THE BUSHRANGERS
+Source.+--The Golden Colony (G.H. Wathen, 1855), pp. 138, 143-150
The combination of convictism in Tasmania and gold in Victoria and
New South Wales produced bushranging on a large scale. Convicts now
had a chance of living well if they escaped, and many took
advantage of the opportunity.
If the Australian roads in winter may be well likened to those English
roads of 200 years ago, out of which the King's Coach had to be dug by
the rustics, so may the Australian Bushranger be regarded as the
legitimate representative of the traditionary highwayman who levied toll
at Highgate, or stopped the post-boy and captured the mailbags in Epping
Forest. The real, living bushranger is, however, more of a ruffian and
less of a hero than our ideal highwayman; for time, like distance,
softens down the harsh and the coarse, and gives dignity to the ignoble.
Never, perhaps, did a country offer so tempting a field to the public
robber as Victoria did during the first year or two after the gold
discovery.
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