History of the Australian BushrangersBoxall, George
History
History of the Australian Bushrangers
Boxall, George
Bushrangers -- Australia
was held by the bushrangers to decide what should be done with him.
Some were for shooting him there and then; but, this was so evidently
not the way to extort money, if he had any, that it was resolved to
take him to "the camp," and there force him to say where the money was
hidden. When they got him there they tied him to a sapling, built a
circle of bushwood round him at some distance away, set fire to it, and
slowly roasted him to death. His screams are said to have been fearful,
but no one heard them in that solitude except the fiends who were
torturing him, and they had been rendered too callous, by treatment
little less fiendish by the authorities, to heed his agonised cries.
Whether this story is literally true or not it is impossible to say,
but certainly charred remains of human bones were discovered in the
valley when it was searched, though whether the bodies had been burned
before or after death could not, of course, be determined.
It was to this valley that Will Underwood and his gang were said to
retire when hard pressed or when they required a rest. Underwood
operated on the roads about Campbelltown, Liverpool, Penrith, and
Windsor, sometimes sticking-up people, and robbing farms on Liberty
Plains and other places between Parramatta and Sydney. The gang was a
large one and continued to operate in the more populous districts for
some two years. Among the members of this gang were Johnny Donohoe,
Webber, and Walmsley. Donohoe was shot by a trooper named Maggleton,
near Raby, in September, 1830. Webber was shot a month later, and
Walmsley was captured in another skirmish between the troopers and the
bushrangers. Walmsley was sentenced to death, but was reprieved for
disclosing the names of "fences," or receivers of stolen property, and
his revelations caused quite a sensation, a number of hitherto highly
respected persons being implicated. Underwood was shot in 1832, and
shortly afterwards a "traitor" is said to have led a party of soldiers
into Terrible Hollow. There was a fight between the troops and the
bushrangers found there at the time, and several of the bushrangers
were captured and the gang was broken up. The evil reputation which the
valley had acquired, at first prevented settlement there, but when the
bushrangers and their doings had been forgotten, the Government threw
the valley open for selection, and a number of farms were taken up or
purchased. More recently, a line has been surveyed for a railway to the
valley, but this line has not yet been constructed. In the meantime, a
good road has been opened into the valley through the one practicable
entrance, and those who visit the valley now for the first time, can
scarcely credit the horrible stories which have been told in connection
with it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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