Crossword clues for bushranger
bushranger
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bushranger \Bush"ran`ger\, n. One who roams, or hides, among the bushes; especially, in Australia, an escaped criminal living in the bush.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context Australia historical English) A convict or outlaw who escapes to the bush to avoid capture; a roving bandit who lives in the bush. 2 (context Australia obsolete English) A person skilled in bushcraft.
Wikipedia
Bushrangers originally referred to escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term "bushranger" had evolved to refer to those who abandoned social rights and privileges to take up " robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base. Bushranging thrived during the gold rush years of the 1850s and 1860s when the likes of Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner and John Gilbert led notorious gangs in the country districts of New South Wales. These " Wild Colonial Boys", mostly Australian-born sons of convicts, were roughly analogous to British " highwaymen" and outlaws of the American Old West, and their crimes typically included robbing small-town banks and coach services. In more infamous cases, such as that of Dan Morgan, the Clarke brothers, and Australia's most well-known bushranger, Ned Kelly, numerous policemen were murdered. The number of bushrangers declined due to better policing and improvements in rail transport and communication technology, such as telegraphy. Kelly's capture and execution in 1880 effectively represented the end of the bushranging era.
Bushranging exerted a powerful influence in Australia, lasting for almost a century and covering much of the continent. Its origins in a convict system bred a unique kind of desperado, frequently with an Irish political background. Native-born bushrangers also expressed nascent Australian nationalist attitudes and are recognised as "the first distinctively Australian characters to gain general recognition." As such, many bushrangers became folk heroes and symbols of rebellion against the authorities. Firmly entrenched in Australian folklore, bushrangers have inspired many works in the arts, including bush ballads, plays and films.
Bushranger (1930–1937) was an American Thoroughbred steeplechase racehorse. Prepared for flat racing, at age two the grandson of Man o' War demonstrated little ability in that venue and as such his owner decided to try him in steeplechase racing. In the hands of future Hall of Fame steeplechase trainer J. Howard Lewis, Bushranger won important races at age five and six including the American Grand National, the most prestigious steeplechase race in the United States.
Bushranger was retired after his six-year-old racing season but the following year he fractured a leg during a schooling exercise at Belmont Park and had to be euthanized.
A bushranger was a lawbreaker who used the Australian bush to avoid capture.
Bushranger(s) may also refer to:
- Bushranger (4WD), limited production off-road vehicle based on a Range Rover platform
- Bushranger (horse), American racehorse
- Bushranger, popular nickname given to the Australian UH-1 Iroquois helicopters during the Vietnam War
- Bushranger, the Norinco JW-103 rifle
- Bushrangers, Australian rules football team in the AFLQ State Association
- Victorian Bushrangers, Australian cricket team
Usage examples of "bushranger".
The bushranger guessed at once the sort of country they had lighted on, which was a succession of abrupt stony hills like the huge waves of a sea suddenly petrified into solidity: an exceedingly difficult country to make progress in, either on horseback or on foot, for while the actual distance gained in a straight line, as the bird flies, is very small, the length of ground gone over is very great, and very fatiguing from the continual up and down movement, and from the annoying obstructions of the cutting fragments of sharp rock and loose stones met with at every step.
In this scheme accident favoured the bushranger in a way that he least expected.
Jerry, as he marched on before with his bundle, with the bushranger behind, his eternal pistol touching his back occasionally, as if to remind him to be on his good behaviour.
Jerry and his accoutrements but two of the spears, and the cord with which the bushranger had bound him.
I tumbled down the hill, and when I got to the bottom, who should there be waiting for me but that confounded bushranger, and the moment I opened my mouth to speak, he clapped a pistol in it, and there I was hard and fast.
The ensign and his soldiers stood to their arms: while the faint echo of the musket-sound conveyed to the watchful bushranger the fatal intimation that some discovery had taken place on shore which could bode only ill to him, from the junction of the parties now united for his destruction, and which required the exercise of all his cunning and unequalled daring to guard against and to repel.
Trevor set out on his way, his mind filled with the most lively apprehensions of alarm for the fate of Ellen and her sister, should the bushranger take it into his head, for any purpose of plunder or violence, to visit the place of their retreat.
Major had taken from the vessel, and which the bushranger wisely judged might stand him in good stead at some future time.
Mark Brandon redoubled the terror of Louisa, who now gave herself up for lost, expecting every moment that the searching eyes of the ever-watchful bushranger would spy her out amongst the rocks, and that she would be suddenly dragged from her retreat to share the fate of her sister!
Louisa, seeing that her sister was in the power of the dreaded bushranger, strained her ears to catch the words which presently he began to speak in a quiet but earnest tone to Helen.
I should like to see the bushranger that would attempt to take them out again!
Mark Brandon at the close of the altercation with the murdered Swindell, which more strongly than ever confirmed her in the opinion that she possessed a power over the bushranger, which she might be able to use to the advantage of herself and her helpless companion in distress.
Jerry, the bushranger announced that it was his pleasure that they should rest there for some time, in order that Miss Horton might recover from her fatigue.
The Bushranger no sooner became convinced of this fact than he called out to Grough to be ready to march.
But she was not aware that the bushranger, whose quick eye caughtsight of the manoeuvre, rapidly but carefully picked them up, as he followed, with not less diligence than that with which she distributed them.