Donohoe, c. 1830

Famous bushranger in death

Wild Colonial Boy

John Donohoe was a young Irish convict who terrorised the outskirts of Sydney between 1827 and 1830. Convicts were offered an absolute pardon and a passage to England, and free men a grant of land, as a reward for his capture. Donohoe’s reputation was enhanced by his supposed generosity to the poor, and his much reported sartorial splendour, courtesy of his well-dressed victims.

Donohoe was finally killed, shot by a trooper, at Bringelly in south-western Sydney on 1 September 1830. His body was taken to the General Hospital in Sydney, which is presumably where Sir Thomas Mitchell, the Surveyor General, drew this profile portrait.

Profiles were a popular feature of portraits of criminals made at this time, influenced by phrenologists who argued that the size and shape of the brain determined behaviour.

Donohoe was immortalised in the ballad, The wild colonial boy.
Display item Donohoe, c. 1830

 

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