bushrangers
Colonial Australian criminals
Bushrangers were outlaws who lived in the Australian bush, typically escaped convicts or bandits who robbed travelers and settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Some, like Ned Kelly, became folk heroes romanticized as rebels against colonial authority.
The term now applies loosely to anyone living rough in the Australian wilderness or behaving in a lawless manner.
Infamous Australian bushranger
- troopersEnlisted cavalry soldiers
- stockadeFence of sharpened stakes
- armourBody shielding for combat
- colonialOf occupied territories
convicts · squatters · selectors · Van Diemen's Land · Gold Rush
Narrative verse set to music
- legendsTraditional stories or icons
- talesSpoken or written narratives
- loreTraditional knowledge transmitted orally
- heroesAdmired courageous figures
antiheroes · stories · oral tradition · cultural memory · heritage · iconography · daring · roguery
Mounted thief targeting travelers
- robberyTheft through intimidation
- gangOrganized criminal group
- escapeFlight from captivity
- wantedLonged for
police · troopers · bounty · hideout · horseback · pursuit · convict · armed
One who steals by force
- brigandArmed robber, often rural
- desperadoBold, reckless outlaw
- raiderOne who attacks suddenly
- thiefOne who steals
criminal · fugitive · marauder · rustler · gunman · plunderer · pillager · looter
Uncultivated, uninhabited natural region
- backcountrySparsely populated wilderness areas
- untamedNot domesticated
- goldfieldsOre-bearing mining territories
- settlersThose who establish homes
homestead · stockman · exploration · remote · rugged · outback · trackless · isolated
Ned Kelly
Infamous Australian bushranger
colonial · convicts · squatters · selectors · Van Diemen's Land · Gold Rush
ballads
Narrative verse set to music
- legendsTraditional stories or icons
- talesSpoken or written narratives
- loreTraditional knowledge transmitted orally
heroes · antiheroes · stories · oral tradition · cultural memory · heritage · iconography · daring · roguery · swagman
highwayman
Mounted thief targeting travelers
wanted · police · troopers · bounty · hideout · horseback · pursuit · convict · armed · steal
robber
One who steals by force
thief · criminal · fugitive · marauder · rustler · gunman · plunderer · pillager · looter · highway robbery
wilderness
Uncultivated, uninhabited natural region
- backcountrySparsely populated wilderness areas
- untamedNot domesticated
- goldfieldsOre-bearing mining territories
settlers · homestead · stockman · exploration · remote · rugged · outback · trackless · isolated
- Australian HistoryCaptain Cook, Commonwealth, federation, explorers, Liberal Party
- Australianakangaroo, Vegemite, boomerang, koala, didgeridoo
- Colonial AustraliaBotany Bay, penal colonies, convicts, penal colony, colonial settlement
- raidersraiders, marauders, pillagers, plunderers, looters
- Van Diemen's Landconvicts, penal colony, Van Diemen's Land, transportation, penal settlement
- biographiesbiography, biographies, autobiography, autobiographies, memoir
bushrangerstroopers
Enlisted cavalry soldiers
police · lawmen · mounted police · constables · law enforcement
bushrangersstreet gangs
Territorial criminal groups
pickpockets · burglars · townspeople · city dwellers · footpads
bushrangerspastoralists
People raising grazing animals
landowners · gentry · squatters · free settlers · landed gentry