Portal:Western Australia/Selected article/April 2008

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Moondyne Joe (born Joseph Bolitho Johns, c. 1826–August 13, 1900) was Western Australia's best known bushranger.

On 15 November 1848, Johns and an associate named John Williams were arrested near Chepstow for stealing "three loaves of bread, one piece of bacon, several cheeses, and other goods". Johns was sent to the British penal colony of Western Australia on board the Pyrenees in the early 1950s. In reward for good behaviour, Johns was issued with a ticket of leave on arrival. After stealing a horse and serving another prison sentence, Johns found work on a farm, but in January 1865 a neighbour's steer was killed and eaten, and Johns was accused and sentenced to ten years' penal servitude. In early November, he and another prisoner absconded from a work party and were on the run for nearly a month, during which time they committed a number of small robberies. They were finally caught 37 kilometres east of York by a party of policemen that included the Aboriginal tracker Tommy Windich. In August 1865, he escaped again and met up with three other escapees, who together roamed the bush around Perth, committing a number of robberies. Moondyne Joe formulated a plan to escape by travelling to South Australia, and on 5 September Moondyne Joe equipped his company by committing the biggest robbery of his career. Their tracks east were discovered by police on 26 September, and a team of police set out after them. They were captured on 29 September, about 300 kilometres north east of Perth.