Frank_McCallum

frank McCallum bushranger =﻿HE USED TO BE CALLED CAPTAINMELVILLE =

=== In December 1852, Melville and his mate William Roberts stuck up a sheep station near Wardy Yallock, tied up the owner Mr Aitcheson and the overseer Mr Wilson, ransacked the house and stole the horses. The following day they started robbing numerous diggers and travellers on the Ballarat Road, till they reached Geelong. There they paid a visit to a brothel, where they got very drunk, and Melville boasted about himself and about the one hundred pounds reward offered for his apprehension. One of the women notified the police, but Melville managed to flee, leaving the drunken Roberts behind. On the run he met a young man named Guy mounted on a splendid horse. Melville tried to steal the horse, but Guy wrestled with him and finally overpowered him. Young Guy was surprised, when the arriving police told him whom he had caught. He was born in Scotland in 1823 He was transported to Van Diemen’s Land for seven years he arrived in Van Diemen’s Land on the 29th of September 1838 and being only thirteen years of age. He went to Van Diemen’s Land for house breaking On the 11thof august he was found in a cell strangled with a with a handkerchief. In March 1857, Mr John price, the inspector-General of convicts, was killed in another uprising at the quarry near Williamstown. In July he made a savage attack on Mr.wintle, the governor of goal. The following day they started robbing numerous diggers and travellers on Ballarat road. His record shows he was almost immediately in trouble receiving twenty lashes for absence and insolence and a further thirty-six lashes for repeated insolence. Between 1839 and 1848 he was brought before the police magistrates twenty-five times, and sentenced to everything from thirty-six lashes to long periods of hard labour, sometimes in chains. He absconded on three occasions: November 1848, January 1850 and April 1850 ﻿ ===