The Wantabadgery siege in which Captain Moonlite – Andrew Scott – shot dead a policeman, and two of his gang were killed trying to give him a chance to get away.

Wood engraving from the Australasian Sketcher

Moonlite’s wild eyes are disturbing and he often exhibited signs of being mentally unbalanced. But the Superintendent of the Parramatta Lunatic Asylum, who observed him over four months, was under no illusions: ’I never considered him insane, but an artful, designing, unprincipled criminal ready to join in any scheme of fraud or ruffianly violence … his associates in the yard are the very lowest and hardened of criminals.’ Scott’s charisma attracted many young men inside and outside gaol.

Police Records Victoria Collection

Andrew Scott and Tom Rogan, with only seconds to live. Just before the hangman dropped the white caps over their heads the enigmatic bushranger stretched out his hand to his young accomplice and said, ‘Goodbye Tom’. The poignant farewell would have been scant comfort for Rogan who went to the gallows ‘in a dazed state’.

Reproduced from the Bulletin, 1880

Chic on a beach in France, Annette Kellerman exudes the confidence that was her biggest asset. Born out of her time, she had no illusions about her looks – whenever possible she posed in profile – but she gloried in her femininity and in 1918 wrote Physical Beauty and How to Keep It, extolling the virtues of diet and exercise. Stills from one of her films show long tresses failing to cover her nudity, and at the height of her popularity she was arrested on a Boston beach for indecency – she was wearing a revealing version of the one-piece swim suit she invented and popularised.

Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Could he possibly have foreseen what lay ahead? Young George Ernest Morrison had a clear ambition to become an adventurer and war correspondent like his hero, Stanley. But not even Morrison’s boyhood fantasies could entertain his narrow escape from death in a New Guinea ambush, his heroic part in the 55-day siege of the Boxer Rebellion, his pivotal role in the fall of the Manchu Dynasty and the creation of the Chinese Republic. Extraordinarily brave, handsome and charming, he was nonetheless, as he wrote in his diary, ‘oppressed by invincible shyness.’ Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales