This cache has been placed here for historical purposes.
I'm sure many of you know the old song 'The Wild Colonial Boy', about Jack Doolan. But did you know that the song is about Bold Jack Donohoe? There is debate about whether there was a name change to the song or the same chorus was used in a song about Bold Jack Donohoe. Either way, if you have found this cache, you are standing in an area that Bold Jack Donohoe used to frequent!
Where the tar stops on this road - just several metres from the cache - is the closest asphalt road to Bushrangers Cave, where Bold Jack Donohoe used to hide out with his bushranger buddies.
John Donohoe also known as Jack Donahue, was born in Dublin, Ireland around 1804. He was transported to Australia in 1825. Donohoe escaped from the Quakers Hill farm to the bush with two men named Kilroy and Smith. They formed an outlaw gang known as "The Strippers," as they stripped wealthy land owners of their clothes, money and food. They worked the area from Bringelly to Windsor. AFter Kilroy and Smith were caught, Donohoe joined another group bailing up settlers and plundering property from Bathurst to Yass and the Hunter region to the Illawarra. As part of a group of ten to twelve men he became one of the notorious "Wild Colonial Boys".
On the afternoon of 1 September 1830 John Donohoe was shot dead by the soldier John Muckleston following a shootout between bushrangers and troops at Bringelly, New South Wales.
I am still in search of the site the shoot out occured at and will add it as a cache once I gain the information needed.
I would have loved to have put the cache closer to the cave but being part of Gulgar N.P. makes that impossible. Access to Bushrangers Cave is not availbale from Eltons Road as you would need to pass through private property to gain access. Easiest access to the cave along Bushrangers Creek is through Bents Basin N.P. If you intend on trying your luck please be aware that it is a difficult walk past the Basin and then following the creek up along the back of the Basin area. I do not have coordinates for the cave unfortunately.