Sign-In
Cart
William Russell: Captain Bushranger - Collector's Edition
Hardcover
Historical FiguresAustralia & OceaniaGeneral World History
ISBN13: 9781764514934
Publisher: Back Creek Press
Published: Jan 29 2026
Pages: 270
Weight: 1.14
Height: 0.75 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
William Russell - Captain Bushranger
A documented true story from Ireland to colonial Australia and Norfolk Island, reconstructed from court records, newspapers, and archival sources.
At just 17 years old, William Russell was sentenced to seven years transportation and sent in chains from Ireland to Australia in 1834.
William Russell was never meant to survive.
Sentenced again in 1841 to life on Norfolk Island, in a penal system designed to break men, he endured punishment, exile, and years without hope. When Norfolk Island was finally behind him, it was not freedom, only distance. His name remained written down, his past never closed, and the search for him was never abandoned.
This book traces William Russell's life from convict to husband and father as he and Sarah build a life lived carefully and always under threat. Troopers, records, and old accusations follow him across rivers, goldfields, and growing Australian towns. Survival depends not on heroics, but on restraint, patience, and knowing when to move on.
Remembered by some as Captain Bushranger, Russell never claimed the name. It was applied by others, a label that survived where much of the man's own voice did not. This work returns to the records to examine the life behind the name.
Written by a sixth-generation descendant of William Russell, the book brings together history and family memory to illuminate the life of a man who lived in the shadows of Australia's frontier era.
Based on historical records, with interpretation where the record falls silent.
Collector's Edition
Produced as a premium edition with cream paper and enhanced presentation, created for readers who wish to own a lasting record of this remarkable Australian story.
Also from
Weekes, Bernard
Also in
Australia & Oceania
The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean
Corson, Trevor
Paperback
Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World
Druett, Joan
Paperback
Lost Kingdom: Hawaiia's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and Americaa's First Imperial Venture
Siler, Julia Flynn
Paperback
Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny
Dash, Mike
Paperback
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers
Witton, Edward
Paperback
A Shark Going Inland Is My Chief: The Island Civilization of Ancient Hawai'i
Kirch, Patrick Vinton
Paperback
Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II
Zuckoff, Mitchell
Paperback
The Australian Wars: The Truth about the Bloody Battles Fought to Establish a Nation
Gapps, Stephen
Murray, Mina
Rachel, Perkins
Hardcover
How Chiefs Became Kings: Divine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawai'i
Kirch, Patrick Vinton
Paperback
The Reef: A Passionate History: The Great Barrier Reef from Captain Cook to Climate Change
McCalman, Iain
Paperback
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest
Hoffman, Carl
Paperback
Voices Beyond the Grave: Japanese Internment in the French Pacific
Ireland, Benjamin Hiramatsu
Hardcover
Terra in Our Mist: A Tūhoe Narrative of Indigenous Sovereignty and Settler-State Violence
Aikman, Pounamu Jade William Emery
Hardcover
The Forgotten Children of Maui: Filipino Myths, Tattoos, and Rituals of a Demigod
Wilcken, Lane
Paperback
'I buy this piece of ground here': An Italian market-gardener community in Adelaide, 1920s-1970s
Regan, Madeleine
Paperback
Double Sunrise: Qantas Empire Airways Indian Ocean Wartime Services 1943-1946
Goodall, Geoff
Paperback
The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People
Flannery, Tim
Paperback
South Pacific Air War Volume 6: Wau to Bismarck Sea, January - March 1943
Claringbould, Michael
Ingman, Peter
Paperback
Mutiny on the Bounty: A Saga of Sex, Sedition, Mayhem and Mutiny, and Survival Against Extraordinary Odds
Fitzsimons, Peter
Paperback
Burke and Wills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Australia's Most Famous Explorers
Fitzsimons, Peter
Paperback
The Myth of the Natural Laboratory: Science, Empire, and Their Derangements on Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands
Young, Adrian
