1863: Fred Lowry Shot at Cook’s Vale Creek: The Bushranger Who Died Game
Police raided a public house at Cook’s Vale Creek, New South Wales, on 29 August 1863, where bushranger Fred Lowry emerged armed with two revolvers and exchanged gunfire with Senior-Sergeant Stephenson. Lowry, a gaunt six-foot man born in Windsor around 1836 to former convicts, had built a career of horse theft, mail-coach robbery, and prison escape, briefly riding with the Gardiner-Hall gang before forming his own bushranger outfit. Shot in the throat during the exchange, Lowry was captured along with accomplice Larry Cummins, who was found in bed with a loaded revolver. Stolen banknotes from the Mudgee mail were recovered at the scene. Lowry died from his wound the following day. His purported last words, ‘Tell ’em I died game’, cemented his place as the archetypal Australian bushranger.
