1 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: If you believed that someone had wronged him or put 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: him at risk. He was willing to use lethal force 3 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:10,320 Speaker 1: in order to exact what he considered to be justice. 4 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:13,480 Speaker 1: So this is the moment that Morgan went from being 5 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:17,040 Speaker 1: a highway robber to being someone extremely dangerous. 6 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:22,119 Speaker 2: I'm Jen Kelly from The Herald Son and this is 7 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:25,279 Speaker 2: in Black and White, a podcast about some of Australia's 8 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 2: forgotten characters. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome a wonderful new 9 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:34,239 Speaker 2: guest to the podcast, Melbourne historian Aidan Feelin, who's the 10 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:38,920 Speaker 2: creator of a guide to Australian Bushranging dot com and 11 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:42,680 Speaker 2: the author of the novel Glen Rowan. As you'll discover, 12 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:46,559 Speaker 2: Aiden has a wealth of knowledge about every aspect of 13 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:51,400 Speaker 2: Australia's fascinating history of bush rangers. Today, he's chosen to 14 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:54,280 Speaker 2: share with us the tale of the man who was 15 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:59,240 Speaker 2: nicknamed Mad Dan Morgan and was once called the most 16 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:03,760 Speaker 2: blood thirsty Ruffian that ever took to the bush in Australia. 17 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 2: Dan Morgan was so notorious that he became an inspiration 18 00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:11,679 Speaker 2: to the Kelly Gang, who was said to have ridden 19 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:15,680 Speaker 2: through the streets of Jerialdary after robbing the bank shouting 20 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 2: Hurrah to the good old days of Morgan and Ben Hall. 21 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:23,360 Speaker 2: Here's Aida now with part one of the story and 22 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 2: come back on Thursday to year part two. Welcome to 23 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:32,720 Speaker 2: the podcast, Aden, Thank you now. I noticed that Dan 24 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:35,440 Speaker 2: Morgan was once described back in nineteen oh eight in 25 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:39,560 Speaker 2: the Wogga Wogger Advertiser as the most bloodthirsty ruffian that 26 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:42,400 Speaker 2: ever took to the bush in Australia. And I imagine 27 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 2: that that's a pretty big call. Is that one of 28 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:49,800 Speaker 2: the reasons that he's a standout for you among the 29 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:53,040 Speaker 2: many pushrangers that you've researched over the decades, And is 30 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 2: that why you've chosen him as the first one for 31 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 2: us to chat about today. 32 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's one of those things you saw to look 33 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,320 Speaker 1: at and you go, well, they're calling the most bloodthirsty 34 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,840 Speaker 1: ruffian whoever existed, and all these kind of terms, and 35 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 1: you start to wonder how accurate could that possibly be? 36 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,119 Speaker 1: And so I started to dig and dig and discovered 37 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 1: that a lot of what we knew about Morgan was 38 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:20,079 Speaker 1: not quite true. Some of it was not true at all, 39 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 1: and it's just been absolutely fascinating to uncover, like the 40 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 1: layers of an onion, the real man beneath all of 41 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:29,440 Speaker 1: the hyperbole. 42 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,920 Speaker 2: Ah interesting, Now is it true that his real identity 43 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:36,400 Speaker 2: still remains unknown even to this day? 44 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:39,079 Speaker 3: That's true. P. 45 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 1: One of the problems with Dan Morgan is that he 46 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:44,240 Speaker 1: used so many aliases during the course of his outlaw 47 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,480 Speaker 1: life that no one actually knows who he really was. 48 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: And there are two leading theories. One which is most 49 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:55,240 Speaker 1: popular in the moment, which is pushed by a lot 50 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,960 Speaker 1: of historians like Egger Penzig, It was that he was 51 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: a man named John Fuller, who was the son of 52 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:07,119 Speaker 1: George Fuller, who was a costamonger, and Mary Owen, who 53 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,320 Speaker 1: was a woman who was apparently nicknamed the Gipsy because 54 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:15,760 Speaker 1: she had long, black, curly hair. And apparently the story 55 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,519 Speaker 1: goes this is published just after Morgan had been killed, 56 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:22,080 Speaker 1: that at the age of two, he was given to 57 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: a man named Jack the Welshman to be raised as 58 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 1: a stockman, and then his sort of his life unfiled 59 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:32,080 Speaker 1: from there. But there's not a lot of substance to it. 60 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:34,200 Speaker 1: There's not a lot that we can sort of pinpoint 61 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:39,080 Speaker 1: and say, yes, this is legitimate. However, it has sort 62 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 1: of taken root as the preferred theory by a lot 63 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 1: of people, and the other leading theory is the one 64 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: that was put forward first by Margaret Carnegie in her 65 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:51,560 Speaker 1: book Morgan the Bold bush Ranger back in nineteen seventy four, 66 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 1: which was that he was actually the son of convicts. 67 00:03:56,600 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: So her research was based on an article which is 68 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:03,280 Speaker 1: also published around the same time that the other one 69 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: that talked about Jack the Welshman was published, and it 70 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:11,200 Speaker 1: said that, you know, he was the son of former 71 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: convicts named Moron living around Campbelltown. So she used that 72 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:18,600 Speaker 1: as a jumping off point and was able to track 73 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:24,760 Speaker 1: down a family, William Morron and Marianne Telford, who lived 74 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:30,480 Speaker 1: around Campbelltown in the eighteen thirties, and their son William 75 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:34,599 Speaker 1: Morron Jr. Who was the only one in the three 76 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,280 Speaker 1: children who was given the Morron surname. The others were 77 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: given their father's alternate surname of McNally, but William Morron 78 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: was apparently the leading candidate in her mind because the 79 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:52,200 Speaker 1: details seemed to link up pretty well with what little 80 00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:55,719 Speaker 1: we knew. So those are the leading theories. But as 81 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:58,000 Speaker 1: I say that, we haven't been able to nail it 82 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,919 Speaker 1: down to the point where we can say definitive. This 83 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:05,400 