AustLit logo
A Stripe for Trooper Casey single work   short story  
  • Author:agent Roderic Quinn http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/quinn-roderic
Issue Details: First known date: 1898... 1898 A Stripe for Trooper Casey
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Bush girl left alone while the district is at a dance is threatened by two murderous sailors, rescued by a bushranger, and manages to help him leave the sailors for the law without being captured himself.

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon The Gentleman Bushranger Beaumont Smith , ( dir. Beaumont Smith ) Australia : Beaumont Smith's Productions , 1921 6338185 1921 single work film/TV crime adventure romance

'The plot is well laid. Richard Lavender and Kitty Anson (the hero and heroine) are passengers on board a sailing ship bound for Sydney harbor. The vessel is manned by a crew of roughs. Lavender protects the ship's boy (Billy) from the infuriated captain, and in a fight up aloft the latter falls to the deck mortally wounded. Lavender is told by the mate that he will hang for it when the ship gets to port, but on reaching the harbor he makes his escape, taking Billy with him, and they seek the solitude of the bush. Joined by a black-boy [sic], they search for gold. Kitty has taken up her home on a selection and, being born to the saddle, makes many tours of the bush. In one of them she comes across her friend working his mine, just about the time that he has discovered gold. In the meantime the mate of the ship, who has become the landlord of a country inn and employs a gang of bushrangers, ascertains the whereabouts of Lavender, and puts the police on his track. There is £500 reward offered for his capture. Kitty beats the mate in an exciting race over fences to take out a miner's right, and afterwards works the mine, assisted by Billy and the black boy. Lavender is hunted by the police, and numerous 'stick-ups' and the robbery of gold from the mail coach are credited to him. He is even accused of stealing the bones of the Chinaman's [sic] grandfather. In the end The Gentleman Bushranger recovers the stolen gold, unmasks the mate and his gang, and justifies his own actions in the eyes of the law.'

Source: 'The Gentleman Bushranger. The Local Picture.' Robertson Advocate, 3 January 1922, p.2.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: Un galon pour le soldat Casey
Language: French
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Short Stories George Mackaness (editor), London : J. M. Dent , 1928 Z307556 1928 anthology short story Nouvelles Australiennes Paris : Albin Michel , 1930 pg. 63-86
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Stories of Horror and Suspense from the Early Days Gordon Neil Stewart (editor), Sydney : Australasian Book Society , 1978 Z381037 1978 anthology short story Sydney : Australasian Book Society , 1978 pg. 135-142
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Anthology of Colonial Australian Crime Fiction Ken Gelder (editor), Rachael Weaver (editor), Carlton : Melbourne University Publishing , 2008 Z1519666 2008 anthology short story crime

    'From the editors of The Anthology of Colonial Australian Gothic Fiction comes this fascinating collection of disturbing mysteries and gruesome tales by authors such as Mary Fortune, James Skipp Borlase, Guy Boothby, Francis Adams, Ernest Favenc, 'Rolf Boldrewood' and Norman Lindsay, among many others.
    In the bush and the tropics, the goldfields and the city streets, colonial Australia is a troubling, bewildering place and almost impossible to regulate—even for the most vigilant detective.
    'Ex-convicts, bushrangers, ruthless gold prospectors, impostors, thieves and murderers flow through the stories that make up this collection, challenging the nascent forces of colonial law and order. The landscape itself seems to stimulate criminal activity, where identities change at will and people suddenly disappear without a trace.
    'The Anthology of Colonial Australian Crime Fiction is a remarkable anthology that taps into the fears and anxieties of colonial Australian life.'  (Publication summary)

    Carlton : Melbourne University Publishing , 2008
    pg. 167-179
Last amended 12 Nov 2010 13:47:23
X