To mark International Women's Day , we run the above recently found interesting book by Pat Studdy- Clift . It was only natural that we contacted Magnetic Island bushranger authority and muso , Gary Hunn , for comment . He knew of Jessie Hickman , who is thought to have killed her drunken husband , his body never found , and became a renowned cattle thief in the 1920s , operating in an area now known as the Wollemi National Park .
Born in 1899,her mother sold her to a travelling circus when she was eight ; by 17 she was a champion roughrider and ring master . She died in 1936.
Gary said another remarkable woman in Australian bushranging history had been Aboriginal Mary Ann Bugg, the paramour of Frederick Wordsworth Ward ( 1835-1870) , known as Captain Thunderbolt , the gentleman bushranger , who operated in the New England area, to whom she bore a child .
It is interesting to note that while the east of Australia is currently still being battered by floods , Captain Thunderbolt and Bugg, on the run , experienced the Great Flood of 1864.
Some time ago, Gary was approached for information by a musician keen to produce a bushranger musical ; not heard from in recent times .