Speaker 1: is absolutely the truth and no one can argue with it. 84 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:08,800 Speaker 2: And it's hard to imagine that we ever will know 85 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:11,599 Speaker 2: for sure what his real name was when he was born. 86 00:05:12,279 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 2: Is there anything else that we do know about his 87 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 2: first couple of decades of life. 88 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:20,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, so a lot of what we know about Morgan's 89 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:25,480 Speaker 1: early life basically comes from things that he told other people, 90 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 1: and those people occasionally would tell journalists. So we knew 91 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,480 Speaker 1: that he grew up around Campbelltown because apparently when he 92 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: was in prison he talked about that, and he said 93 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:40,279 Speaker 1: he was a very bad boy and his parents could 94 00:05:40,279 --> 00:05:42,480 Speaker 1: do nothing with him, which kind of tallies up when 95 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:47,560 Speaker 1: you stop and think about it. But in those accounts, 96 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: he also stated that he tended to abscorne from school 97 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:53,919 Speaker 1: quite a lot to go and hide out in the bush, 98 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:57,000 Speaker 1: and he subsisted on possums and grubs and whatever else 99 00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:01,480 Speaker 1: he could catch, and that sort of I guess, would 100 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,400 Speaker 1: have set his life on the trajectory that it ended 101 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:07,680 Speaker 1: up going in. But we don't really know anything definitive 102 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:10,920 Speaker 1: about him until he shows up in the eighteen fifties 103 00:06:12,040 --> 00:06:15,279 Speaker 1: going by the nickname of either Sydney Native or build 104 00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:16,599 Speaker 1: the Native and. 105 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:23,520 Speaker 2: Those are interesting nickname. So why native? Was he dark skinned? 106 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:27,599 Speaker 1: Well, it's a fascinating thing. I've been trying to ascertain 107 00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:31,920 Speaker 1: what prompted that name. Now, the first thing that sort 108 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:34,840 Speaker 1: of pops out at my mind is the fact that 109 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 1: he was born in Australia. In all of the different 110 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: accounts that we have of him, he was Native born, 111 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,080 Speaker 1: which you know, a lot of the young men at 112 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:45,599 Speaker 1: that time were taking a lot of pride in the 113 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:49,000 Speaker 1: fact that they were born in Australia. So it's possible 114 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:52,960 Speaker 1: that he used that to differentiate himself from other people. 115 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:56,239 Speaker 1: But it's also possible that because he did have long, 116 00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: dark hair, and some people described him as having something 117 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: of a dark complexion, that he may have been mistaken 118 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:08,000 Speaker 1: for Indigenous. I think it's unlikely. I think more than 119 00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:11,200 Speaker 1: likely he referred to himself as the Native because of 120 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:13,640 Speaker 1: the fact that he was Australian born. 121 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:17,240 Speaker 2: Interesting. I'm also just thinking about the fact that he 122 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:21,960 Speaker 2: was eating bush foods like perhaps Aboriginal people, whether that's 123 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:23,240 Speaker 2: a clue perhaps. 124 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:27,240 Speaker 1: I've thought about that, and I think that that's very probable. 125 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:30,440 Speaker 1: We do know that when he became a bushranger later on, 126 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:33,360 Speaker 1: he did have a lot of interactions with indigenous people, 127 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 1: and he used a lot of indigenous people as his 128 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:40,960 Speaker 1: bush telegraphs who would sort of keep an eye on 129 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:43,440 Speaker 1: what the police are up to and let him know 130 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:45,880 Speaker 1: where they were and how to avoid them. So it's 131 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:48,760 Speaker 1: very possible that he managed to find some Indigenous people 132 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:52,800 Speaker 1: that taught him how to find food and survive at 133 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:53,680 Speaker 1: in the wilderness. 134 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:57,600 Speaker 2: So this was that eighteen fifties when he first started 135 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 2: committing crimes that we know of. Would he have been 136 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:05,120 Speaker 2: in his early twenties or just a teenager at this time. 137 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:10,280 Speaker 1: So all of the reports that we have that sort 138 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 1: of indicate how old he would be suggests he was 139 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:16,400 Speaker 1: born around eighteen thirty, so he would have been sort 140 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:21,520 Speaker 1: of in his mid twenties when he first really emerges 141 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:27,720 Speaker 1: on the scene stealing horses around Evoca in Victoria. And 142 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:31,560 Speaker 1: it was eighteen fifty four when he was finally brought 143 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:35,400 Speaker 1: to heel. He committed a robbery of a chap named 144 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:38,800 Speaker 1: John Duff, who he kind of went into the house 145 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:41,320 Speaker 1: and robbed and tied the people up to a tree, 146 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:45,840 Speaker 1: and that kind of led to the police being sent 147 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:50,520 Speaker 1: out to actually actively hunt him down. So Sergeant kale 148 00:08:51,400 --> 00:08:53,000 Speaker 1: At a party of the police. They managed to track 149 00:08:53,040 --> 00:08:55,960 Speaker 1: him down to this little bush hut and they went 150 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:58,760 Speaker 1: in and found him hiding under the bed with a 151 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:00,360 Speaker 1: couple of pistols in his hand, and there was a 152 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:03,640 Speaker 1: bit of a standoff. All the police were standing around 153 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:06,120 Speaker 1: the bed with their pistols pointed at the bed, and 154 00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaker 1: Morgan was underneath the bed saying he was never going 155 00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:12,920 Speaker 1: to come out. But eventually he managed to see a 156 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:15,840 Speaker 1: bit of wisdom and realize he was outgunned and surrendered. 157 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: And so that was the first time that we managed 158 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:22,920 Speaker 1: to see him brought to heel for any of his crimes. 159 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:25,520 Speaker 1: And he was referring to himself at that point as 160 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:26,240 Speaker 1: John Smith. 161 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:31,480 Speaker 2: John Smith, okay. And he went to trial, and he 162 00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:34,760 Speaker 2: went up against a famously harsh judge that time, didn't. 163 00:09:34,559 --> 00:09:39,320 Speaker 1: He So he was tried in Castlemaine, and the person 164 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:42,880 Speaker 1: who put him on trial Sir Edmond Barry. He is 165 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:46,520 Speaker 1: very well known to anyone who has a fascination for 166 00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:51,040 Speaker 1: colonial history or bushrangers in particular. Most people will know 167 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:55,200 Speaker 1: Barry for his role in sending Ned Kelly to the gallows. 