The Bushranger

Jack Doolan is infamous throughout colonial Australia as “The Wild Colonial Boy,” who ran away from his home in Ireland to Australia to become a “bushranger” or highwayman. His story is told in a ballad: “There was a wild Colonial Boy, Jack Doolan was his name, Of poor but honest parents he was born in Castlemaine. He was his father's only hope, his mother's pride and joy, And dearly did his parents love the wild Colonial Boy.” “He was scarcely sixteen years of age when he left his father's home, And through Australia's sunny clime a bushranger did roam. He robbed those wealthy squatters, their stock he did destroy, And a terror to Australia was the wild Colonial Boy.”