Local historian, Sheila Hutchinson at the contemplation rings at Stringybark Creek, Vic
Embark on a journey through Australia’s bushranging heritage, where memorials mark tell a unique story of our past.
Our bushranging past left a remarkable legacy on our history but it also left a distinct impact on the landscape today. Memorial markers throughout Australia tell unique stories of those turbulent times.
These monuments record not only the demise of bushrangers, but also the sacrifices of police officers and civilian victims. Mentioned here are some of the unique memorials that can be discovered across Australia. Many more plaques, headstones, memorials and tourism-based statues can be found scattered throughout our land.
Most locations mentioned have caravan parks nearby and a couple have camping areas on site.
Unique in Australia
There is only one memorial in Australia which is dedicated to all police officers who were killed by bushrangers: Arrest Creek Police Memorial.
National police memorial at Arrest Creek, Qld
The memorial is 7km south of Mitchell in south-west Queensland at a pleasant roadside rest area known as Arrest Creek. It was here in 1902 that two of our last bushrangers, Patrick and James Kenniff, were arrested by the police after a long career on the run, an event that also saw the death of one police officer and a station manager. Patrick was eventually hanged and James served time in gaol.
The wording at the top of the white concrete plinth simply states, “Erected in memory of members of the police force who died throughout Australia fighting the bushrangers.”
Artwork memorials
Adjacent to the national police memorial is an abstract artwork depicting the arrest of the Kenniff brothers.
Artwork depicting the capture of the Kenniff brothers at Arrest Creek, Qld
At Arrest Creek we see a striking rusty-red metal pipe sculpture. Patrick is pinned to the ground by two troopers while a native tracker watches behind for James who is still at large nearby.
Not many bushranger-related memorials are depicted as artworks. There are two sheet metal sculptures in southern New South Wales commemorating police officers killed in battle with bushrangers.
The first is the Hero of Wantabadgery sculpture, which commemorates Senior Constable Edward Webb-Bowen who was shot by the Moonlite gang in 1879. The sculpture, and information signage, is in a garden setting beside the hall in Wantabadgery near Gundagai, NSW.
The Hero of Wantabadgery sculpture
The other sheet metal sculpture is in the roadside park at Jugiong, NSW. It commemorates the death of Sergeant Edmund Parry in a horseback gun battle with bushranger John Gilbert, in 1864.
Artwork memorial to Sergeant Edmund Parry at Jugiong, NSW
Most isolated
The Kenniff brothers were convicted of the murders of Constable George Doyle and station manager Albert Dahlke, at Easter 1902, at what is now the isolated Mount Moffatt section of Carnarvon National Park in central Queensland. The bodies of Doyle and Dahlke were burnt, but the ashes were later retrieved by the police. This incineration site, on a slab of rock in the creek bed, is in a very scenic and isolated location. The site, via Mitchell or Injune, is at the end of 100km of gravel and 4WD roads. There is a memorial plaque here which was placed by the Queensland Police in 2010.
Remote site in Carnarvon National Park, Qld
The scant remains of Constable Doyle and Albert Dahlke were buried in Tamrookum Anglican Cemetery at Tamrookum, south of Beaudesert in Queensland. The cemetery has public access, and a tall monument with a cross at the top marks the grave. Part of the inscription states, “Erected by sympathisers and admirers of true manliness throughout Australia.”
Civilian honour
The most impressive monument in Australia given to a civilian victim of a bushranger can be found on a scenic ridge near Blandford in the Hunter Valley, NSW. In 1863, young drover, Peter Clark, refused to bail-up and was shot by the novice bushranger Henry Wilson on an isolated section of the Old Northern Road. Near the site of the shooting, a tall sandstone obelisk was erected to commemorate the popular and brave drover.
Memorial to Peter Clark in the Hunter Valley, NSW
The Peter Clark Memorial is found by crossing the railway at Blandford and taking the left fork. When the short road ends, it is best to walk the final kilometre to the old monument perched on its isolated ridge on Warlands Range.
Peter Clark has an equally impressive ornate spire over his grave near the playing field in Muswellbrook Cemetery.
Quiet contemplation
The scene of one of our worst Bushranger tragedies now has the feel of a solemn war memorial. I first visited the isolated site of the Kelly ambush at Stringybark Creek in north-east Victoria in 1968. A scramble through the undergrowth revealed the carved inscription “1878 Kelly shot Lonigan” on a tall, forked mountain gum.
The site where three police officers died when the Kelly gang ambushed their camp became a picnic area (including tables, barbecue and shelters) with only a small memorial plaque. All that changed as of 2018, when a true commemoration area was created with circular contemplation areas and information signage and walks. The bushland place now encourages the required solemnity.
Stringybark Creek can be approached through the forests from Benalla or Mansfield. Free camping is available close by.
Stringybark Creek camping area
By popular demand
Our most well-known bushranger era memorial must be the Police Memorial in the centre of Mansfield, Victoria. The very tall and ornate column was erected by public subscription to honour the three police officers, killed by the Kelly gang, in the Stringybark Creek ambush in 1878. The memorial is all about the police and the word Kelly does not appear.
