Bushrangers - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• In the same way that outlaws feature in many films of the American Western genre, bushrangers regularly feature in Australian literature, film, music and television.
• Jack Donahue was the first bushranger to have inspired bush ballads.
• Robbery Under Arms, by Thomas Alexander Browne (writing as Rolf Boldrewood), was published in serial form in the The Sydney Mail from 1882 to 1883. It is an early account of the lives of fictional bushrangers and has been adapted for several films and a television series. It is also cited as an important influence on the American writer Owen Wister's 1902 novel The Virginian, widely regarded as the first Western.
• Between 1904 and 1914, many Australian movies were made about bushrangers. A government ban on films about bushrangers, imposed in 1912, is seen as a major reason for the collapse of a booming Australian film industry.
• The bushranger Ned Kelly was the subject of the world's first feature-length film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, released in 1906. In the 1970 film, Ned Kelly, he was portrayed – to limited popular acclaim – by the singer Mick Jagger. Kelly has been the subject of many more movies, television series, written fiction and music.
• Dan "Mad Dog" Morgan was the subject of a feature film, Mad Dog Morgan (1976), starring Dennis Hopper.
• Ben Hall and his gang were the subject of several Australian folk songs, including "Streets of Forbes".
• Bailed Up (1895, 1927), a painting by Tom Roberts, depicts bushrangers holding up a coach near Inverell, the area where Captain Thunderbolt was once active.
• Wild Boys, the 2011 TV series, features a gang of bushrangers.