AustLit

'Jack Bushman's' identity remains to be established. There has been speculation that 'Jack Bushman' might have been either William Wilkes , or Theophilus Pugh , both of whom were at various points editors of the Moreton Bay Courier, or Thomas Dowse (q.v.), who was at one stage the Moreton Bay correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald. Another perhaps more likely candidate is James Swan, who was proprietor of the Moreton Bay Courier in the period 1847-1861. It is particularly notable that most (though not all) of the 'Jack Bushman' stories should have appeared in the Moreton Bay Courier during the period in which Swan returned to manage and edit the newspaper in 1858-1859. In addition, during the 1850s Swan owned a farm at Moggill, which he later let. Many of the 'Jack Bushman' stories were of course set at Moggill, with 'Jack Bushman' portraying himself as a Moggill farmer.