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Born in Cornwall, England around 1826
Died Western Australia 13th August 1900

Joseph Bolitho Johns was the third child of blacksmith Thomas Johns and his wife Mary Bolitho. He was one of six children in a poor family and had to work as a copper miner with his brothers after his father died.

On 15 November 1848, Johns and William Cross, 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".[1] He was charged with burglary and stealing, the pair pleaded not guilty. On 23 March they were tried at the Lent Assizes before Sir 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.

He came to be better known as Moondyne Joe. He goes down in history as Western Australia's best known bushranger known, not for his offences and crimes but, for being the person who had escaped multiple times from prison. Here is his brief history:

Johns and Williams were transferred to Millbank Prison

transferred to Pentonville Prison to serve their mandatory six months of solitary confinement

transferred to Dartmoor Prison on 21 October 1851

Johns transferred to the Woolwich prison hulk Justitia, probably for disciplinary reasons

transferred to the Defence when the Justitia was destroyed by fire

transported to the British penal colony of Western Australia prison ship Pyrenees to serve out the remainder of his sentence

arrived at Fremantle on 1 May 1853

Granted an immediate ticket-of-leave on arrival in reward for good behaviour

1855 granted a conditional pardon

worked at various tasks near Toodyay, in the Avon Valley, one of the most rugged and inaccessible places in the Darling Range. The Aboriginal name for the area was Moondyne

arrested on a charge of stealing the local magistrate's horse in 1861

While awaiting trial he escaped from Toodyay gaol but was recaptured to serve three years' imprisonment

Released

sentenced in 1865 to ten years for killing an ox with the intent of stealing the carcass

Determined not to serve this long sentence and protesting his innocence, he made four attempts to escape from November 1865 to March 1867, three of which were successful. With two companions, he was once at large for two months in the unsettled Darling Range.

Recaptured he was placed in irons in solitary confinement in a specially reinforced cell with triple-barred windows at Fremantle gaol. He was only allowed out for exercise on medical advice.

He escaped again in 1867 through a clever trick and for two years roamed the hill country east of Perth.

Recaptured while raiding a wine cellar and sentenced to a further term in Fremantle prison. He was released in 1871 and gained his conditional pardon in 1873.

The remainder of John's life consisted of periods of good behaviour punctuated by occasional minor misdemeanors and brief jail terms. In January 1879, he married a widow named Louisa Frances Hearn, née Braddick, and they spent some time prospecting for gold near Southern Cross, in Western Australia. In 1881, while exploring the countryside around Karridale, in the south-west of Western Australia he discovered Moondyne Cave.
In his later years he became known locally, in Kelmscott where he lived after his wife's death, as 'Old Mad Moondyne Joe'. He was declared to be mentally ill and died of senile dementia in the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum on 13 August 1900. He was buried, in a paupers grave, in Fremantle Cemetery, his tombstone bearing the Welsh word for freedom - "rhyddid".

It was because the authorities found it impossible to keep Moondyne behind prison walls that a cell in Fremantle Gaol was specially prepared for him, and it remains today as it was when he occupied it many years ago.
The walls of the confined space are heavily timbered and appear to have been laboriously carved and patterned, but is the triple-barred window which is of special interest. Moondyne laughed at ordinary locks and bars and prison walls, but when he first saw the cell prepared for him after many escapes, he must have realised that he would never be able to break through the bars which covered the small window space.

He became a romantic figure in the eyes of the public, at the time, and after for his many escapes.

His determined bids for freedom inspired John Boyle O'Reilly, a convict who escaped from Western Australia to the United States, to write in 1887 a novel on convict life in Western Australia featuring a fictitious and highly romantic Moondyne

as central character.

The Legend of Moondyne Joe

by Mark Greenwood.
The Ballad of Moondyne Joe

by John Kinsella and Niall Lucy.

* I am an Amazon Affiliate which means a very small percentage of the sales of these books go to me, at no extra cost to you.

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Born in Cornwall, England around 1826 Died Western Australia 13th August 1900 Joseph Bolitho Johns was the third child of blacksmith Thomas Johns and his wife Mary Bolitho. He was one of six children in a poor family and had to work as a copper miner with his brothers after his father died.

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© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2019

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ADB Home - Australian Dictionary of Biography

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Robert Clifton Moore (1932-1979), television broadcaster and producer, was born on 16 December 1932 in Adelaide, son of John Moore, butcher, and his wife Dorothy, née Clifton. After attending Adelaide Boys' High School, Bob entered the University of Adelaide (B.A. Hons, 1956) where he studied history and political science, led (1952-55) the debating team and edited (1954) Adelaide University Magazine.

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Term 3 2016
Lisa Term 3 2016

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1. Bushranger profile

2. Recount of bushranger's  life

3.  Compare bushrangers with the convicts of today

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Use these sites to find
your infomation about bushrangers.

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Bushrangers of Australia. Ned Kelly, Ben Hall, Mad Dan Morgan, Martin Cash, etc.

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Australia's most notorious bushrangers. Read about Ned Kelly, Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner and Martin Cash.

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PM&C acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of country throughout Australia and acknowledges their continuing connection to land, water and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the elders past, present and emerging.

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The Australian Curriculum: English aims to ensure that students:

learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose

appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue

understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms and in combination with non-linguistic forms of communication to create meaning

develop interest and skills in inquiring into the aesthetic aspects of texts, and develop an informed appreciation of literature.

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The Australian Curriculum: English aims to ensure that students: learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all