A Brief Story Of Matthew Brady's Tragic Hero

Matthew Brady was born in 1799 in Manchester, England. His parents were Irish and he served in the British army as a corporal before being sent to Australia. His exact day of birth his unknown as is any education, he may or may not have had. Matthew Brady was sentenced to seven years transportation by the Lancashire Quarter Sessions held at Salford in April 1820 for stealing a basket of food and some rice, bacon, sugar and butter. Brady arrived in Australia on the convict ship Juliana, on the 3rd of September 1820 with 159 other convicts. He rebelled in his settlement at Sydney and within the first four years of his sentence received 350 lashes for attempting to escape and poor behaviour. He was sent in 1823 to Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania, a new

Brady and his gang sailed to Frederick Henry Bay and proceeded to rob a settler of his weapons, thus beginning his bushranger career.

As a bushranger Brady was insistent on promoting a new moral code. He became known as a man that treated women with kindness and did not allow his gang to hurt them. According to stories, when Brady's partner, McCabe threatened a settler's wife, Brady shot him in the hand and threw him out of the gang. Brady also rewarded what he thought was acts of human kindness. Such as a surgeon who stopped a whipping of a convict. Matthew Brady wanted to symbolically state that the real criminals were the authorities. His gang “seized" a town by the name of Sorell. They proceeded to release all the Convicts and capture the troopers. The troopers were jailed and Brady led the town in a celebration.
Brady's gang became to increase in numbers as did the reward for his capture. At first, Governor Arthur offered twenty gallons of rum for Brady and his gang capture, the reward finally increased to £25. Brady responded by offering twenty gallons to anyone who could bring him governor Arthur to