The names of Sergeant Michael Kennedy, Constable Thomas Lonigan and Constable Michael Scanlan are prominent. It is interesting to note that the memorial was unveiled on 22 April 1880, and the Kelly gang would still be at large for another two months. If Ned was able to sneak a peek at the magnificent memorial it would have been obvious to him that such a show of public esteem for the police meant that his fate was sealed.
Troopers betrayed
In November 1867, Gold Commissioner Thomas Griffin was returning to the Clermont goldfields from Rockhampton in Queensland. He was accompanied by two regular troopers of the Clermont gold escort, John Power and Patrick Cahill. Gold from the diggings had safely arrived at the bank in Rockhampton and now the escort was returning to Clermont with more than eight thousand pounds in notes.
When the escort camped at the Mackenzie River crossing, Gold Commissioner Griffin murdered the two young troopers and absconded with the money. He was soon arrested and hanged. The site at Bedford Weir near Blackwater is marked with a memorial plaque and information board, adjacent to the camping area.
A very impressive monument marks the burial site of the troopers, in South Rockhampton Cemetery near the Prospect Street gate.
Plaque on monument in South Rockhampton Cemetery, Qld
Habitual escapee
Joseph Bolitho Johns, better known as Moondyne Joe, was the most prominent bushranger in Western Australia. His crimes and exploits were cleverly planned but it was for his many daring escapes that he endeared himself to the public.
The author with a poster of Joe in later life (Image Mike Scanlon)
His most audacious escape was from Fremantle Prison in 1867, when he was provided with a pile of large rocks to smash into smaller rocks. Fortunately for Joe, his supplied pile was placed near the wall. The warders could hear him chipping away behind his pile, but he was actually chipping at the wall, and was eventually gone.
Joe’s memorial stone in Fremantle Cemetery, WA
Joe developed dementia and died in 1900. His grave is in Fremantle Cemetery, located a short distance along the road from the main Carrington Street entrance.
The horizontal headstone depicts a set of handcuffs and the word RHYDDID, which is Welsh for ‘Freedom’.
Tasmanian rogue
Tasmanian history is rife with bushranger gangs. The most tangible memorial is Martin Cash’s grave in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery in Hobart. Cash is a rare character in the history of Australian bushranging. He lived to become a respectable citizen and died in his bed at the age of 67. In 1870 he narrated his life story, which was published in the same year.
He finally bought a home in rural Glenorchy in Hobart. He married and had a son and has a marked grave in nearby Cornelian Bay Cemetery. Part of the inscription states, “To the memory of that brave but unfortunate Irishman, Martin Cash”.
Martin Cash’s memorial in Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Tas
A rare police statue
It is rare indeed to have a statue in memory of a police bushranger victim. The memorial statue of 28-year-old Constable John Mitchell stands proud outside the Coonamble Police Station in central NSW. Constable Mitchell was shot when he tried to prevent two cattle duffers from escaping from the old Coonamble lockup in 1885.
Statue of Constable John Mitchell outside Coonamble Police Station, NSW
The memorial’s designer worked well to create an authentically uniformed colonial police officer, and it is most likely the only such statue in the country. The statue was dedicated in 1996.
Most impressive single monument
The bushranger gang led by Thomas Clarke from the Braidwood area, NSW, raided the south-coast gold mining village of Nerrigundah in 1866. When the two local constables approached the gang in the main street, a night gunfight developed, and Constable Miles O’Grady was shot dead. Also shot in the encounter was young William Fletcher who had been a member of the bushranger gang for one day.
Police conduct an 150th anniversary commemoration at the monument to Constable Miles O’Grady at Nerrigundah, NSW
Constable O’Grady was buried in Moruya Cemetery and a very impressive tall, dome topped, Corinthian column memorial was erected at the site of the gun battle in Nerrigundah by the NSW Government. This would be our most impressive monument to a single police bushranger victim.
Behind the monument is the old cemetery, where a home-made plaque marks the bush burial site of young Fletcher outside the cemetery back gate.
Single greatest tragedy
The single greatest loss of police lives in the bushranger era occurred at Jinden near Braidwood, NSW, in January 1867. Four special constables, who had been working undercover, set out on foot in isolated, rural country in search of the notorious Clarke brothers. The four well-armed police officers were ambushed and shot dead from the side of the track by unknown assailants.
Police memorial in Braidwood Cemetery
A substantial monument now stands over the mass grave of the four police officers in Braidwood Cemetery. On 9 January 2017, a 150th Commemorative Ceremony was held on private land at Jinden at the site of the murders. A large gathering of police and public were present at the dedication of the memorial stones.
Police dedicate the memorial stones on private land at Jinden in 2017
Commemorated were Special Constables John Carroll, Eneas McDonnell, Patrick Kennagh and John Phegan.
Legends live on
South Australia has the legend of John Francis Peggotty, the Birdman of the Coorong, and there is even a monument of sorts — an ostrich statue.
Peggotty only ever grew to the size of a young boy. After arriving in South Australia in 1890, he took to a life of crime, riding on the back of an ostrich. Or so the legend goes.
No documentation exists to prove the story and it would seem that locals had once again put a bushranger legend to good use — to promote tourism!
The ostrich statue at Meningie, South Australia, is really an emu
At Meningie, overlooking the waters of the Coorong, the locals have installed a life-size ostrich statue, complete with saddle, which visitors can mount for photographs. An information board is nearby. Look closely and it is obvious that the ostrich statue is an emu!
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