A NEW exhibition in Melbourne’s Old Treasury Building is examining the history of bushrangers in Victoria.
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The Wild Colonial Boys exhibition opens on September 19 and has been curated with the help of the Public Records Office of Victoria.
Old Treasury Building curator Kate Luciano said a large percentage of the exhibition featured archives from public records.
“We also have some expensive loans from the State Library and Dan Kelly’s armour is on loan from the Victoria Police,” she said.
“Curating this exhibition has been fun. There are such a lot of colourful characters and some who were mildly psychotic.”
Bendigo is featured in the exhibition with Ms Luciano highlighting the story of John Doolan.
“Doolan was interesting. He inspired the song Wild Colonial Boy and was born in Castlemaine before being captured near White Hills,” she said.
“He was one of the youngest bushrangers. Doolan was only 15 when he and fellow boy went on a crime spree.
Ms Luciano said Doolan stole a horse and robbed widow at gunpoint.
“When he was arrested he didn’t resist and went quietly. He was so young but was given a 14 year sentence for the crime,” she said.
“At that point Harry Power, who was one of the most notorious bushrangers, was given 15 years. The judge used the case as a deterrent and set an example.”
The road to Bendigo was also known as a treacherous trip with travellers forced to go through the “black forest”.
“To get to the diggings you had to pass through the black forest, which was a notorious haunt for bushrangers. It had people like George Melville there,” Ms Luciano said.
“There were some really terrible and ghastly accounts of men being found dead and tied to tree, so the road to Bendigo was rife with crime.
“Bushrangers and the notion of bush, those stories are so quintessentially Australian. The exhibition is a great opportunity to showcase both Melbourne’s and regional Victoria’s history.”
Wild Colonial Boys: Bushrangers in Victoria is on at the Old Treasury Building in Spring Street, Melbourne, from September 19.