next phase of his adventurous life, he was also an entrepreneur. Instead of sitting on his porch nursing his invalided shoulder, regaling visitors with stories of shootouts with convicts, Daniel went into business. Well, it was a business but it wasn’t legal. Daniel bought a farm and set up a sly-grogging business (moonshining).  He did very well even with a stuffed shoulder.

Gold had been discovered and the miners didn’t mind a drop. Daniel did so well, that the authorities were soon alerted to a “drink craze” going on in the district. When Daniel was tipped off that he was soon going to be raided, he shut up business and went into a legitimate one. He bought a pub.

GEARY'S GAP. Source:ozroads.

Daniel built the pub on the busy road to Sydney, at the top of a range, overlooking Lake George. The area is now known as Geary’s Gap. Calling the pub, The Currency Lad, he served many a thirsty traveller after they had reached the top of the range. They arrived on horses, on foot or by coaches. He certainly picked the right location. Geary’s Gap was also a great location for the bushrangers to ply their trade. Travellers were often relieved of their valuables by the bushrangers at Geary’s Gap. Daniel Geary didn’t mind as he also used to serve the thirsty bushrangers ! Who knows, maybe he even tipped off the bushrangers.

BUSHRANGERS ROBBING A COACH. Source: wikipedia.

Daniel sold the pub after running it for ten years and became pound keeper in a place called Gundaroo (near modern day Canberra). Sadly, it didn’t end well for Daniel and his wife Bridget, as they lived out their days in an alcoholic haze, both succumbing to the effects of the grog. Ironic isn't it.

Next blog: a bush Christmas.        

SHOOTOUT

 INSIDE ABERCROMBIE CAVES. Source: blayney-nsw.

ABERCROMBIE CAVES. Source: panoramio.com

By the time the rebels had reached the caves, their numbers had markedly reduced. Most probably saw impending doom but there was a hard core of fourteen still led by Entwistle, ready to fight it out. 

Resting in the Abercrombie Caves, the rebels continued to the top of a waterfall where they decided to camp. It was here that the troopers and the volunteers finally caught up with the rebels.

The gun battle lasted for over an hour. By the end of it, two troopers were dead and Daniel Geary (my great,great, great grandfather) was badly wounded in the right shoulder. The rebels retreated back to the caves, losing their horses in the process.

The troopers continued to follow, searching the dark labyrinth of caves; trying to flush out the rebels. The rebels eluded the troopers, escaping the caves and heading to a hill now known as Bushrangers Hill ( A bushranger is an Australian outlaw).

BUSHRANGERS HILL. Source:snucklepuff.

Unfortunately, this is where they met the soldiers who had marched from Sydney. Although vastly outnumbered, the rebels decided to go down with a fight. In the firefight, another two soldiers and two rebels were wounded. Eventually, the rebels were totally surrounded and arrested. The two wounded rebels died whilst being taken back to Bathurst and another three managed to escape.The remaining ten, including Entwistle were hung on the 2^nd November 1830 in Bathurst at a spot now called Ribbon Gang Lane.

GALLOWS. Source:thinkprogress.org

Source: bushrangers.abercrombiecaves. 

 As for Daniel Geary, he was invalided out of the police and granted a pension for life. As a result of his shoulder wound he was never able to again raise his right arm above his elbow. Call it bureaucratic madness, because he still had to report to a government doctor every year to prove it hadn’t got any better!  More about Daniel Geary in my next blog.  

THE WHITE RIBBON GANG REBELLION

THE "AFFRONTED" GOVERNOR DARLING Source: historyservices.com

Ralph Entwistle was an unlikely lad to be leading a full scale rebellion. He was twenty-five, a bricklayer from Bolton, England and had been sentenced to life for stealing clothes.

The origins of the convict rebellion lay with Ralph and a mate having a “skinny-dip”. Ralph and his mate had been hauling wool on a bullock dray all day. It was hot and the two convicts decided to cool off in a nearby creek. Unfortunately for them, Governor Darling and his entourage were passing by on their way to Bathurst. The two nude convicts were spotted enjoying nature. The Governor was “affronted” and the two convicts were arrested. The punishment was severe. For causing “affrontment” to the Guv, each convict was flogged publicly, receiving fifty lashes each. That would have hurt.

Entwistle seethed for nine months and finally snapped. Ralph persuaded nine other convicts on the property to join him. Escaping one night, the convicts roamed the country for the next few days, stealing guns, horses and food as they went. By the end of two weeks, the gang had now grown to fifty.

 As many of the escaped convicts were Irish, they decided to wear white ribbons in their hats as a visible sign of rebellion. The convicts were imitating the Irish secret society known as the Ribbon Men. They were now calling themselves the White Ribbon Gang.

One morning, the convicts stormed a property of a magistrate seeking vengeance for his harsh treatment of the convicts. The magistrate wasn’t there but the unfortunate overseer was. When he refused to release the convicts on the property, the overseer was shot and killed.

The Ribbon Gang had now swelled to one hundred and thirty escaped convicts. The authorities in Sydney and Bathurst were expecting a full scale convict uprising. The convicts vastly outnumbered the free citizens of the colony. It would be a bloodbath.

ESCAPED CONVICTS. Source: halfacentury.

Two regiments of soldiers were dispatched from Sydney which was days away. Bathurst was closer, and the six local police troopers (Daniel Geary included) were on the spot. The police and the twelve citizen volunteers were soon on the trail of the convicts. The parties finally met at a place called Abercrombie Caves. In my next blog; the final shootout.                 

THE FIGHTING IRISH.

DOING TIME COLONIAL STYLE. Source: flickr.com 

Daniel Geary, son of Michael Geary. A wild, wild colonial boy. Daniel was so at odds with authority that he probably punched the midwife who delivered him. Daniel was born fighting. A true fighting Irishman.

Things were not helped much when he married a Bridget McLucas in the 1820s. She had a very interesting pedigree. Bridget like Daniel was born in the colony and also descended from convicts. The McLucas family were renowned in the colony as a family of thieves. They were also not shy in assaulting the police.  Sometimes I feel I’m descended from Australia’s first criminal family. Hold on, it does get worse.

In an altercation with a Thomas Campbell, Daniel Geary pulled a gun and shot him. Campbell survived but Daniel was sentenced to life for attempted murder. It looked like it was all over for Daniel. Poor Bridget was left behind with three children to raise in a state of dire poverty. Now this is something that the authorities don’t do anymore. Bridget petitioned the Governor (the Guv ran the colony) asking if she could join her husband in prison as she had no means to support herself. The Governor approved. So Bridget and the three kids soon joined Daniel in prison.

CONVICTS. Source: smh.com.au

However, that didn’t stop Daniel Geary escaping. He escaped several times. Maybe Daniel wanted to get away from the missus and the screaming kids. But he was recaptured and labelled a “notorious character”. But the Geary family had connections because in 1824 Daniel had been released and was working for a John McArthur, son of James McArthur, the colony’s richest man and the founder of the wool industry (Australia is the world’s leading producer of wool). 

Again there is another change of fortune. One right out of left field. Geary became a police officer constable and was posted to Bathurst (an inland town from Sydney). He’s swapped sides? The reason for the change of sides is that a convict would have their sentence markedly reduced if they became a police officer ( too many convicts, not enough lawmen) . Constable Geary would be soon putting his life on the line. In 1830, fifty convicts rebelled and were roaming the district killing and burning. They had to be stopped.

Strangely, it was a rebellion that started when the subsequent leader of the rebellion was caught bathing nude in a creek. All will be revealed in my next blog.