Harry Redford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henry Arthur "Harry" Readford (sometimes spelt "Redford" in Queensland,) (b. Dec 1841 d. March 1901) was a well known Australian cattle thief or cattle 'duffer'. He was also known as Captain Starlight, "the gentleman bushranger".

In 1870 - just ten years after Burke and Wills set out to cross the continent, and died in the attempt – stockman Readford took advantage of the huge size of Bowen Downs Station near Longreach in Queensland, where remote parts of the property were seldom visited by station workers. With some associates, he built stockyards in an outlying part of the property, and gradually assembled a herd of about 1000 prime cattle, which he then stole, all without any of the station workers realising what was going on.

He knew the cattle would be recognised as stolen if he tried to sell them in Queensland, so he headed for South Australia, through the Channel Country and the Strzelecki Desert. As a droving exercise, it was a remarkable achievement, as anyone who has travelled the present-day Strzelecki Track will know. He sold a white bull at Artracoona Native Well near Hill Hill Station, and the remainder of the mob at Blanchewater Station, east of Marree. It is said he had not lost a single beast on the journey of some 2000 km!

But workers at Bowen Downs eventually discovered the yards, and the tracks heading south. A party of stockmen and black trackers set out on the trail, many weeks behind Redford. They eventually reached Artracoona, and found the white bull.

In April 1871 Harry married Elizabeth Jane Scuthorpe at Mrs Elizabeth Nevell's home in Lewis Street, Mudgee, NSW. This couple had at least one child, a daughter, Jemima Mary Elizabeth in 1872.

Redford was apprehended in Sydney in 1872, and faced trial in Roma. But the jury were so impressed by his achievements that they found him not guilty, whereupon the judge is said to have remarked, “Thank God, gentlemen, that verdict is yours and not mine!” In response to the verdict, the Government shut down the Roma District Court for eight months.[1]

Redford became something of a national hero, and the character Captain Starlight in Rolf Boldrewood’s book Robbery Under Arms was based in part on his exploits. Redford died while trying to swim across a flooded creek in the Northern Territory about 1911.[2]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Bell, Jacqueline (1969). Blakeney, Charles William (1802 - 1876). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
  2. ^ In Starlight's Wake.

[edit] Further reading

  • Clune, Frank (1945) Captain Starlight: Reckless Rascal of "Robbery Under Arms" Melbourne, Hawthorn Press
  • Deckert, John, Harry Redford - Captain Starlight?
  • McCarthy, Patrick, Starlight. The Man and the Myth. Hawthorn Press Melbourne 1972
  • McCarthy, Patrick, The Man Who was Starlight : The Life and times of Henry Readford, stock thief, pathfinder and folk hero. (ISBN: 004909033X) Sydney: Allen & Unwin : 1987.
  • Strzelecki Creek National Heritage Place, [1]