Hardcover
Contaminated Country: Nuclear Colonialism and Aboriginal Resistance in Australia
Urwin, Jessica
Paperback
Beyond the Meeting of the Waters: A Yorta Yorta Life Story
Atkinson, Wayne
Guinness, Catherine
Hardcover
The Last Tour: Paul and Eslanda Robeson's Visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1960
Curthoys, Ann
Paperback
The Shameful Isles: The true story of North-West Australia's fatal experiment with medical apartheid
Price, David
Paperback
The Road from Coorain: A Woman's Exquisitely Clear-Sighted Memoir of Growing Up Australian
Conway, Jill Ker
Paperback
The Mana of Translation: Translational Flow in Hawaiian History from the Baibala to the Mauna
Kuwada, Bryan Kamaoli
Hardcover
The Battle of the Coral Sea Explained: Expert Analysis of the Pivotal WWII Battle Where American Strength Saved Australia
Lewis, Tom, Oam
Paperback
Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and Their Polynesian Ancestors
Crowe, Andrew
Paperback
Clanlands in New Zealand: Kiwis, Kilts, and an Adventure Down Under
McTavish, Graham
Heughan, Sam
Paperback
Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea
Matthiessen, Peter
Paperback
Aborigine Trail: Trials, Travail, and Triumph Using Psychology with Aborigine Police
Rudofossi, Dan
Moloney, Matthew
Paperback
A Holistic Reading of Chronicles with a Samoan Hermeneutic: Reading Jabez in Context
Moleli Alama, Samasoni
Hardcover
The Southern Frontier: Australia, Antarctica and Empire in the Southern Ocean World
Howitt, Rohan
Paperback
Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: The Archaeology of Ancient Hawai'i, Revised Edition
McCoy, Mark D.
Kirch, Patrick Vinton
Paperback
People Powered Radio: Fifty Years of Australian Community Radio Station 4zzz
Anderson, Heather
Paperback
Riots: Returned soldiers and public disorder in Australia at the end of World War I
Skyring, Fiona
Paperback
Drink and Democracy: Alcohol and the Political Imaginary in Colonial Australia
Allen, Matthew
Paperback
King Kamehameha The Great: King of the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaii History, A Biography
Makana, Kale
Paperback
Miles Franklin Undercover: The Little-Known Years When She Created Her Own Brilliant Career
Davies, Kerrie
Paperback
Queen Liliuokalani: The Hawaiian Kingdom's Last Monarch, Hawaii History, A Biography
Makana, Kale
Paperback
Empires of Violence: Massacre in a Revolutionary Age
Mann, Barbara Alice
Penn, Nigel
Dwyer, Philip
Hardcover
Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers
Witton, George
Paperback
The White Pacific: U.S. Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas After the Civil War
Horne, Gerald
Paperback
Pacific Confluence: Fighting Over the Nation in Nineteenth-Century Hawai'i Volume 69
Sasaki, Christen T.
Paperback
Aboriginal Peoples and Birds in Australia: Historical and Cultural Relationships
Clarke, Philip
Paperback
The Penguin History of New Zealand (16pt Large Edition) (Large Print Edition)
King, Michael
Paperback
Maori Tā Moko Tattoos: History, meanings and facial tattoo traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand
Rune, Aksel
Paperback
Wild Partners: Indigenous Worlds and Industrial Giants in Papua New Guinea
Guinness, Patrick
Paperback
Australian Queer Screens: Diversity and Social Change in Film and TV
Monaghan, Whitney
Richards, Stuart
Cover, Rob
Paperback
Ceremony Men: Making Ethnography and the Return of the Strehlow Collection
Gibson, Jason M.
Paperback
Misadventures in Nature's Paradise: Australia's Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island during the Dutch era
de Hoop, Robert
Henderson, Graeme
Viduka, Andrew
Paperback
Land and Money Volume 1: How Britain colonised Australasia in the long 19th century
Lepper, John
Paperback
Ready Aim Fire: Major James Francis Thomas: The Fourth Victim in the Execution of Lieutenant Harry "Breaker" Morant
Unkles, James
Paperback
Along the tracks of Cobb and Co. - The Roaring Days !: Amusing Anecdotes & Tales of Grit and Graft
Johnson, Hazel T.
Paperback
The Marriage Knot: Marriage and divorce in colonial Western Australia 1829-1900
Hetherington, Penelope
Paperback
Aboriginal Mythology: Enthralling Myths, Legends, and Folktales from Ancient Australia
Wellman, Billy
Hardcover
So Far and Yet So Close: Frontier Cattle Ranching in Western Prairie Canada and the Northern Territory of Australia
Elofson, Warren
Paperback