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1843: Bushranger Martin Cash Captured After Shooting a Constable Dead in Hobart

On 29 August 1843, notorious bushranger Martin Cash was captured in Hobart after venturing into the town in search of his former partner, Bessie, who had taken up with another man. Cash, a wanted escapee with a substantial government reward on his head, was spotted by two plain-clothes constables in Harrington Street, close to Bessie’s address and only about 100 yards from the watch-house. He fled through the streets, firing at his pursuers, and in attempting to reach the Domain mistakenly ran into a dead end near the Campbell Street Gaol. Forced to turn back, he lost ground; the spot later became known as Martin’s Mistake. Near the Old Commodore Inn, Constable Peter Winstanley tried to seize Cash and was shot at close range. Cash was eventually wrestled to the ground and captured after a violent struggle. Winstanley died two days later, on 31 August. Cash was convicted of his murder and sentenced to death, but received a last-minute reprieve and was transported for life to Norfolk Island. Cash ultimately survived his years as a bushranger and convict, dying in Tasmania in 1877. He also left behind his own account of his life, dictated to James Lester Burke and published in Hobart in 1870 as The Adventures of Martin Cash, one of the best-known first-person accounts of Australian bushranging and the convict era.

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