Frederick Ward, more famously known as “Captain Thunderbolt”, had become something of a folk hero due to his gentlemanly behavior and his tendency to avoid violence. His bushranging included roaming across a vast area of New South Wales, from the Hunter Valley to the Queensland border. Less than three months after escaping from prison at Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbor for the second time in 1863, Ward laid in wait at Split Rock to rob the mail coach. Seven years later following a spree of robbing mail coaches, travelers, inns, stores,…
