Bushranger

By Raymond Boyd Dunn

Bushranger...the outlaws of the Australian bush. The young men sometimes cast into that role by an unfortunate twist of fate - sometimes because of their thirst for adventure on a fast horse. Seldom did they realise the danger they were exposing themselves to until it was too late - an ignominious death from a policeman's bullet, or the final drop through the trapdoor of the gallows, hoping that the hangman knew how to make a proper noose so that death would be instantaneous. Some - very few - escaped that fate to lead a respectable life afterwards. Some, but very few!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raymond Boyd Dunn
• Release date: Aug 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476170879

Raymond Boyd Dunn

Raymond Boyd Dunn is a "born and bred" third generation Australian. After his retirement Raymond Boyd became a grey nomad, and, with his wife, spent some time touring this vast country of Australia. He was born in the small Burnett Valley town of Monto, Queensland, and for his entire life has answered to the name of 'Boyd'. Apart from his travels he has lived all of his life in Queensland, and after satisfying his thirst for seeing first hand this wonderful country we live in, settled on the Sunshine Coast to spend his remaining years in the sunshine near the beach.He commenced his working life as a Bank Officer and resigned after thirteen years to become self-employed. At various stages he has owned a Corner Store, a small Supermarket Chain, a Butchery, a Milk Run, a Printery and a Cattle and Grain Farm. He has been involved, in various capacities, in Cricket and Tennis Clubs; Jaycees, Lions and Rotary Clubs and Aero Clubs. He was a Cricketer, played tennis, tried to play golf, and was a keen long distance runner.Upon taking a well-earned retirement he wrote his unpublished autobiography, which was for distribution among his family of six children and numerous grand-children. A visit to Cooktown, where he learnt of the Palmer River Gold Rush, was the incentive to keep writing and produce his first novel 'Palmer Gold' He then settled down to write novels, producing two more books to complete a Trilogy...'An Australian Ranch' and "Carly and Sam...Will and Effie'. There followed numerous short stories, and other novels: 'Lord of the Manor in Australia', and 'The Vintage Years'. He continues to write whilst enjoying life in the sunshine on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

Book preview

Bushranger

By Raymond Boyd Dunn

Copyright 2012…Raymond Dunn

Smashwords Edition

As this book is of the Australiana genre, all spelling has been checked in Heinemann’s Australian Dictionary

Chapter 1

Dan Drummond should never have become a bushranger in the first place. He had every opportunity any young man should want to begin a career in the city. His father had been affluent enough to provide the bond required for securing a place for his son in any of the major Banks, and this is how he began his working life in 1872, as a clerk in the Bank of New South Wales. But Dan's nature was such that placing him in a Bank was the equivalent of putting a young kid with a sweet tooth alone in a candy store. The sight of so much cash being handled by the tellers was too much of a temptation for the youngster. He managed to show admirable restraint by waiting until he was eighteen years old, and that was the only thing remotely admirable in his behaviour.

His father owned a large plot of land on the outskirts of the city, and kept a stable of racehorses. Dan spent all of his spare time with the horses. In his early years he wanted to be a jockey, but he grew too big for that career; his eventual fully grown height was six feet. His effort to remain slim and small led him to a regime of excessive exercising; with the result he was always super-fit. He became a superb horseman. This was to be an asset in his future career as an adventurer living outside the law.

He was seventeen years old when he was transferred away from the city branch to a town out in the bush. Archerton supported three Banks; the QN, the Commercial and his, the Wales. The QN was the largest, employing a dozen staff. The staff of his Branch numbered four. The task of writing up customers' accounts in the huge ledgers was driving him to distraction, and the errors he made in recording the customers' transactions brought the wrath of the Manager down on his head. He always seemed to be in trouble. This was not the life for him!

The only thing keeping him on the straight and narrow was his relationship with the daughter of one of the Bank's wealthy grazier customers. She was working at the draper's shop a couple of doors down the main street, and they usually spent their lunch hours together. He was living in a room at the back of the Bank, and she was boarding with a local family in town. As the manager lived in the Bank residence and the other two co-workers boarded with families in town, it gave them the opportunity to misbehave in his room at the rear of the Bank premises.

It was shortly after his eighteenth birthday when he decided it was time for him to begin his career as a criminal. In doing so it would cost his father the price of his bond. This unfortunate consequence would not upset him unduly. For several years now he had been at odds with his father, and they had ceased to communicate with each other. The rift was caused when his father more or less forced him to take a position as a clerk in the Bank, while he was interested in working around horses. His father was determined that his son would have a position of some standing in the community, and a Bank Manager was what he expected his son to achieve eventually.

A second unfortunate consequence would be he could no longer spend time with Coleen. The incident which tipped him over the edge, so to speak, was that he and Coleen had had the mother of all lovers' tiffs. It was over such a minor thing, and later each one would wonder what it was which caused the disagreement, but it escalated into a major row. Their temperaments were very much alike, and as they say: 'opposites attract, likes repel'. Never mind what the reason for their quarrel, it was the catalyst for his decision to leave his Banking career, and to embark on a more adventurous one.

For the scheme he had in mind he would need an accomplice. It was not the sort of proposition he could come right out with after approaching a likely participant. He ran through a list of his acquaintances, and he thought most of them would not, by any stretch of the imagination, be corrupt enough to take part in the enterprise he had in mind. There was one name which stood out from the rest. Walter Rayburn was a teller in the QN Bank, and Dan knew he was an inveterate gambler; a risky pastime when he had access to so much cash. He was prepared to gamble on anything, and as a result was always seeking to borrow money to pay his debts. Dan would sound him out at the earliest opportunity.

Dan had been out shooting rabbits with Walter from time to time. It was in Bank regulations to allot quantities of ammunition for practice with weapons. Dan was such an accurate shot with a revolver that Walter had bestowed the nickname of 'Deadly' on him; Deadly Dan Drummond! On the other hand, Walter was hopeless as a marksman; Dan reckoned he couldn't hit the side of a barn at twenty feet. Thus, Walter was given the sobriquet of 'Barney'.

The day after Dan and Coleen definitely called off their relationship, he was sent around to the QN Bank with a package to deliver to the Manager. There were two tellers, and neither was attending to a customer. Dan walked up to Wally's teller's box and gave him the package.

Are you doing anything tonight, Barney?

"No, I have to stay in. You can't go out