168 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:59,600 Speaker 1: Decades later. He was also the judge that sent Captain 169 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:03,920 Speaker 1: Moonlight prison for a while for robbing the bangut mant Edjutant. 170 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:06,760 Speaker 1: So he was a character who popped up quite a 171 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:09,720 Speaker 1: bit in bush Ranger history, and he was sort of 172 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,000 Speaker 1: a circuit judge, so he would travel around and do 173 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:18,520 Speaker 1: the different sessions. And so John Smith, alias Sydney Native, 174 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:23,080 Speaker 1: was put on trial in front of Barry and found 175 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:25,880 Speaker 1: guilty sen uce to twelve years hard labor, with the 176 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:27,680 Speaker 1: first two years to be served deny irons. 177 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:32,080 Speaker 2: That feels like a it's a pretty harsh punishment or 178 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:33,560 Speaker 2: was that pretty standard at the time. 179 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,400 Speaker 1: It was pretty standard at the time. It has to 180 00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:39,880 Speaker 1: be remembered, of course, that we were only just coming 181 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:42,560 Speaker 1: out of that period in our history where we were 182 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,200 Speaker 1: still our laws were still subject to the Bloody Code, 183 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:49,920 Speaker 1: which was the way things were done over in England, 184 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:55,120 Speaker 1: which basically stated that anything that was a crime against 185 00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:59,200 Speaker 1: property over the value of about twelve shillings could potentially 186 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:02,319 Speaker 1: be a hanging affair. A lot of those laws had 187 00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:06,439 Speaker 1: been toned down and commuted to transportation in that time, 188 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:10,960 Speaker 1: but there was still the belief that a crime against 189 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:14,720 Speaker 1: property was something very very severe. So in this case, 190 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:18,440 Speaker 1: because he had stolen clothes and things like that, they 191 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:20,800 Speaker 1: wanted to make an example of him, and so they 192 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:25,079 Speaker 1: gave him the most harsh reasonable sentence that they could 193 00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 1: give him, which was the twelve years, two months, sorry, 194 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:35,200 Speaker 1: two years to be served in irons. Was probably a 195 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:39,520 Speaker 1: sign that it was quite a harsh punishment in some regard, 196 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:42,000 Speaker 1: because it meant that for the first two years of 197 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:45,160 Speaker 1: that twelve years he would have to have leg irons 198 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:49,640 Speaker 1: actually bolted onto his ankles, so that would make it 199 00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:51,840 Speaker 1: a little bit harder for him to get around, but 200 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:55,360 Speaker 1: it would also be disincentive for him to try and escape. 201 00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 2: So does that mean that they were on twenty four 202 00:11:57,440 --> 00:11:58,080 Speaker 2: hours a day. 203 00:11:58,559 --> 00:11:59,199 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 204 00:11:59,400 --> 00:12:01,640 Speaker 1: You go back and look at some of the old 205 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:05,520 Speaker 1: convict uniforms and prison uniforms from that era. They button 206 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:07,400 Speaker 1: up at the side of the leg because they couldn't 207 00:12:07,400 --> 00:12:09,240 Speaker 1: actually take their transits on and off if they had 208 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:10,000 Speaker 1: to bathe or. 209 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:15,599 Speaker 3: Use the facilities as it were. So those. 210 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:20,240 Speaker 1: Leg irons were actually bolted on by blacksmith when they 211 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:22,880 Speaker 1: were brought into the prison, and then once they were 212 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:25,880 Speaker 1: allowed to be removed, the blacksmith would have to literally 213 00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:28,760 Speaker 1: take the bolt out in order to remove them. And 214 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:32,320 Speaker 1: if you were particularly well, particularly well behaved, you would 215 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:35,640 Speaker 1: get the light irons, but if you were badly behaved 216 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:38,400 Speaker 1: and you continue to reoffend in prison, they would give 217 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:42,560 Speaker 1: you heavier and heavier leg irons. And so this is 218 00:12:42,559 --> 00:12:45,680 Speaker 1: definitely a hangover from the convict era where we would 219 00:12:45,679 --> 00:12:50,040 Speaker 1: occasionally see people crippled because they've been carrying around this 220 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:52,680 Speaker 1: extra weight on their ankles for prolonged periods of time. 221 00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:55,520 Speaker 2: It was a pretty good way to make sure that 222 00:12:55,559 --> 00:12:56,439 Speaker 2: they couldn't try to. 223 00:12:56,520 --> 00:13:01,199 Speaker 1: Escape absolutely, and I mean sometimes they did. Sometimes are 224 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:06,040 Speaker 1: really clever and able to find ways to warp the 225 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:08,199 Speaker 1: leg irons enough that they could get their ankles out, 226 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:11,280 Speaker 1: but sometimes they would actually escape with them on and 227 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:13,800 Speaker 1: then have to find a way to remove them. But 228 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:16,480 Speaker 1: nine times out of ten, if you had the leg 229 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:17,959 Speaker 1: irons on, you weren't getting very far. 230 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:21,160 Speaker 2: Now, Dan Morgan served a lot of that time at 231 00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:24,000 Speaker 2: Williamstown in the hulks. Can you tell us more about 232 00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:25,680 Speaker 2: that and what that would have been like. 233 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:31,040 Speaker 1: So, because at that time there was a huge boom 234 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:34,599 Speaker 1: in crime thanks to the gold Rush, a lot of 235 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:37,959 Speaker 1: the prisons filled up very quickly, and so the hulks 236 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:42,440 Speaker 1: at Williamstown at Point Jellybrand were a way of dealing 237 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:45,439 Speaker 1: with that overflow. What the government did was it purchased 238 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:49,240 Speaker 1: a bunch of old cargo ships and things that had 239 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:52,360 Speaker 1: been abandoned by people who decided they'd rather go and 240 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:54,880 Speaker 1: find their fortune on the goldfields than on the high seas, 241 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:59,480 Speaker 1: and they converted them into floating prisons. So these holts 242 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:04,880 Speaker 1: were basically anchored at a short distance away from the shore, 243 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:08,280 Speaker 1: but far enough away that people couldn't just jump off 244 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 1: and swim to freedom. The particular ones that Morgan was 245 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:17,240 Speaker 1: said to have been on were the President and the 246 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:21,920 Speaker 1: success Now the