Narratives evolving from bushranger images are integral to a colonised Australian psyche. Characters were famed for stealing, philandering, mateyness and murder. Frederik Wordsworth Ward AKA Captain Thunderbolt was one such legendary figure, the longest roaming bushranger in Australian history.
He was also known as the Gentlemen’s Bushranger with his part Aboriginal part Caucasian partner Mary-Anne Bugg, the gun-toting woman who became Captain Thunderbolt’s wife. The two travelled from Hunter Valley to the Queensland boarder creating havoc and mind-bending chases with the colonial establishment as they tried to track them down.
