We're here at Bold Rock, and it's a great place to come and reflect what it was like
for the early Europeans in the mid-1800s.
It was Alan Cunningham who came through here in 1827, and he passed about 50 kilometres
west of where we are now.
And that's the location of the nearest town, it's called Tenerfield, but we're here to
talk about Frederick Ward.
And Frederick Ward was a bush ranger, we've got a name of Thunderbolts, and we're here
to explore Thunderbolts' story, so why don't you join me while we explore another piece
of Australia.
Frederick Wordsworth Ward, born in 1835, the youngest child of ten, his parents arrived
here as convicts.
He'll go to work at a very young age, and in those days that would mean about 12 or 13.
And he works in his district in Maitland for about ten years, and he gets a reputation
as a great horseman and a horse breaker.
But it's his nephew, John Garbert, that lures Ward and other members of his family into
his cattle and horse-stealing ring.
Now Garbert's done this two or three times before and got away with it, but on this time
they're not so lucky.
Garbert is arrested on the Parramatta train, Ward will be arrested here at Tocal, the station
behind me.
Now Ward will get ten years for being in possession of horses that were stolen and that he knew
were stolen.
Garbert will also get ten years, and they'll go to jail at Cockatoo Island.
So they get released in four for good behaviour.
John Garbert goes to the Mudgee district, a place called Kool-Yale, and he meets an Elizabeth
Blackman.
She owns a Kool-Yale Inn and a Kool-Yale station and a very wealthy lady, and they develop
a relationship.
When Ward gets released, they employ him as a horse breaker and stockman of their station,
and that's where he meets Mary Ann Bug.
Now Mary Ann falls pregnant with his child soon afterwards, but decides that she'll like
to have that child with her family at their place near Dungal.
So Ward escorts her back, but is relate back to Mudgee for the muster.
Now that's against the conditions of his early release, and he'll be sent back to Cockatoo
Island to serve out the remainder of his sentence of the six years.
But unfortunately for Ward, he compounds his problem.
He's arrived back on a stolen horse, so they throw an extra three years on top.
It's 1861, and Frederick Ward is back to spend another nine years at Cockatoo Island.
In September of 1863, he and another prisoner, Frederick Britton, are working with a work
gang on the north side of the island where we're standing.
Now they're going to attempt and succeed on doing something no one has ever done before
or will ever do again.
They're going to escape from Cockatoo Island, and the way they do this is they steal away
from the work gang and they hide somewhere for a couple of days.
Then they swim across the Parramatta River to Woolwich on the other side.
The prison guards find Britton's irons and clothes here on the island, because Ward wasn't
in irons, and they also find clothes floating in the water near Woolwich.
Now a lady will later testify that a man turned up at her place at Lane Cove, cold and wet,
and she provided him with clothes and food before he continued on his way.
Soon after Britton and Ward escape, they head straight up to the New England District where
we are now, and they commit their first crime as bush rangers about 10 miles from here at
a shepherd's hut.
Now two or three weeks after that, they're lying in ambush on the malecoach right here
at this rock, but they're spotted by a couple of troopers and they challenge Ward and Britton,
and the shootout erupts between the two.
Now luckily for Ward and Britton, they escape, but not before Ward is shot through the back
of the left knee.
Shortly after that, about two or three weeks, the two will part company, probably a good
idea, much harder to catch two than one, and Ward, he will set back down to Dungov, pick
up Marianne and the kids, and they're going back into Northwest New South Wales, a place
they called in those days the Lawless Northwest.
By late 1864, Lunderbolt and Marianne are sighted in Berg, and we know he did get that
far west.
He also went north as far as Warrego in Queensland, along the eastern ranges, and then from Singleton
and Tamworth in the south, a very large area, and his way of operating was he would leave
Marianne in a bush camp and then raid the local businesses, like inns and stationhouses
and farms, and occasionally a malecoach or a traveller, and then take the proceeds back
to Marianne at the camp, and then he'd move on.
But he reached his top of his crime spree in 1865 when he formed his first gang, but that
was quickly disbanded when John Thompson was shot and caught near Maury.
The second gang was formed, but again it disbanded soon after, when one of the gang members
shoots a policeman.
The third gang was almost formed when the notorious bush ranger and outlaw, John Dunn,
was looking to catch up with Lunderbolt, but unfortunately for Dunn, the police would
catch up with him and burke first.