President was considered to be for the 247 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:24,480 Speaker 1: worst of the worst. Well, what happened when you went 248 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:27,960 Speaker 1: to the President was all of your clothing was destroyed, 249 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:32,120 Speaker 1: your hair and beard were cut off, and you were 250 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:35,560 Speaker 1: put in a tiny little cell with very little light 251 00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:39,400 Speaker 1: and no stimulus. You weren't allowed to read, you weren't 252 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:42,040 Speaker 1: allowed to talk. You just sat in silence for the 253 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:44,800 Speaker 1: duration of the time that you were in that cell. 254 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,440 Speaker 1: And if you were poorly behaved, there are a whole 255 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:51,040 Speaker 1: range of cruel and unusual punishments that they had waiting 256 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:52,840 Speaker 1: for you, one of which was said to have been 257 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:58,440 Speaker 1: they had cells below deck that were small enough that 258 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:02,720 Speaker 1: you could crouch in the but not stand up fully upright, 259 00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:05,240 Speaker 1: and so they'd hang you up by your thumbs, so 260 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:07,680 Speaker 1: you wouldn't be able to sit down or stand up. 261 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 1: And because it was sort of just on the waterline, 262 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:14,880 Speaker 1: occasionally when the tide came in, the water would come 263 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:18,440 Speaker 1: in through a hole or a window into the cell. 264 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:22,960 Speaker 1: So it was just this dank, wet, horrible environment that 265 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:26,239 Speaker 1: you didn't want to be in. And so that apparently 266 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:29,280 Speaker 1: was where Morgan spent the first part of his sentence. 267 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:32,120 Speaker 1: And when he finally got to the point where he 268 00:15:32,160 --> 00:15:34,800 Speaker 1: could sort of upgrade, he was taken a success which 269 00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:38,880 Speaker 1: was still pretty high security, but he was then able 270 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:42,120 Speaker 1: to go out and join the work parties. And so 271 00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:45,360 Speaker 1: what would happen is every day they'd get out onto 272 00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:48,560 Speaker 1: a boat, row out onto the shore where they'd be 273 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:51,080 Speaker 1: sent off to different jobs like breaking rocks or building 274 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:53,480 Speaker 1: sea walls, that kind of thing. And it was a 275 00:15:53,520 --> 00:15:59,120 Speaker 1: pretty heavy amount of work breaking up bluestone. And we 276 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:02,800 Speaker 1: know that it had an impact all of this on 277 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: Morgan's mentality because when he's first described during the time 278 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: when he was being put on trial, he was described 279 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:14,920 Speaker 1: as being a determined and daring character with a strong 280 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:17,960 Speaker 1: spice of the romantic about him, but when we hear 281 00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:24,400 Speaker 1: him described in the years afterwards, it's almost unrecognizable. He's 282 00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:27,720 Speaker 1: sort of broken down. He's not very confident. A lot 283 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:31,000 Speaker 1: of the time he looks unwell. And one of the 284 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:34,320 Speaker 1: notable features was that the tip of the third finger 285 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:38,080 Speaker 1: on his right hand had been crushed off by a 286 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:41,400 Speaker 1: rock during one of these excursions out to the quarret 287 00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:45,360 Speaker 1: Point Jellybrands. So he was physically scarred as well as 288 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:49,560 Speaker 1: mentally scarred. So it was a very harsh environment to 289 00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:50,800 Speaker 1: be living in at that time. 290 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:52,160 Speaker 3: If you're a convict. 291 00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:56,600 Speaker 2: And aiden, I understand that the Williamstown Time Ball Tower 292 00:16:56,760 --> 00:16:58,840 Speaker 2: was operating back then, can you tell it? And it's 293 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:01,160 Speaker 2: still there today, And I'm sure that lots of people 294 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:04,320 Speaker 2: who visited Point Jellibrand would have seen the time ball Tower, 295 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:07,200 Speaker 2: So can you tell us about the tower, what it 296 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:08,800 Speaker 2: does and what it did back then? 297 00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:12,439 Speaker 1: Yeah, So the time Ball Tower, to my understanding, was 298 00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:16,600 Speaker 1: basically like a big clock. There's a big brass ball 299 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:18,800 Speaker 1: that would be at the top of a spire at 300 00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:22,360 Speaker 1: the top of the tower, and when you were sent 301 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:24,040 Speaker 1: out to work would be at the top when it 302 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:26,439 Speaker 1: was time to take a break, the ball would drop, 303 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:29,520 Speaker 1: and so that was the way of telegraphing to the 304 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:35,000 Speaker 1: ships out in the bay that it was time to 305 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,040 Speaker 1: bring them in or send them out. And that was 306 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:41,960 Speaker 1: a way of keeping time that was a little bit 307 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:44,639 Speaker 1: more efficient than using a clock, because you wouldn't have 308 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:48,199 Speaker 1: been able to see a clock on those hulks. So 309 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:51,600 Speaker 1: it's one of the only things we actually have left 310 00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:57,560 Speaker 1: intact from that period. But it's a pretty remarkable piece 311 00:17:57,600 --> 00:17:58,600 Speaker 1: of colonial history. 312 00:17:58,640 --> 00:17:59,120 Speaker 3: I think. 313 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:03,000 Speaker 2: Now Aiden Dan Morgan would have been there at the 314 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:08,080 Speaker 2: time when a very important official named John Price was murdered. 315 00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:11,360 Speaker 2: Can you tell us who John Price was and exactly 316 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:13,639 Speaker 2: what happened in Dan Morgan's role in that. 317 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:18,399 Speaker 1: So John Price was the Inspector General of Prisons and 318 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,080 Speaker 1: he was not well liked by the convict class. He 319 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:27,400 Speaker 1: very much believed in harsh punishments and he was actually 320 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:32,240 Speaker 1: there at Point Jellybrand on this fateful day because he 321 00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:37,080 Speaker 1: was responding to claims that convicts were being given cruel 322 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:41,240 Speaker 1: and unusual punishments. And while he was sort of walking 323 00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:45,639 Speaker 1: on the foreshore interviewing some of these convicts, there was 324 00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:50,600 Speaker 1: a fellow who basically he was on the last month 325 00:18:51,359 --> 00:18:53,920 Speaker 1: of his sentence and had been found with a little 326 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:56,640 Speaker 1: bit of extra bread than he was supposed to have had, 327 00:18:56,720 --> 00:18:59,400 Speaker 1: so he was given a period of time in solitary 328 00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:02,359 Speaker 1: and a new rule had just been brought in that 329 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:07,439 Speaker 1: if anyone does a solitary confinement during the course of 330 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:10,920 Speaker 1: their sentence, an extra three months was added onto the sentence. 