“YANKEE JACK”

Evening Star, Issue 21090, 30 April 1932, Page 2

“YANKEE JACK”

EXPLOITS IN THE DANDENONGS STORY OF A HECTIC CAREER The town of Melbourne was in ferment. Law-abiding citizens had read with horror about the bushrangers of Botany Bay and Port Arthur, but that such things should occur in Victoria was almost incredible. “ Yankee Jack ” had taken to the roads near Dandenoug. Anxious travellers hustled their coaches helter-skelter through the rough bush tracks with armed guards alongside and a brace of loaded pistols in the saddle holsters (writes G. H. Johnston, in the Melbourne ‘Argus ’). The hectic period of “ Yankee Jack’s ” bushranging career began late in April of 1842. Ho swooped down on a farm on the Yarra near Ivauhoe, and galloped away with money, jewellery, and two thoroughbred saddle horses. Then he raided a station on the Lower Plenty River to obtain food and ammunition. A week later he was the chief of a band of four. The others were Williams /and Martin Fogarty, both emigrants, and Charles Ellis, one of the notorious “ peep-o’-day ” boys imported from the South of Ireland. Williams was a very bad character, although a giant, and courageous as a lion. Fogarty was but a youngster. The leader’s name was not really “ Yankee Jack,” but Daniel Jepps. He was a tall, educated sailor, late of Sydney. In his younger days he had taken a degree at Cambridge, and he had been chief officer of an East Indiaman. These bushrangers did not illtreat their victims. Invariably they treated women with the greatest respect. COACHES ROBBED. They began their career as a band of four by robbing several large stations in the Dandenong district. They held up and robeed two private coaches travelling on the Westernpoint road.. On May 1, moving to the Lower Plenty River district, they proceeded methodically to rob ton stations before tea—surely an Australian record? Camping for the night in an adjacent paddock, they made an early start the next morning, and by 8 o’clock they had robbed four more farms. Word had been carried to Melbourne, and on the morning of May 2, a party of special policemen and others had been organised and hurried to the Plenty district, where they followed a trail of ransacked houses until they arrived in sight of a farm belonging to Campbell Hunter. The outlaws had just turned out the station owner and his guests, and were about to sit down to a very appetising meal of roast duck. As they took up their knives, Fogarty chanced to look through the window, and, with a cry of warning, jumped from his chair. Across the paddocks, outlined against a rising cloud of yellow dust, came the police possee at full gallop. Seizing their firearms, the bushrangers lost no time in running to a small storehouse adjacent to the homestead. While Fogarty wrenched at the stubborn door, the others loaded their guns and fired at the police. The door swung open abruptly, Fogarty, Ellis, and “ Yankee Jack ” scrambled through into safety, but Williams was headed off by ono of the policemen, Gourlay, and chased around dhe store. On, the far side Williams stopped suddenly, and, swinging round, emptied his_ gun at Gourlay’s. head. The shot missed, and Gourlay, drawing his pistol, closed with the huge bushranger, pulling the trigger as he did so. The weapon misfired, and, in desperation, Gourlay brought the butt down on Williams’s head. The tremendous blow felled him, but even as he lay on the ground he drew his other pistol, rolled over, and fired at Gourlay. The policeman was again lucky. The bullet hit a powder flask in his pocket. Williams took advantage of the surprise, however, and jumped at Gaurlay, attempting to beat in his skull with his pistol-butt. Another of the special police—Snodgrass by name —rushed up and fired two shots, scoring two hits—ono in the bushranger’s head, the other in Gourlay (fortunately only a flesh wound). Williams dropped and was thought to be dead. A few minutes later he staggered to his feet and again attacked the two policemen. Snodgrass felled him with the butt of his carlpne, and he was shot dead by another constable. A SOLID DEFENCE. Meanwhile the siege of the storehouse was progressing most unfavourably for tho police. One man was carried from the battlefield. Snodgrass had twice been grazed by bullets, and the charmed Gourlay later received three more wounds. The hut was well fortified, and, with loopholes cut in the slabs, the bushrangers were able to command the approaches in all directions. Throughout the morning lighting continued. Tho attackers then withdrew to a more discreet distance. Reinforcements arrived later in the day, led by a trooper and constable who had gone out from town by the Sydney road to Beveridge’s Inn in order to intercept the bushrangers if they should make towards _ the Goulburn. The constable immediately took command and called a council of war. Just before noon Fogarty voluntarily surrendered. The others refused to surrender on any terms, being perfectly aware, they said, that their lives were forfeit. The battle continued, wreaths of blue smoke coiling upward into the bluer sky, the acrid smell of powder mingling with the scent of the eucalyptus. The fighting was interrupted every now and then by parleys. Eventually the two mftn agreed to give themselves up if the gentlemen present “ would pledge themselves to intercede on their behalf with the judge.” This;was refused, and the roar of gunfire confined until the bushrangers threw out another paper, the purport of which was that they had been led astray by Williams. As this asked for no pledge whatsoever, and seemed rather to be a stipulation that they should not be shot at if they came out, the paper was immediately signed by the police. Tho two weary bushrangers then gave up their arms and surrendered. In their possession were found guns, pistols, and ammunition, and about £3O in money. Both prisoners begged to be shot on the spot. They were securely trussed up, however, mounted on their horses, and brought to Melbourne. As they approached tho city they were followed by an ever-increasing crowd. The three men were taken to the Melbourne Gaol to await their trial, and Gourlay became the hero of all Melbourne, toasted and feted wherever he went.

The trial took place on May 11, 1842. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the three men were sentenced to death. They were tho first white men to he hanged at the Melbourne Gaol, being executed on June 27 before a crowd of 2,000 men and women. Ellis and Fogarty broke down at the sight of tho gallows, but “ Yankee Jack ” died without flinching.