blog - Bushranger Thunderbolt and Mary Ann Bugg

Review in Good Reading magazine

20/10/2011

A wonderful review of Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady has just been published in the Good Reading magazine. For those who don't know the publication, it is a magazine for book-lovers so authors and publishers always hope for a good review.
"Carol Baxter is doing for Australian history what our athletes are doing for sport: she's making it exciting, interesting and world class ... America has its wild west, yet Australia, just as wild and amoral, has always been portrayed by writers as grey and insipid. But Baxter's vivid descriptions and exciting narrative are set to change all that ... It is in her description of Thunderbolt's 'companion' and chief lieutenant, Mary Ann Bugg, that Baxter excels, giving us the most intense understanding of life outside civil colonial society ... This beautifully told story may change the way we see our history."
As my publicist at Allen & Unwin said: "I can see the future cover quote now"!
Thank you to the reviewer Alan Gold for understanding and appreciating my unique style of writing history.

Announcement: Empty Grave trailer

18/10/2011

More exciting news. The trailer for Empty Grave: the Thunderbolt mystery is now up on Shayne Cantly's Thunderbolt website. It's looks so dramatic! Have a look for yourself. Anyone interested in purchasing a copy of the DVD can do so via Shayne's website as well.

Announcement: Thunderbolt Festival

17/10/2011

Rumours seem to be spreading that I will be attending the Thunderbolt Festival on 28-30 October 2011 (wow, to be so "famous" that rumours spread of my movements!).
I am afraid that isn't the case. If you look at my Talks schedule, you will see that I am giving an Author Talk in Sydney on 28 October. You will also see that I am giving talks at Wollongong and Nowra two weeks later and at Bathurst and Mudgee the week after that. The south coast talks are booked in because I am heading to Jervis Bay for a family wedding at 11.11 on 11/11/11 (I hear there are many); I would have organised a talk or two for the trip home as well but my offspring protested that this would cut into their precious weekends! If I was coming up to the Thunderbolt Festival, you would be able to track my movements via a schedule of author talks up the New England Highway and back.
But I will be with you in spirit. I hope it is loads of fun!

Cockatoo Island

17/10/2011

What really happened to Fred Ward on Cockatoo Island? What privations or punishments did he suffer that led him to take the drastic step of escaping from Cockatoo Island and becoming the legendary Captain Thunderbolt?
    Many claims have been made about his servitude there, particularly regarding his punishments. Some say that he received frequent and extended incarcerations in the solitary confinement cells. Some say that he was flogged. One book even suggests that he was raped!
    So what was Cockatoo Island really like?
    The nights were the worst. The men were locked up for twelve hours in five wards containing two tiers of bunks on either side of a central passage. Two wards had 88 bunks each while the other three had around 50 bunks each. The bunks were enclosed coffin-like tubes with openings only on the ends that faced the central passage, so the men had to crawl in on their hands and knees. The bunks were designed that way to prevent the “unnatural” activities that occurred in the dark when dozens of men were confined in one room.
     The ventilation was inadequate, comprising only four small windows in each ward, two on either side, made worse by the fact that the men were allowed to smoke in the wards. The men themselves stank. Bathing regulations were not enforced. Once a week the men were allowed to bathe in the seawater-filled dock, if they chose. Other than that, there were four or five tubs in the prisoners’ yard which were supposedly filled with clean water each day but in fact contained recycled kitchen water every so often. For the first few men to reach the tubs after they were filled, it wasn’t too dirty, but thereafter …! Some men never bathed.
     By far the worst stench came from the open tubs inside the wards that served as “necessaries” for the twelve hours the men were locked away. The stench was so bad that even the sentries remained as far from the windows as possible. They could often see faces at the windows gasping for fresh air, particularly on hot summer nights.
     The nights were made even more unbearable by the vermin. The bedding was never washed unless prisoners paid for it to be laundered. The wards were fumigated a few times a year, but this reduced the population of bed-lice and other bugs for only a couple of weeks. The men were shaved twice a week and their hair cropped but it didn’t eradicate the head lice. One witness told the Parliamentary committee that the men often looked more haggard in the morning than after a full day’s work.
     For five-and-half days a week the men worked hard at their duties yet their rations included only breakfast and dinner (the midday meal). After their day’s work ended, they had nothing to eat unless they had saved bread from a previous meal or used the money they earned by exceeding their work quota to purchase bread.
     It was a system designed to make the prisoners work hard, and they received indulgences if they did so. Every full day worked took that day plus another half-day off their sentence; that is, for six days of work they received nine days off their sentence. Those who continued to work hard and behave well were eligible for a ticket-of-leave, the colonial equivalent of a parole pass. However every day in the solitary confinement cells – the usual punishment for minor infractions – added another full day to their sentence. Effectively, each day in the cells (which meant they could not work) added two-and-a-half days to their sentence.
     That was the world of Cockatoo Island servitude during Fred Ward’s first stint there between 1856 and 1860 under what became known as the “Old Act” regulations. The system worked. The “Old Act” men rarely attempted to escape from the island because they had a legal way of reducing their sentences.
    When Fred Ward returned in 1861, however, he was a “New Act” man. The “New Act” regulations came into force for those convicted from 1 July 1858 onwards. They abolished the ticket-of-leave system. With no “rewards” available for hard work and good behaviour, Fred took his future into his own hands … !

