Capture of the Hatfield Gang of Bushrang…

The Hatfield Bushrangers were four young horsemen who imitated the Kelly gang in February 1879.

Kaye and two friends, Tom Gorman, 21, and Charlie Jones, 20, had been working at capturing brumbies on the lower Murrumbidgee when they decided to rob people. They bailed up a few travellers on the road between Balranald and Ivanhoe, and were then joined by William Hobbs, aged about 30. 

They stuck up Grainger’s store at Hatfield and stole £50 worth of clothing and other goods, two horses, with saddles and bridles. Next day they stopped a hawker, saying “Bail up. We’re the Kellys,” and robbed him of £40 worth of goods and jewellery. Two days later they arrived at Till Till station, and bailed up 25 people there. They took six horses, some ammunition and other articles from the store.

In the meantime John Thomas Day, a storeman at Grainger’s, rode to Moulamein to report the sticking up of the store. He was sworn in as a special constable and joined troopers Beresford and Powers and an Aboriginal tracker in pursuit. On their arrival at Kilferra, a Mr Casey supplied them with remounts and joined in the chase. The tracks led down to a dam where Billy, Hoppy and their mates were in camp preparing their supper where they were captured.

From the original edition of the Illustrated Sydney News.