Bushranger

There's a war memorial.

There's a famous, you'll love this, Bushranger.

Oh, yes.

What's his name?

Let me give you an example from our own backyard from a long time ago, the iconic Australian bushranger.

A bushranger was a criminal or an outlaw who committed robberies and holdups in the kind of rough rural bush landscape in Australia.

Bushrangers were basically the organized crime gangs of the 1800s around the, um, the, the bush of New South Wales and other places in Australia.

But there's something really interesting about the way that these criminals are remembered in Australia.

You might think that criminals who engaged in things like armed robbery, murder, kidnapping, well, you might think they might generally be regarded as evil, right? But that is not the way bushrangers in Australia are generally remembered.

Let me show you a quote from a, a couple of historians.

"Bushrangers were late 18th to early 20th century bandits who lived in the Australian bush through the proceeds of crime, but today they are national [laughs] legends." Very interesting.

And again, "We're brought up to think of bushrangers as national heroes.

Um, but this is also a person that was [laughs] so, so vehemently upset by the, the big gay Ned Kelly musical.

Um, anyway, let's not get, let's not get sucked into, into sequined Bushrangers.

Um, but yeah, [laughs] uh, yeah, Meg's performance, I, I, I still giggle about it and I shall for some time.

[laughs] Um, and look, and look, if we're talking about gay, gayness, which we are, I've decided, [laughs] uh, let's briefly touch on the, the, the presence of gay men in the story.

Right now there's an exhibition on Sidney Nolan's paintings.

Sidney Nolan was famous for painting Bushrangers, which were our sort of, I don't know, cowboys of the Wild West who used to steal lots of things.

And the most famous Bushranger was a guy called Ned Kelly.

Anyway, that exhibition is on right now.

They had some pretty spectacular names, actually, now that I think about it.

But yeah, I was really scared of Bush Rangers for a while, but they were all gone, so I don't need to be anymore.

But yeah, I think Heath Ledger, from memory, did a pretty good job playing him.

That's what I was going to ask you, if you remember, not necessarily Heath Ledger, but did they portray Ned Kelly realistically?

So...

He went from an Australian Bushranger movie to one of the greatest movies of all time.

Not that Mad Dog Morgan doesn't fit in the Australian greatest movies of all time.

It's a funny one to watch because it's great to see all these actors, but it was a time when Australian filmmaking was really... risk-taking.

G'day legends Billo here so we're on the eve of another parkrun and today I just finished work so I'm going to be hitting the highway heading northeast of home so just over 400 kilometres and I will be ending up arriving at Great Wood in New South Wales pretty much just northeast of Canberra so here we go Gold bought them here, Bushrangers followed.

More than 160 years later, I'm travelling some of the same roads, chasing a different kind of treasure.

Another parkrun, another barcode, another story.

G'day Billo here, welcome to Braidwood and welcome to Bushrangers and Barcodes.

This week I'm pointing my Nendi Black WRX north out of Wodonga and into New South Wales.

It's around a 407 kilometres and 4 hours 20 minute drive to Braidwood from home.

They knew the tracks, ranges, and hiding places.

And the gang became famous, or notorious, for robbery, horse theft, mail robbery, and violence.

Get it off.

Every time, when I was watching that show, even though it's not, it's nothing to do with Bush Rangers, but I was watching that and I was thinking, I can see Billy King given this sort of treatment on TV.

So if any producers are listening, Billy King would make a great, great limited series.

But it's that same feel when you were just talking before about how it's a contemporary take.

And Cricket Victoria saying they're gonna sell 100% of the Renegades license without prior approval from Cricket Australia was disgraceful.

Cr-- Um, then coming out and saying, "We're changing the name to Bushrangers, but we just have to work that out because we don't know what we're gonna call the women's team." And it's like, mate, that is PC gone mad.

That is the woke blokes losing their minds.

Bushranger is a gender-neutral term.