By 1866 and 67 he'd taken on some young accomplices, and he'd become such a pest to Queensland
and New South Wales police that they'd combined forces and put a £400 pound bounty on his
head.
But by 1867 his relationship with Marianne was over as well, but he didn't realise that
she was pregnant for his youngest child, Frederick Wordsworth Ward, his namesake, and he would
be born in 1868 and Lunderbolt knew nothing of this.
Lunderbolt also went into a bit of hiding after that, and he wouldn't surface for more
than a handful of times until that fateful day in 1870.
And this is one of the caves that Lunderbolt used to come and hide out in, and we're up
in the northern part of New South Wales, not very far from the Queensland border on the
edge of the Great Providing Range.
But how did Lunderbolt know these caves were here?
Well there's a couple of possibilities.
We know he was married to an Aboriginal lady, Marianne Buck, and he spent a lot of time
with her before he took up the life of crime, and as a possibility he came up here with
Marianne and her people, and they showed him where these caves were, because they'd been
using for thousands of years.
The other possibility is he was a very skilled bushman, and he learnt some of those skills
from living with the Aboriginals, so he could have came up here and explored and found these
caves for himself, but one thing's for sure, when the police down south got an interest
in Lunderbolt, more than he was comfortable with, he'd retreat up here and hide out until
things cooled off down south.
It's 1870, and it's seven years after Lunderbolt got in the shootout with police at this very
location, but he's back, and he's been holding up passing travellers on the New England highway,
and he's been doing it all day, and he holds up an Italian immigrant, Giovanni Pasacotti.
But Pasacotti's heading south, so Lunderbolt lets him go, thinks nothing more of it, but
Giovanni's doubled back to the north to Urala, and he's alerted the Urala police that there's
a man holding up the passing travellers near Blanche's Tavern.
Blanche's Tavern is just the other side of this rock.
Lunderbolt has been holding up travellers near this rock all day, but now he's down
at Blanche's Tavern having a few drinks.
He's totally unaware that the troopers are galloping in from Urala, about five kilometres
from here.
The first trooper is about 500 metres in front of the second, and he arrives here dismounts
and has an exchange of fire with Lunderbolt who's down at Blanche's Tavern in that gully.
The second trooper arrives and he goes to charge down there to confront Lunderbolt.
Now it appears at the time that Lunderbolt may have considered coming up and charging
towards the police, but for reasons we don't understand, and possibly he had an accomplice,
he changes his mind, and he takes off across the paddock, across the bush, with the second
constable on hot pursuit.
That's Constable Walker.
There's an exchange of shots as Walker pursues Lunderbolt, now Lunderbolt's on a zigzag
course through the bush, he's trying to lose Walker, but Walker's constantly gating on
him, and they do this for about 15 to 30 minutes until they get to a place called Kentucky
Creek, which is actually only two kilometres from Blanche's Tavern, it's not that far.
Now this is where Lunderbolt almost gets away with it, he jumps into the creek, he dismounts
and jumps into the creek, and Walker comes up behind him, now this is where Walker could
easily have lost it, but Walker shows some initiative and real intelligence, he shoots
Lunderbolt's horse, and then he ducks down the creek, finds a narrow across him, and comes
up the other side to cut off Lunderbolt, but Lunderbolt sees this happening, and he doubles
back, and now he's on the same side of the creek as he started, with Walker on the other
side.
Now having an exchange of conversation, which I'll try to repeat to you, is best I can.
Lunderbolt yells out to Walker, he says, who are you?
Lunderbolt, and Walker responds, never you mind, Lunderbolt then yells out, are you a
trooper?
No response from Walker, he yells out, are you married, and Walker yells back, yes, and
Lunderbolt says, well why don't you go home, and Walker says, I can't do that, so he says,
well let it be the best man then, and Walker said, let it be, and then Walker charges into
the water on horseback, but his horse flounders into the water, and Lunderbolt seizes the
opportunity and jumps into the water as well, but Walker lets off one single shot, and it
hits Lunderbolt in the chest, and goes straight through his heart.
Now Walker, Lunderbolt is thrashing around in his death rows, and tries to pull Walker
off his horse, and Walker hits him with the butt of his pistol, it probably wasn't required,
but Lunderbolt is dead, Alexander binning Walker will be the man who brings Lunderbolt
down.
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in the next one.
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