Australia's Bushrangers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Australia's Bushrangers - Essay Example A little over a century ago, Mark Twain remarked that "Australian history does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies" (cited in Gerster, 2001). The elevation of bushrangers, such as Ned Kelly, to the status of mythical heroes and national legends, incited that remark. Australian history, as opposed to legend, sentimental national memory and selective or revisionist recollections of the past, incontrovertibly establish the criminality of the nineteenth century bushrangers. They were murderers, thieves and outlaws and even their staunchest supporters have been unable to defend them against these claims (Seal, 1980). Within the parameters of the stated, the more fundamental question pertains to the evolution of criminals into figures of heroic legend and, more precisely, the secret of the appeal of bushrangers like Ned Kelly to the Australian national memory. In response to the questions raised, the argument shall illustrate that the bushrangers became figures of heroi c legend and assumed mythical proportions within national memory as an immediate outcome of the nation's historical circumstances, its status vis--vis Britain and, most importantly, consequent to the fact that the bushrangers' defiance of the law, withstood retelling as rebellion against British domination, and their capacity to survive in the country's harsh and expansive outback lend to the myth of the formation of nation, through the taming of the wild. The very formation of Australia, insofar as many of its "founding fathers" were the outcasts and victims of British society and justice, significantly contributed to the later evolution of the bushman as hero (Jupp, 2001, p. 16). In his overview of the demographical characteristics of the nineteenth century Irish and British convicts who were transported to Australia, James Jupp (2001) , observes that the majority were poor and marginalised. Not withstanding or denying the fact that they had a criminal background and were convicted felons, the fact was that a significant percentage were first-time felons and that he majority were guilty of non-violent crimes such as larceny and theft. In other words, studies and historical records indicate that the British and Irish convicts, transported to Australia for their crimes, were not the dangerous criminals they have often been depicted as but, more often than not, poor and marginalised members of the lower classes, whose crimes did not war rant transportation to a penal colony (Jupp, 2001). Within the context of the mentioned, one begins to realise that the country was gradually being peopled with settlers whose very circumstances, whether the experience of social marginalisation or harsh/blind justice predetermined, not only the evolution of an outlaw culture but, support for outlaw-ism insofar as it withstood interpretation as rebellion against the British and against injustice. The status of Australia vis--vis Britain further contributed to the readiness to elevate the bushmen into national icons and heroes, rather than simply dismiss them as outlaws and criminals. As may be inferred from David Neal's (1987) account of the emergence of Australian nationhood, Australia was perceived of as a convict society and penal colony. Irrespective of the validity of this perception, the fact remains that the stated coloured societal relationships and the distribution of power therein. Quite simply stated, society was consequently comprised of a free class, which wielded both wealth and power, and the convict and slave classes (Neal, 1987). As may be inferred from Neal's (1987) analysis, it was a society characterised by inequality and insofar as a significant proportion of its members were not free, not to mention the status of the country itself as a penal colony, as opposed to a sovereign and independent nation, Australia and Australians were not free. Instead, the c ountry was subject to British domination, on the one hand and, the majority of society was under the domination of the minority, on the other (Evans and