What did bushranger Thunderbolt do?
Bushranger Captain Thunderbolt was an excellent horseman whose
crime was horse stealing. He was sentenced in 1856 to the infamous
Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour but released four years later on
a ticket-of-leave to work on a Mudgee farm. During this time, he
stole more horses, and was sent back to Cockatoo Island where he
often had to suffer solitary confinement. In September 1863, he and
another inmate escaped from the supposedly escape-proof prison by
swimming to the mainland.
After he escaped, Ward started bushranging, under the name of
Captain Thunderbolt. Much of his activity was around Uralla, a
small town in northern NSW country. He sheltered at a rock which
became famously known as "Thunderbolt's Rock". After a six-year
reign as a "gentleman bushranger", Thunderbolt was shot dead by
Constable Alexander Walker in May 1870.