1830: Flogged for Skinny-Dipping, He Led a Bushranger Uprising That Ended With Ten Hanged at Bathurst
Ralph Entwistle was a transported labourer assigned to a farm near Bathurst when he and a fellow convict stopped to cool off in the Macquarie River after a long cart journey. Governor Ralph Darling’s touring party happened to pass by, and though Darling had not even seen the incident, the local magistrate had both men flogged for the affront. Within a year the humiliated Entwistle had turned bushranger, building a band that swelled to as many as 80 men, the largest convict uprising in New South Wales since 1804, known as the Ribbon Gang for the white streamers he wore in his hair.
The rebellion turned deadly when the gang descended on a farm seeking revenge on the magistrate who had ordered the floggings. The overseer, James Greenwood, refused to free the farm’s convict servants and bared his chest, daring the bushrangers to shoot, telling them they were not game enough. Entwistle and two others fired, killing him instantly.
Weeks of gun battles with troopers and soldiers followed before the gang was run down and captured. On 2 November 1830, ten of the bushrangers, including Entwistle, were publicly hanged at Bathurst, six for Greenwood’s murder and four for plundering farmhouses. Their bodies were left on display for a day as a warning before being buried in two mass graves of five.
