Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people.
The homicidal actions, flight, capture, trial and punishment of Jimmy and Joe Governor (and their accomplice Jack Underwood) in 1900 are relatively well known. They were immortalised in Thomas Keneally’s historical novel, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972) and the 1978 film version by Fred Schepisi.
In the winter of 1900, Jack Underwood and the Governors murdered nine people – men, women and children – across New South Wales. Jack was quickly captured and tried, while the Governor brothers evaded a manhunt for months, calling themselves “bushrangers”. Settlers fatally shot Joe; Jimmy was wounded, captured and tried. Jack and Jimmy were hanged in January 1901, within weeks of Australia becoming a new nation.