331 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:14,440 Speaker 1: So they bailed up John Price at this point to say, 332 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,359 Speaker 1: you know, is it possible that because he's on the 333 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:19,920 Speaker 1: last month of his sentence that we could not do that, 334 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:24,600 Speaker 1: to which Price basically said, too bad, so sad, And 335 00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:28,359 Speaker 1: that was the moment that they all the prisoners basically 336 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:31,399 Speaker 1: flipped out. They picked up their picks and shovels and 337 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:34,719 Speaker 1: said upon him and essentially bashed into death on the shore. 338 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:37,639 Speaker 1: He did manage to linger for a little while after that, 339 00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:40,879 Speaker 1: once they got him to the sick bay, but it 340 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:44,959 Speaker 1: was a pretty savage attack. And while we don't believe 341 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:47,639 Speaker 1: that Morgan was involved in the actual attack, it is 342 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:50,800 Speaker 1: very probable that he was there as a witness. So 343 00:19:51,119 --> 00:19:56,440 Speaker 1: seeing that level of violence and aggression from the other 344 00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,880 Speaker 1: convicts definitely would have had an impact on on Morgan's 345 00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:02,840 Speaker 1: psychology and. 346 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:05,919 Speaker 2: What happened to the men who were directly involved in 347 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:06,480 Speaker 2: the murder. 348 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,680 Speaker 1: My understanding is that a lot of them escaped and 349 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:15,160 Speaker 1: eventually they were rounded up and executed as you do. 350 00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:19,159 Speaker 1: Back then, there was very little tolerance for any of 351 00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:21,360 Speaker 1: that kind of behavior, especially against government official. 352 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:24,719 Speaker 2: We'll be back right after this shortbreak to hear about 353 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:28,440 Speaker 2: Morgan's lawless lifestyle, including how he was shot in the 354 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:32,920 Speaker 2: arm after stealing a horse. So stay with us. So 355 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:36,240 Speaker 2: did Dan Morgan end up serving the whole twelve year sentence. 356 00:20:37,359 --> 00:20:39,800 Speaker 1: Now, he only managed to serve about six years of 357 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:42,040 Speaker 1: that sentence before he was given his ticket of leave, 358 00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,680 Speaker 1: which was good for him obviously. It indicated that he 359 00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:48,159 Speaker 1: had behaved himself to some degree while he was in prison, 360 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:50,640 Speaker 1: and so he was given a ticket of leave, which 361 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:54,200 Speaker 1: was the colonial equivalent of parole, and sold that he 362 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:56,359 Speaker 1: could go out and find work in the Ovens District, 363 00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:59,600 Speaker 1: which is up in the northeast of Victoria. Somewhere along 364 00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:01,680 Speaker 1: the line he decided he didn't want to do that 365 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:05,439 Speaker 1: and absconded. So about a month afterwards he was listed 366 00:21:05,440 --> 00:21:06,800 Speaker 1: as illegally at large. 367 00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:08,879 Speaker 2: And did he try to go out and make it 368 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:10,440 Speaker 2: honest living for a while. 369 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:14,600 Speaker 1: Well, he did keep a low profile. He would use 370 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,679 Speaker 1: a lot of alases, which sort of sets the precedent 371 00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:20,520 Speaker 1: for why we don't actually know much about his origin. 372 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:24,800 Speaker 1: The most common one was still Build a native. 373 00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:25,840 Speaker 3: But. 374 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:29,640 Speaker 1: Most of the reports we have is that he worked 375 00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:34,240 Speaker 1: as a horse breaker or as a stockman in various 376 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:38,600 Speaker 1: stations around the north of Victoria and southern New South Wales. 377 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:42,600 Speaker 1: He did manage to keep a low profile for quite 378 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:47,600 Speaker 1: a while, although he did briefly have a bit of 379 00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:54,120 Speaker 1: an excursion into that lawless lifestyle in August of that year, 380 00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:57,240 Speaker 1: so only a couple of months after he absconded where 381 00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:01,159 Speaker 1: he sotle a horse known as Gray Bobby Whitfield Station, 382 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:06,400 Speaker 1: and about the day after that horse was stolen Evan 383 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:10,960 Speaker 1: Evans and Edmund Bond So Evan Evans was one of 384 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:16,200 Speaker 1: the people from Whitfield Station who owned Great Bobby. They 385 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:20,280 Speaker 1: managed to track Morgan down to his camp. They called 386 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:25,440 Speaker 1: on him to surrender, to which Morgan seemed pretty incredulous. 387 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:27,600 Speaker 1: He asked them who they were and said he had 388 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:30,160 Speaker 1: as much right to be there as they did, and 389 00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:33,399 Speaker 1: Evans decided to pull the trigger on the shotgun and 390 00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:37,159 Speaker 1: Morgan was shot in the arm, not fatally, and he 391 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:40,679 Speaker 1: managed to run away into the scrub and disappear, but 392 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:44,280 Speaker 1: he har but a grudge ever after that. He would 393 00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:48,960 Speaker 1: later on use that specific incident as justification for crossing 394 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,280 Speaker 1: back over the border into Victoria. But after that he 395 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:57,440 Speaker 1: kind of disappeared for about three years, so he obviously 396 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:00,399 Speaker 1: knew how to sort of keep a low profile and 397 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:04,280 Speaker 1: not raise much alarm that he was in the district 398 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:05,600 Speaker 1: when he wanted to. 399 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:09,480 Speaker 2: I'm so fascinated about this next three years and what 400 00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:11,480 Speaker 2: he was up to when he's vanished off the face 401 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:14,719 Speaker 2: of the earth, because as we'll hear, as you'll tell us, 402 00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:16,840 Speaker 2: then he goes on to commit a string of violent 403 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:20,440 Speaker 2: crimes in rapid successions. So it would just be fascinating 404 00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:22,359 Speaker 2: to know what he's up to. It's almost like he's 405 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:25,879 Speaker 2: in training somewhere or in preparation mode, or is he 406 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:29,800 Speaker 2: just sitting there surviving on bush food while he's allowing 407 00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:31,600 Speaker 2: this grudge to just fester. 