Andrew George Scott – Captain Moonlite – known in recent years as the gay bushranger – died on the gallows of Darlinghurst prison on January 20, 1880. Bushrangers, like America’s outlaws and bandits of great way to England, became legends of early Australian history – the Wild Colonial Boys.
But, let’s address two contentious issues before we jump into the life story of Andrew George Scott.
Moonlight or moonlight?
In the 1800s, as now, language purists argued that the eponymous captain’s name-of-crime should be spelled Moonlight. But Scott himself, the night he came up with his villainous persona, spelled the name Moonlite, like Truth noted in 1935.
“He was basically a weird bird himself, so we have to assume he didn’t see anything strange in the ‘light’ spelling lite.”
So Moonlite it is.
Gay Bushranger?
There are those who vehemently object to labeling historical figures that they themselves would not have used. So, I have to admit up front, it’s a bit of a stretch to describe Captain Moonlite as…
… a bushranger.
bushranger [boosh-reyn-jer] | name: a criminal living in the bush, and subsisting on theft with violence.
As Captain Moonlite’s story unfolds, hopefully it will become apparent that Scott and his motley crew of thugs weren’t the Kelly Gang. However, of the 2,000 bushrangers reputed to roam colonial Australia, he remains one of the few most Australians can name. So a bushranger he is.
Andrew George Scott
Born in Ireland, Scott trained as an engineer before emigrating to New Zealand. In 1868 he was in Melbourne where the Anglican bishop appointed him a lay preacher. However, he was involved in a case of cattle rustling. Although he likely helped the son of a wealthy local farming family steal cattle from a neighbor, the police never charged him. But suspicions persisted and the church reassigned Scott to the dusty gold town of Mount Egerton.
At Mount Egerton, he befriends Ludwig Bruun, a 17-year-old bank clerk. The friendship ended after a masked man held Bruun at gunpoint and robbed the bank safe. The thief also forced the boy to write a note to the authorities and sign it “Captain Moonlite.”
Bruun later identified the thief as Scott but failed to convince local cops. They arrested Bruun and Scott left town. It appears the pair plotted the robbery together and then either had a fight – or Bruun lost his temper and grabbed his former friend.
Scott lived the high life in Sydney, in part paying bills with bounced cheques. But he also sold gold dust, coincidentally about the same amount that was stolen from the Mount Egerton Union Bank. The checks cost him fifteen months in prison, after which he was arrested again for the Mount Egerton robbery. While awaiting trial in Ballarat, he planned an escape with the prisoner in the next cell.
A particularly attractive man
John Dermody was 20 years old and, according to the newspapers, he was bold, reckless and funny.
“Dermody is a particularly attractive, blond, light-faced boy with sparkling, provocative eyes.”
Scott broke through the wall in Dermody’s cell, they grabbed a guard on his rounds and escaped. However, the pair quickly fell out and Andrew George Scott was picked up soon after.
He was sentenced to ten years in Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison. He served two-thirds and on his release bonded with James Nesbitt, a petty criminal he had met on the inside.
Scott reinvented himself as a prison reformer and attempted a speaking tour with the help of James Nesbitt. However, police harassment and media beatings killed this career path. Scott and Nesbitt decided to move to NSW. They recruited a host of slum boys to join them: Thomas Rogan, 21; Thomas Williams, 19; Graham Bennett, 18; and Augustus Wernicke, only 15 years old.
With little money and no horses, they marched to NSW. It was hot and dry, and necessity compelled them to sell their spare clothes to pay for the flour. They ate damper, tea and koala meat.
The Wantabadgery shooting
Hungry, the group asked for food at Wantabadgery station near Gundagai. When the station manager refused help and ordered them to leave, Scott lost her.
“Misery and hunger produced despair, and in a mad hour we proved how daring the wretched were.”
Scott’s small, ragtag group took people from the train station and others from nearby properties and a nearby hotel hostage. However, they left the publican’s wife at the hotel and she alerted the authorities. Four riders arrived the next day but the gang held them off and even stole their horses. When the soldiers left as reinforcements, Captain Moonlite and his young followers escaped.
Too arrogant for their own good, they wandered into a nearby farmhouse unaware that a stronger contingent of armed soldiers was approaching Gundagai. When the battle began, young Gus Wernicke was shot running for cover. He cried out in despair, “I’m only 15 years old.
The boy lay on the dry earth, bleeding and begging to be taken away from the sun. A constable had also been shot, apparently by young Wernicke as he lay dying. James Nesbitt then fled, attempting to draw the police away from the house so that Captain Moonlite could escape. A bullet crashed into Nesbitt’s skull. Around the same time, the farm owner disarmed Moonlite. The shootout was over.
Moonlite cried over him like a child
Legendary Captain Moonlite raced to where James Nesbitt lay dying. According to Sydney Morning Herald, “Moonlite cried over him like a child, laid her head on the dying chest and kissed him passionately.”
About a century later, historian Garry Wotherspoon was intrigued by Moonlite’s response to Nesbitt’s death. Later he found a packet of prison letters written by Andrew George Scott but never sent. Letters in which Scott expressed his feelings for Nesbitt.
On January 19, the day before his death, Scott sent a letter to Nesbitt’s mother.
“My heart for you is the same as for my dearest mother. Jim’s sisters are my sisters, his friends my friends, his hopes were my hopes, his grave will be my resting place, and I hope I can be worthy to be with him when we all meet again, never to part again.
He meant what he said about the grave. He requested that after his death the authorities arrange his burial at Gundagai Cemetery with James Nesbitt. Of course, they ignored him.
Andrew George Scott, Captain Moonlite, went to the gallows on January 20, 1880 with Thomas Rogan. The government commuted the death sentences of the other two survivors because of their youth. When he died, Scott wore a ring fashioned from a lock of James Nesbitt’s hair around his finger.
In 1995, Captain Moonlite’s body was exhumed and reburied at Gundagai Cemetery. He has his last wish – lying now for eternity next to his beloved Jim. It’s worth mentioning, though, that without Captain Moonlite, young Gus Wernicke, Thomas Rogan, Agent Bowen, and even James Nesbitt might have lived much longer.
Read more: January 19 January the 21st
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