Joseph Bolitho Johns ( February 1826 – 13 August 1900), better known as Moondyne Joe, was a Cornish-Welsh convict and Western Australia's best-known bushranger. Born into poor and relatively difficult circumstances, he became something of a petty criminal robber with a strong sense of self-determination. He is remembered as a person who had escaped multiple times from prison.

Biography

thumb|Remnants of a fence and well, built by Moondyne Joe

Childhood

Some say he was born in Cornwall but an online ANU source quotes him as being born in Wales, around 1826-27, and raised as a Protestant. He was baptised in the Parish Church at Wendron, married at Johnston Memorial Congregational church at Fremantle, and buried in the Anglican section of Fremantle Cemetery. Despite claims that he was Roman Catholic, there is no evidence for this and would be incredibly unusual in Cornwall. He was the third of three children of blacksmith Thomas Johns (1799–1833) and his wife Mary Bolitho (1804–1860). Joe was a tall man with black hair and hazel-coloured eyes, and it is likely that he contracted smallpox in his youth as, later, records describe him as "pockmarked". His father died some time in 1833, and Johns and his brother took work as copper miners. In 1841 the family was living at Porkellis, Cornwall, but by 1848 Johns had migrated to Wales, taking work as an iron ore miner, probably at the Clydach Iron Works.

Prison

On 15 November 1848, Johns and an associate using the name William Cross, the pseudonym for the convict John Williams, were arrested near Chepstow for "stealing from the house of Richard Price, three loaves of bread, one piece of bacon, several cheeses, and other goods". Arraigned at the Brecon Assizes on charges of burglary and stealing, the pair pleaded not guilty. On 23 March, they were tried at the Lent Assizes before William Erle. Newspaper reports of the trial suggest that the pair gave an unexpectedly spirited defence, but Johns was abrasive and "contravened the conventions of court procedure". The men were convicted and sentenced to ten years' penal servitude.

Johns and Williams were to spend the next seven months working on a government work party in the local area, before being transferred to Millbank Prison. On 1 January 1850, they were transferred to Pentonville Prison to serve their mandatory six months of solitary confinement. The pair were transferred to Dartmoor Prison on 21 October 1851, but shortly afterwards Johns was transferred to the Woolwich prison hulk Justitia, probably for disciplinary reasons. When the Justitia was destroyed by fire, he was transferred to the Defence. About a year later, he boarded the prison ship Pyrenees for transportation to what was then the British penal colony of Western Australia to serve out the remainder of his sentence. In reward for good behaviour, Johns was issued with a ticket of leave on arrival, and on 10 March 1855 he received a conditional pardon. He then settled in the Avon Valley, one of the most rugged and inaccessible places in the Darling Range. The Aboriginal name for the area was Moondyne. Johns made a living by partly fencing the springs in the area, and trapping escaped stock and horses. Often a reward was offered for the return of such animals.

While Johns was serving his sentence, there was a rash of convict escapes and attempted escapes, but Johns remained well behaved. His good behaviour earned him a remission on his sentence, and he was released on a ticket of leave in February 1864. He then found work on Henry Martin's<!-- speculate this is the same Martin after whom the suburb in the same area is named--> farm in Kelmscott. In January 1865, a steer named "Bright" belonging to William Wallace was killed, and Johns was accused of the deed. He was arrested on 29 March, found guilty on 5 July, and sentenced to ten years' penal servitude. Johns was to protest his innocence of this crime for the rest of his life. He was determined not to serve what he felt was an unjust sentence and, in early November, he and another prisoner absconded from a work party. They were on the run for nearly a month, during which time they committed a number of small robberies. It was during this time that Johns first adopted the nickname Moondyne Joe. They were finally caught east of York by a party of policemen that included Tommy Windich, an Aboriginal tracker. For absconding and for being in possession of a firearm, Johns was sentenced to twelve months in irons, and transferred to Fremantle Prison. Directed by W. J. Lincoln, it starred George Bryant, Godfrey Cass and Roy Redgrave.

Randolph Stow wrote a humorous children's book, Midnite: The Story of a Wild Colonial Boy, in 1967 which told the story of an Australian bushranger based on the life and exploits of Moondyne Joe and a Queensland bushranger Captain Starlight.

In 2002, Cygnet Books published The Legend of Moondyne Joe, a work of juvenile fiction written by Mark Greenwood and illustrated by Frané Lessac. The book won the award in the Children's Books category at the 2002 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards.

In 2012, Fremantle Press published a postmodern interpretation of Moondyne Joe's life, The Ballad of Moondyne Joe, including poems and prose by John Kinsella and Niall Lucy.

In song and verse

thumb|Mark Greenwood's work of juvenile fiction The Legend of Moondyne Joe won the award for Children's Books in the 2002 [[Western Australian Premier's Book Awards]]

<!-- This isn't the place to write lyrics for every song please discuss lyric on the talk page first -->

<!-- A sampling of lyrics included here as 'social history' which has built up around this man -->

thumbnail|Moondyne Joe's Bar and Bistro, Fremantle, takes its name from the famous bushranger

In 1982 a musical/play was written by Roy Abbott and Roger Montgomery of the Mucky Duck Bush Band and performed by Mucky Duck and friends at various venues.

Memorials

A railway siding on the Eastern Goldfields Railway in Johns' area of operations in the Avon Valley has been named Moondyne, most likely after the man rather than the area.

Festivals

On the first Sunday of May, the township of Toodyay celebrates the life and times of Moondyne Joe by holding the Moondyne Festival. This festival takes place in the main street with street theatre, market stalls, demonstrations and the entire town is generally transported back to earlier years.

See also

  • Cornish Australians
  • List of convicts transported to Australia
  • List of convict ship voyages to Western Australia

Notes

References

  • M. Tamblyn, 'Johns, Joseph Bolitho (1827–1900)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, Johns, Joseph Bolitho (1827–1900), published in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 10 February 2014
  • Family History site at dbolitho.co.uk