408 00:23:32,119 --> 00:23:36,080 Speaker 1: It is the big mystery with Morgan's story, because I 409 00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:41,120 Speaker 1: don't think anyone's ever been able to successfully locate any 410 00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:43,600 Speaker 1: detailed information about what he was up to in that time. 411 00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:48,439 Speaker 1: It's just he had this remarkable ability to when he 412 00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:52,080 Speaker 1: felt like it just disappear. And I think it's very 413 00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:55,080 Speaker 1: probable that he was hiding out in the bush at 414 00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:58,880 Speaker 1: the time, and he would have been occasionally coming out 415 00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:03,280 Speaker 1: and maybe picking up work on farms as a farm 416 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:06,040 Speaker 1: hand of stockman or something like that, just so they 417 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:10,880 Speaker 1: could keep himself with suppliers and things like that when 418 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:14,879 Speaker 1: he needed them. But we don't know. It's so bizarre 419 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:19,359 Speaker 1: because he could have just lived ever after this life 420 00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:25,160 Speaker 1: of anonymity. But something changed and he decided one day 421 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,200 Speaker 1: and he was going to try his hand at bush ranging. 422 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:31,040 Speaker 2: So where and when does he reappear. 423 00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:35,360 Speaker 1: So he seems to really make his first appearance in 424 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:39,280 Speaker 1: June of eighteen sixty three. This is when we start 425 00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:42,600 Speaker 1: to see him going and bailing up travelers. 426 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:42,760 Speaker 3: On the roads. 427 00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:47,640 Speaker 1: So he became a high woman, and so he occasionally 428 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:51,199 Speaker 1: would have an accomplice. A lot of his accomplices were unidentified, 429 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:55,160 Speaker 1: so we kind of guess who they might have been 430 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:59,359 Speaker 1: based on clues in certain situations. But you know, we 431 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,000 Speaker 1: know that one of the people that he was with 432 00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:04,960 Speaker 1: at that time was referred to as a German Bill 433 00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:08,720 Speaker 1: or Fancy Clark in later recollections. But at the time 434 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,679 Speaker 1: all we had was that it was a slightly shorter 435 00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:16,520 Speaker 1: guy with lighter colored hair. Very much to go on, 436 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:20,480 Speaker 1: and so you know, obviously he had his mates that 437 00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:22,320 Speaker 1: were going out there and helping him with this stuff. 438 00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:26,760 Speaker 1: But he would still race horses. He would liberate people 439 00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,719 Speaker 1: of their precious valuables that they were carrying with them 440 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:32,840 Speaker 1: at the time, and that was the typical thing for 441 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,359 Speaker 1: a high woman at the time. It was just this 442 00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:38,439 Speaker 1: mentality of I have nothing, you have something, I'm going 443 00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:42,520 Speaker 1: to take that. And you know, there was not a 444 00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,480 Speaker 1: lot of violence in the way that Morgan did these 445 00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:48,040 Speaker 1: initial robberies. It was the threat of violence. Of course, 446 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,199 Speaker 1: you're going to have a hard time convincing someone to 447 00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:54,439 Speaker 1: hand over their valuables and their horses if you just 448 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:59,200 Speaker 1: asked politely. But certainly we didn't get any sense of 449 00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,240 Speaker 1: how violent it was going to become very soon afterwards. 450 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:06,600 Speaker 2: And where did he Where was he initially bush Ranging. 451 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:09,640 Speaker 1: So from what I've been able to ascertain, a lot 452 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:13,000 Speaker 1: of the robberies that he was undertaking around that time 453 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,080 Speaker 1: were sort of in the vicinity of Kokardinya. 454 00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:18,399 Speaker 3: But he was here, there and everywhere. 455 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:22,840 Speaker 2: And Kokardinya that's in New South Wales, yes, and whereabouts. 456 00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:26,800 Speaker 1: So he was mostly operating around the Murrambidgee, so the 457 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:30,359 Speaker 1: New South Wales Riverina and surrounds. We do know a 458 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,080 Speaker 1: few of his later haunts were around sort of wogga 459 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:37,800 Speaker 1: wogga col cane places like that. So he seemed to 460 00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:41,359 Speaker 1: travel a lot, but he always came back to the 461 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:45,280 Speaker 1: same kinds of places. So I'd say that that was 462 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:47,359 Speaker 1: the pattern that he was establishing very early on. 463 00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:51,320 Speaker 2: And were there a lot of bush rangers operating at 464 00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,280 Speaker 2: this time and did they all have their own territories 465 00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:56,359 Speaker 2: did you kind of say, well, no, you can't operate 466 00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:58,040 Speaker 2: in this territory, this is my territory. 467 00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:02,160 Speaker 1: Bush Ranging at that point was a huge problem, especially 468 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:05,240 Speaker 1: in Victoria and New South Wales, because what had happened 469 00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:07,480 Speaker 1: with the gold rush was there was a whole bunch 470 00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:10,440 Speaker 1: of people that just realized, Hey, I don't have to work, 471 00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:12,840 Speaker 1: I can just steal the money from other people because 472 00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:15,800 Speaker 1: there were so many more people around, and so many 473 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,879 Speaker 1: more of them had money that they wouldn't have otherwise. 474 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:22,000 Speaker 1: And it was certainly a lot easier to rob a 475 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:24,680 Speaker 1: male coach than it was to spend weeks and weeks 476 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:26,560 Speaker 1: digging a hole hoping you might find a little bit 477 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:30,320 Speaker 1: of gold. So you had a lot of bushrangers in 478 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,600 Speaker 1: different sort of patches. You had Captain Thunderbolt at that 479 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:39,520 Speaker 1: time up up north towards Queensland. You had Ben Hall 480 00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:44,560 Speaker 1: and his gang mostly around the Lachland plains, and Morgan 481 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:49,560 Speaker 1: was predominantly around the River arena, so they kind of 482 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,000 Speaker 1: had their turf. But occasionally those turfs would sort of 483 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,800 Speaker 1: bleed over into each other, so it wasn't clearly fined. 