1885: Charles Bushby Hanged at Ballarat for Shooting a Detective on the Gong Gong Road
In December 1884, plain-clothes Detective Sergeant Hyland was pursuing a suspect wanted as an accomplice in a wool-stealing robbery at Kyneton. Acting on a tip that the man had been seen asking questions near the Gong Gong hotel, Hyland and Senior Constable Hehir hired a cab and tracked him along the road near Brown Hill. When Hyland stepped out and approached, the man drew a revolver and shot him in the shoulder at close range. Hyland rushed him before he could fire again, and a fierce struggle followed, with two more shots discharged into the ground and air before the man was handcuffed and taken into Ballarat. Surgeons at the hospital extracted the bullet from the sergeant’s back.
The man, Charles Bushby, also known as Baker, was convicted of attempted murder at the Ballarat Court and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Ballarat on 3 September 1885.
