Captain Melville

by Frank Clune

Illustrated by Virgil Reilly

Angus and Robertson, 1956, [First Edition], black and white illustrations in text, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, foxing to endpapers, dustjacket shows some edge and shelf wear with some rubbing, bumping, chipping and small tears to edges and corners (see photographs)

“This is a true and thrilling story of violence in Victoria’s gold-rush days one hundred years ago.  The Colony of Victoria was not founded under the Convict System, but the gold rushes brought an influx of dangerous criminals from New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, who created a reign of terror by robbing travellers on the roads to and from the diggings.  The most notorious of these scoundrels was a Scot named Francis McNeish McNeil McCallum, who adopted the alias of “Captain Melville”.  He was a well-educated and highly intelligent man, reputedly or aristocratic lineage, and of reckless bravery.  He boasted that he was the leader of a gang of eighty bushrangers, who for the short period of his “reign” plundered far and wide.”

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