The meaning of the word "Bushranger" has evolved over the years. In the early years of European settlement it referred to a good bushman with the hunting, horsemanship and survival skills needed to live in the Australian 'bush'.

Nobody can say accurately what the total number of bushrangers was, though there were probably hundreds, many of whom received little attention. Prison records show convictions for offences such as 'Robbery Under Arms' or 'Highway Robbery'.

Many books written about the Bushrangers identify three groups or 'waves' of bushranging, which helps us understand who they were. 

As the dumping ground for the worst of England's criminal system during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Australia became a society outside of the law. The majority of early immigrants were convicts or their keepers, resentful of authority and the harsh conditions of life in the hulks and penal settlements of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). Mary Lee describes those transported to Australia in her essay, Convicts in Australia.

'Between 1788 and 1868, 140 000 males and 25 000 females were transported to Australia as convicts." (Disher 1981, p1) Most of them were thieves, though many had committed more serious crimes. All of them were poor, and lived a mean existence in crowded prisons or hulks (prison ships), with poor food, hard labour and brutal punishment for wrongs. They worked for the wealthy landowners and free settlers, as well as constructing the roads, bridges and buildings for the new colony. The usual sentence was seven years transportation, but many could not bear it and became 'bolters', preferring to take their chances escaping into the bush. Alone in rough country without posessions they 'bailed up' travellers and robbed farms for money, horses, food, guns and clothing, and became the first bushrangers. 'The years of brutal treatment in prison, lack of food, and the need always to stay ahead of the police and settlers' guns, meant that normal standards of behaviour no longer applied for them' (Disher 1981, p4). They had no respect for the rights of others, had nothing to lose for their robbery and murder and were greatly feared. Stories of their depravity take in murder and cannibalism, though this latter abomination was the vice of a minority who had no qualms using their fellow absconders as a mobile food supply.

Many escapees had little chance of surviving in the bush of their new country. Few lived long in freedom. Some died of starvation, sickness or exposure, or were killed by the police and landowners. Those who were captured alive were hanged or flogged and those that survived died in prison or exile. 

The second factor that led to bushranging was the gold rush of the 1850's and 1860's which saw a mass exodus from the coastal cities to the ranges. Traffic on the roads to the early goldfields at Orange and Turon in New South Wales and Ballarat in Victoria was heavy. There were no banks on the gold fields, you carried your gold on you. Those who struck it rich became an easy target for those who preferred stealing to working. Many diggers were robbed or killed. 'On the Kiandra diggings in New South Wales in the 1860s, diggers formed the Miners' Protection Committee to protect their gold from the raids of Frank Gardiner's gang..' (Disher 1981 p19).

In Boldrewood's 'Robbery Under Arms' Dick Marston describes how he, like many bushrangers, examined the gold escort before it left the diggings: We used to go up sometines to see the gold escort start...The gold was taken down to Sydney once a week in a strong express wagon- something like a Yankee coach, with leather springs and a high driving seat; so that four horses could be harnessed. One of the police sergents generally drove, a trooper fully armed with rifle and revolver on the box beside him. In the back seat two more troopers with their Sniders ready for action; two more a hundred yards ahead, and another couple about the same distance behind.

Bushrangers held people up on the lonely roads near the gold fields and raided wealthy squatters with properties near the gold towns. The police of the time had little hope of keeping things under control and had a very poor image. Many of them had resigned the force to go after gold and the quality of new recruits was often dubious leading to the many newspaper catoons of the time which protrayed them as bumbling, incompetent or corrupt. One sarcastic comment from the Argus , 13 December 1856 reads, The police reward fund has now accumulated to a very large amount, and cannot be better laid out than by handsomely rewarding those who so readily risked their lives in ridding society of its greatest curse...

Check the Gold Rushes Page for more information on the Gold Rushes and the affect they had on bushranging.

Unlike the convicts who chose to take their risks in the bush to escape the harsh conditions of captivity, the next wave of bushrangers were native born, bush bred youths and young men, the sons in most cases of free poor settlers, who combined contempt for authority with a spirit of reckless adventure. They were stronger, healthier and better horsemen than their forebears, and some such as Captain Starlight, were eagre to acquire notoriety. Some like 'Mad' Dan Morgan were ruthless and vicious murderers, but others were almost admired for their daring, flashness and treatment of women. Four of the most notorious were Frank Gardiner, Ben Hall and Fred Ward and Ned Kelly.

Bushrangers raiding a household Published in Melbourne Punch, 1863