[f. BUSH1 9 + RANGER.] An escaped convict who took refuge in the Australian ‘bush’; a criminal living in the bush, and subsisting by robbery with violence.
1814. Chester Chron., 29 July, 4/4. The bush-rangers (convicts who have escaped into the woods and live like kangaroos, &c.) frequently shot them [natives] without the least cause.
1817. Sydney Gazette, 25 Jan. Robberies by the banditti of bush-rangers on Van Dieman’s Land.
1826. Gentl. Mag., July, XCVI. II. 69/2. Van Diemen’s Land papers and private letters are full of details of atrocities by the bush-rangers (escaped convicts).
1852. West, Tasmania, II. 130. The bushrangers at first were absentees [convicts] who were soon allured or driven to theft and violence; so early as 1808 by systematic robbery they had excited feelings of alarm.
1869. Parkman, Discov. Gt. West, xxvii. (1875), 389. His little garrison of bush-rangers greeted them with a salute of musketry.