484 00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,800 Speaker 1: It wasn't like gang wars or anything. I don't think 485 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,240 Speaker 1: any of them ever sort of cross paths in such 486 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:07,240 Speaker 1: a way that they would have risked causing a conflict 487 00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:11,360 Speaker 1: like that. But certainly there was enough bush ranging around, 488 00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:13,560 Speaker 1: not just with the major guys like I mentioned, but 489 00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:16,760 Speaker 1: minor bushrangers were popping up here, there and everywhere as well. 490 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:20,040 Speaker 1: Most of them went at large for very long, maybe 491 00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:22,840 Speaker 1: a few days or a few weeks. But the thing 492 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:26,520 Speaker 1: that sort of separated your Ben Halls and your Dan 493 00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,639 Speaker 1: Morgan's from those bushrangers was the fact that they knew 494 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:35,080 Speaker 1: the territory well enough that they could blend into the environment, 495 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,840 Speaker 1: they could escape without ever having to worry about police 496 00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 1: catching up to them. 497 00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:44,920 Speaker 2: And tell us about some of his robberies. So he 498 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:47,760 Speaker 2: was on horseback and he would just pull up to 499 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:51,480 Speaker 2: a coach and brandis she's gone or how did it 500 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:51,920 Speaker 2: go down? 501 00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:55,480 Speaker 1: It sort of depended on what his mood was a 502 00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:57,360 Speaker 1: lot of the time. If he was robbing a mail coach, 503 00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:00,600 Speaker 1: for instance, he typically seemed to be on horseback. Occasionally 504 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:04,040 Speaker 1: he would see someone just riding down the road and 505 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:07,160 Speaker 1: he would step out into the road with the gun 506 00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:09,600 Speaker 1: and tell them to bail up. And that was the 507 00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:13,000 Speaker 1: catch cry of bush rangers at the time. It wasn't 508 00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:17,080 Speaker 1: stick him up, it was bail up. We do know 509 00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:21,200 Speaker 1: that in August of eighteen sixty three we have a 510 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,760 Speaker 1: pretty detailed account of one of his more significant robberies 511 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:28,880 Speaker 1: or attempted robberies, which was when he and his mate 512 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:31,920 Speaker 1: German Bill or Fancy Clark or whatever people wanted to 513 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,960 Speaker 1: call him, bailed up Henry Bayless, who was the police 514 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:39,479 Speaker 1: magistrate at Wogga Wogger. So he was traveling between Wogger 515 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:46,760 Speaker 1: and Urana and he encountered these two bushrangers on horseback. 516 00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:49,920 Speaker 1: They pulled their guns on him, and Bayless took off 517 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,280 Speaker 1: in the other directions. So there was this chase through 518 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:59,200 Speaker 1: the bush where one of them, Clark, seemed to fire 519 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:02,600 Speaker 1: one of the barrels to be shotgun at Bayless ineffectually 520 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,160 Speaker 1: until they lost him. So Bayless went to a camp 521 00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:10,400 Speaker 1: where he saw these bullokis having their tea and asking 522 00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:14,239 Speaker 1: about who these individuals were, and they said that it 523 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:18,360 Speaker 1: was Morgan and his mate, so we could ascertain. Around 524 00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:20,880 Speaker 1: this time we knew that he was referring to himself 525 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:26,600 Speaker 1: as Morgan, and so Bayless was then caught up again 526 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,520 Speaker 1: with these two bush rangers. As he was trying to 527 00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:33,200 Speaker 1: come back out of the bush, they stuck him up, 528 00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:36,600 Speaker 1: thinking that he was going to be absolutely flush because 529 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:39,480 Speaker 1: while he was wearing a lot of fine clothing and 530 00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,280 Speaker 1: riding a good horse, and he took off really fast, 531 00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:45,560 Speaker 1: so he must be carrying something important. It turns out 532 00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,240 Speaker 1: he wasn't carrying anything of note at all. He had 533 00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:50,040 Speaker 1: a valise with a bit of money in it and 534 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:53,000 Speaker 1: that was about it. And when he announced that he 535 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:57,760 Speaker 1: was the magistrate at Wogga Wogga, Morgan suddenly changed his tune. 536 00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:01,040 Speaker 1: He gave all the stuff back to Bayless and said, well, 537 00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:04,400 Speaker 1: now that we haven't robbed you. You can't charge us 538 00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:08,080 Speaker 1: with anything, and if we ever come before you in court, 539 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:10,800 Speaker 1: please go lightly on us, to which Bayless said, I 540 00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:10,960 Speaker 1: have a. 541 00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:14,200 Speaker 3: Job to do and rode off. 542 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,000 Speaker 1: And he formed a posse that spent the next couple 543 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:22,200 Speaker 1: of days going through that area looking for Morgan and 544 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:25,800 Speaker 1: his mate, and eventually they found the camp was this 545 00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:29,120 Speaker 1: sort of lean to in the bush with a whole 546 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:32,760 Speaker 1: bunch of stolen goods inside of it, and they just 547 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:35,640 Speaker 1: camped and waited for the bush rangers to come back, 548 00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:38,800 Speaker 1: and sort of as night was falling, Morgan and his 549 00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:41,520 Speaker 1: mate come creeping back with their boots off, so they're 550 00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:45,200 Speaker 1: not making much noise because it seems that they actually 551 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:48,760 Speaker 1: had noticed that there were people around. And at that 552 00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:53,040 Speaker 1: point all hell broke loose and suddenly there's a shootout, 553 00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:56,080 Speaker 1: and during the course of the shootout, Henry Bayless was shot. 554 00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:59,440 Speaker 1: The bullet went into his chest and came out the 555 00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:02,080 Speaker 1: other side, and the bullet ended up getting caught in 556 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:06,280 Speaker 1: his clothing, and even though he was badly wounded, he 557 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:10,520 Speaker 1: actually survived, and afterwards he kept the bullet and a 558 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:15,719 Speaker 1: little fob chain that he'd wears his lucky charm. Morgan's mate, however, 559 00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 1: not so lucky. He was shot during the course of 560 00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:22,320 Speaker 1: the fight, and then the bushrangers escaped. Some authors have 561 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:25,120 Speaker 1: stated that Morgan was the one that shot his mate 562 00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:28,640 Speaker 1: as a distraction, but it doesn't really make much sense 563 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:31,280 Speaker 1: why he would do that and then help his mate 564 00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:34,360 Speaker 1: to escape. It kind of would actually hamper him more 565 00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:37,880 Speaker 1: than help him, So very probably the reality is that 