Captain Moonlite

From the book Classic Australian Folklore by A. K. MacDougall

He was the strangest bushranger of them all — and possibly mad. Born Andrew George Scott in Ireland and well educated, he emigrated to Australia, fought as a volunteer in the Maori War (1861-65) before returning to Victoria, where he moved to Bacchus Marsh.

There he began studies to enter the Church of England, and worked as a lay reader, often visiting his flock, who regarded him highly.

One night a masked man burst into the bank manager's home at Mount Egerton with a gun in his hand. The bank manager recognized the intruder as Scott, and burst out laughing, asking him if this was suitable behaviour for a clergyman. The intruder, who called himself (appropriately) Captain Moonlite, tied him up and left him in the schoolhouse, and then took his keys and escaped with £1,000 from the bank's safe. When the manager and schoolmaster were arrested for staging the robbery, Scott turned up give evidence against them, but was eventually arrested for bouncing cheques in New South Wales and sentenced to 18 months in jaii.

Briefly a free man, he was arrested in Victoria for the bank robbery and lodged in Ballarat Jail, from which he escaped after setting free all the other prisoners in his block; they followed him over the wall. Captured again and imprisoned, Moonlite was released for good behaviour from Pentridge in March 1879, but was soon leading another gang of desperate men. Raiding a property in November 1879, they were surrounded by troopers (one of whom was killed) and all the bushrangers were killed or captured. Scott and one confederate were hanged for murder soon afterwards.