   For detailed information about Fred's punishments, see What punishments did Fred Ward receive on Cockatoo Island? Other references to his servitude are found in Timelines: 1835-1863

Sources:
Anyone interested in a detailed description of the conditions on Cockatoo Island can read the reports from the Parliamentary Committees of Inquiry in 1858 (Report from the Board of Inquiry into the management of Cockatoo Island, 1858, New South Wales Legislative Council, 1858 [ML Q365.99441/2]), and 1861 (‘Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on the Public Prisons in Sydney and Cumberland’ in Votes & Proceedings of the NSW Legislative Assembly, 1861, Vol.1, pp.1063-1310), and 1863 (‘Penal Establishments’ in Votes & Proceedings of the NSW Legislative Assembly, 1863-64, Vol.2, pp.919-20). UnfNo one has yet written about the Cockatoo Island penal establishment in any depth.

Review of Stephan Williams' "A Ghost called Thunderbolt"

15/10/2011

“Regarding Captain Thunderbolt only two things are not in dispute: the quality of the horses that he stole and rode, and the fact that he never killed or injured those whom he robbed or who went in pursuit of him. Everything else is the subject of controversy.”
    So wrote Stephan Williams in the introduction to his book A Ghost called Thunderbolt (1987).
    Of course, the fact that no one was injured was more by luck – or rotten marksmanship – than intention, despite Williams’ intimation. When bullets buzz around, as they did on at least five occasions when Fred was holding a gun (see Did Fred Ward shoot at the police?), they have a tendency to hit people. Fred, his robbery victims, and the police were fortunate.
    But Williams was correct in his suggestion that controversy surrounds Thunderbolt – even though Williams himself was partly responsible for perpetuating it. A better understanding of how to weight primary-source and secondary-source information would have nipped some of it in the bud.
                    Go to Review of Stephan Williams’ A Ghost called Thunderbolt.

Announcement: More reviews and articles

14/10/2011

The words of the week seem to be enthralling and engrossing, according to reviews of Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady published during the last week. There was a great one by a blog reviewer (see Out of Shadows) and a lengthy article in the Maitland Mercury, among other items added to the Reviews page.
During a radio interview on 3MDR (Victoria) yesterday, the interviewer, who goes under the grand name of "The Magnate", commented that the book was so intriguing it made him want to find out more about Thunderbolt and Mary Ann, and that he appreciated being able to access the back-up website. It's nice to hear that all my hard work is not in vain!!!
With my previous books, my research had been packed up long before the book reached the bookshops. I was already half-way through researching/writing Breaking the Bank when An Irresistible Temptation was published. However it will be a long time before my Thunderbolt research is packed away (people keep asking me what I am working on next but there is no "next" yet).
Meanwhile I will keep blogging and keep adding to the other web-pages – or, in the case of the Home page, abbreviating it and moving information elsewhere as it was too long. Enjoy!

Empty Grave - The Thunderbolt Mystery

13/10/2011

Exciting news. Shayne Cantly of Evolution Studios has been working on a docu-drama called Empty Grave: The Thunderbolt Mystery – ooooh!! – and his website is now up and running (see Empty Grave). He is intending to launch the DVD at the Thunderbolt Festival at Uralla on 29 October 2011 so you can purchase copies there or via his website. Hopefully it will screen on TV in the next few months.
Dubbed the "docu-drama that explores both sides of the story", it includes talking heads, dramatic re-enactments and other exciting features, and allows you, the viewer, to determine the truth for yourself. Whose body lies in Thunderbolt's Uralla grave? Or is the grave empty...?