566 00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:43,840 Speaker 1: the sky got caught in the crossfire, and unfortunately he 567 00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:48,920 Speaker 1: got shot and very shortly afterwards passed away. There's not 568 00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:51,560 Speaker 1: a lot of information about what happened to him afterwards, 569 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:53,920 Speaker 1: other than to say that there was a body that 570 00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:57,000 Speaker 1: was found in the bush that was believed to have 571 00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:01,959 Speaker 1: been him, and that Morgan then road to a station 572 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:06,320 Speaker 1: nearby and shot one of the shepherds who he believed 573 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:11,360 Speaker 1: had informed on him, non fatally, but certainly this set 574 00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:14,720 Speaker 1: of precedent that Morgan was now prepared to use violence, 575 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:18,440 Speaker 1: and if he believed that someone had wronged him or 576 00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:21,120 Speaker 1: put him at risk, he was willing to use lethal 577 00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:24,640 Speaker 1: force in order to exact what he considered to be justice. 578 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:27,880 Speaker 1: So this was the moment that Morgan went from being 579 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:31,440 Speaker 1: a highway robber to being someone extremely dangerous. 580 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:34,640 Speaker 2: Now I'm assuming that this is getting a lot of 581 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:37,920 Speaker 2: coverage in the newspapers and the public is starting to 582 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,800 Speaker 2: get to know the name Dan Morgan by now. 583 00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:47,240 Speaker 1: Yeah, so Morgan was still relatively obscure up to that point, 584 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:51,400 Speaker 1: but now that this Bayless episode had hit the press, 585 00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:55,560 Speaker 1: it was big news. So people were on the lookout 586 00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:58,240 Speaker 1: for this guy. And the description that was put out 587 00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:03,680 Speaker 1: of Morgan was quite fascinating, because we know what he 588 00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:06,920 Speaker 1: looks like from post mortem photos and his death mask, 589 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:12,040 Speaker 1: but the description that was put out in the papers 590 00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:15,560 Speaker 1: for his reward, he was described as five and a 591 00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:18,320 Speaker 1: half inches high, which was quite tall for the time, 592 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:23,399 Speaker 1: the brown hair, hazel eyes, fresh complexion, long nose, medium math, 593 00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:26,239 Speaker 1: medium chin, and a small lump under the left jaw. 594 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:31,279 Speaker 1: So here's these very specific things. But the thing that 595 00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:37,600 Speaker 1: sort of made Morgan this very illustrious character was the 596 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:39,880 Speaker 1: fact that he had this long black hair and this big, 597 00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:44,320 Speaker 1: bushy black beard. So the descriptions that people were reading 598 00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:47,400 Speaker 1: about this guy were quite catching. You know that they 599 00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,720 Speaker 1: were on the lookout for this very pirate looking chap 600 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,879 Speaker 1: and people were starting. 601 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:55,200 Speaker 3: To be on their guard. 602 00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:56,880 Speaker 1: Are already on the guard because of all the other 603 00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,799 Speaker 1: bush ranging but Morgan had now said that precident that 604 00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:05,279 Speaker 1: he was dangerous and armed. And when we next see 605 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:10,200 Speaker 1: him in one of those big set pieces that we 606 00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:14,200 Speaker 1: see occasionally in these bush ranging stories, third of November 607 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,920 Speaker 1: that year, he goes to burn Buttocks Station, which was 608 00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:21,560 Speaker 1: owned by a chap named Thomas Gibson, and he bailed 609 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:25,840 Speaker 1: everyone up and forced Thomas Gibson to write checks to 610 00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:30,400 Speaker 1: all the staff because he'd heard that Gibson was underpaying 611 00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:34,720 Speaker 1: all of his workers. So all of these staff members 612 00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:39,479 Speaker 1: get checks around about thirty pounds each, and Morgan also 613 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:41,800 Speaker 1: made sure that he got a check for a slightly 614 00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:45,239 Speaker 1: larger sum, and so it amanded to around about three 615 00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:48,960 Speaker 1: or four hundred pounds in the end. And Morgan then 616 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:52,880 Speaker 1: stole one of Gibson's suits and wrote off. And what 617 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:55,160 Speaker 1: this kind of did was it got people to stop 618 00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:59,399 Speaker 1: and think about, well, why was he on the one 619 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:02,080 Speaker 1: hand shooting at police and on the other hand sticking 620 00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,080 Speaker 1: up someone and making them pay the staff all this 621 00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:09,200 Speaker 1: extra money. And so we'd started to spread that Morgan 622 00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:12,320 Speaker 1: was perhaps on the side of the underdog, and. 623 00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:15,400 Speaker 3: He very quickly built up. 624 00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:19,800 Speaker 1: A network of supporters amongst the stockmen at different stations, 625 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:23,440 Speaker 1: and so if any of the stockman or drovers or 626 00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:27,680 Speaker 1: whatever had come across the station where the manager or 627 00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:32,800 Speaker 1: whoever was in charge was considered cruel or stingy or whatever, 628 00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:36,600 Speaker 1: they would sort of get Morgan to go and quote 629 00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:41,640 Speaker 1: unquote sort them out. And so this built Morgan's reputation 630 00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:45,360 Speaker 1: up very quickly amongst certain classes. And one of the 631 00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:48,040 Speaker 1: knock on effects of that was that he was referred 632 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:52,920 Speaker 1: to as the traveler's friend because now squatters station owners 633 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:57,359 Speaker 1: they were afraid to turn away swaggies because they were 634 00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:00,359 Speaker 1: worried that either they were going to tell Morgan that 635 00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:03,520 Speaker 1: they had been mistreated or that they might turn out 636 00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:07,320 Speaker 1: to be Morgan himself. So that sort of guarantee that 637 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:09,680 Speaker 1: these swaggers could then get a place to stay in 638 00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:10,560 Speaker 1: some food to eat. 639 00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:18,799 Speaker 2: So, yeah, we'll leave this story here for now, but 640 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:21,279 Speaker 2: June back in on Thursday for part two of the 641 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:24,759 Speaker 2: story of Dan Morgan to hear how he evolved from 642 00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:28,960 Speaker 2: Morgan the bushranger to Morgan the Murderer. Thanks for listening 643 00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:44,279 Speaker 2: to this episode of In Black and White