Fred Ward and the Garbutt brothers

12/10/2011

Some Thunderbolt romantics like to describe the young horsebreaker Fred Ward as the innocent victim of a nefarious plot crafted in 1856 by a man named Pelican, a plot that led to his apprehension for horse-stealing and consequent servitude in Cockatoo Island. Others claim that Fred’s brother William (whom they call his “uncle” Harry) was the evildoer, and that Fred was “driven to crime” by the management of Tocal station because their decision to put profits over lives led to the death of his brother George Ward in 1854 (see Did the Death of Fred Ward’s brother spawn his life of crime?).
     In truth, Fred had an eye for a quick buck as well as a good horse, and he willingly joined forces with his con-man nephew, John Garbutt.
     Garbutt was a blond-haired, blue-eyed charmer who decided that horse-stealing was more lucrative than station work. After a Queensland warrant was put out for his arrest in 1855, he fled south to the Hunter Valley district where he committed four large-scale horse and cattle thefts. For his fifth bold plan, he enticed his Ward relatives to join him.
     In March 1856, Fred offered his services to assist in a cattle muster at Tocal station on the Paterson River, which was also New South Wales’ pre-eminent horse stud. A few weeks later some four dozen horses were stolen from Tocal and neighbouring Bellevue station. In the aftermath, the horses were hidden for around ten days at the nearby Lambs Valley farm of Fred’s brother William Ward. John Garbutt then decided to drive the stolen horses south to the markets at Windsor. Fred accompanied them, but he, Garbutt, and the horses’ brands were recognised.
     Fred and his nephews, John and James Garbutt, ended up at the brutal Cockatoo Island penal settlement. Fred’s two surviving brothers were fortunate enough to escape the law’s clutches: William Ward was committed but never brought to trial while Joshua went a-droving before charges were laid against him.
     Fred and his Garbutt nephews worked hard and behaved well so after serving only four years of their ten-year sentences they were granted the colonial equivalent of a parole pass to the Mudgee district. There the 26-year-old John Garbutt managed to charm – and marry – the 42 year-old widowed heiress of Cooyal inn and station. There, probably on the wedding day, Fred met his famed lover, Mary Ann Bugg.
     For one crime or another, the trio ended up back on Cockatoo Island. James Garbutt served the longest term on the island and struggled in the aftermath: drunkenness, petty thievery and, eventually, an inability to keep his pecker in his pants. Between 1879 and 1902, he served five gaol terms for “exposing his person” or “indecent assault”. Ironically, his abandoned daughters were arrested under the Industrial Schools Act in 1874 and admitted to the newly-established girls’ home on Biloela, the recently renamed Cockatoo Island. Taking a leaf from her great-uncle’s book, one of the girls escaped from the island a few years later.
     John Garbutt’s charmed life continued until 1862 when a tumble from a horse led to brain damage and soon afterwards another conviction for livestock theft. Although the Mudgee doctors had claimed that he was fit to stand trial, the Darlinghurst gaol authorities disagreed and shunted him off to the Parramatta Psychiatric Institution. There the doctors diagnosed a “delusional mania”. Medical reports noted that he expressed a constant terror of imaginary persons and particularly of “blackfellows”, that he would remain naked day and night wearing only a pair of stockings and would hide under a bed or in a corner if people approached him, that he was frequently sullen and morose, refusing to speak to those about him and even refusing food which had to be administered forcibly.
     Garbutt made a remarkable recovery in the early 1870s and was eventually released to the care of his wife, but soon drifted north to Queensland. In September 1873 at Taroom near Roma, Queensland, he murdered a travelling companion, Thomas Conroy, by axing the man while he slept and burning the body. Garbutt was executed at Brisbane Gaol on 10 March 1874. No one realised that the “Taroom murderer” was Captain Thunderbolt’s nephew, let alone that he was the man whose bold plans first enticed the young horsebreaker onto the criminal footpath.
     James and John Garbutt were the sons of Fred’s elder sister, Sarah Ann Ward. Some have claimed that Sarah was Fred’s mother (see Was Frederick Ward the son of his “sister”?), however these claims are easily disproved – fortunately for Sarah. If she had indeed been Fred’s mother, she would have managed the ignoble achievement of giving birth to a gunned-down bushranger, a rapist, and an executed murderer. What a hat-trick!

For detailed information about Fred Ward’s pre-bushranging days, see Timeline: 1835-1863

Barry Sinclair's Letter to the North West Magazine

11/10/2011

I had hoped to maintain an air of dignified aloofness and not engage in tit-for-tat responses to letters like the one written by Thunderbolt aficionado Barry Sinclair to the North West Magazine. However, given the relentlessness of the attacks against me and my book, I have decided that wisdom lies in changing tacks.
    Sinclair’s letter focuses on my evidence regarding Mary Ann Bugg – in particular her relationships, children and death. He claims that my information is “totally false” and that, as a consequence, my book is a “total disaster”.
    Let’s see how true his claims are. Below is a link to a web-page that includes a copy of Sinclair’s letter to the editor. Underneath, I have quoted excerpts from his letter and my own responses.
    I must admit that, in so doing, I feel rather like Indiana Jones in his first movie when he is racing through the Cairo markets and encounters a large black-robed Arab assassin wielding an oversized scimitar. The Arab laughs quietly then starts cutting through the air with his menacing weapon in an attempt to intimidate Indy and force him to back off. Indy rolls his eyes, pulls out his gun, and shoots the man.
    Read my rebuttal and you will see what I mean.
                   Go to Barry Sinclair’s Letter to the North West Magazine.

Announcement: Interview with Fran Kelly on ABC's Radio National

10/10/2011

At last, my interview with Fran Kelly on her Breakfast programme has aired after being pre-recorded a few weeks ago. Go to Reviews for a link to that interview and others, or click here for a direct link to the Podcast.
The attack against the claims that the government conspired to hide the truth about Fred Ward's death has begun. Keep watching this space for further information.