Daniel Morgan (30 April 1830 – 9 April 1865) was an Australian bushranger. Morgan has been described as "the most bloodthirsty ruffian that ever took to the bush in Australia" and “one of the most determined and bloodthirsty of colonial freebooters”. Many accounts of his activities, particularly in the years after his death, emphasise his brutality and erratic behaviour but Morgan had many sympathisers and informants in the districts where he carried out his activities. He was an expert bushman with superb horse-riding skills, a combination of abilities which enabled him to evade capture by the authorities for a significant period of time.
After Morgan killed a police sergeant in June 1864 the Government of New South Wales offered a one thousand pound reward for his apprehension. He was shot and killed in April 1865 after holding up 'Peechelba' Station in Victoria.
Morgan's exploits inspired the 1976 Ozploitation film Mad Dog Morgan, featuring Dennis Hopper in the title role.
Early life
Dan Morgan started life as John Owen, the illegitimate son of George Fuller and Mary Owen, born at Appin, New South Wales, on 30 April 1830. His mother was locally known as 'The Gypsy' and George Fuller was a costermonger (a person who sells fruit and vegetables from a handcart in the street). Other sources claim Morgan’s father was an ex-convict called Samuel Moran.
From an early age John Owen was raised by a man called John Roberts, known in the Campbelltown district as "Jack the Welshman". Owen attended a Catholic school at Campbelltown, but was considered “a n’er-do-well”. He was characterised as having anti-social tendencies: “Society had little charm for him; bush and solitude were his delight”.
First conviction
In about 1847, aged 17 years, Owen found employment as a stockman on a station in the Murrumbidgee district. It was reputed that Owen “developed into a horse and cattle stealer, his practice being to drive his captures long distances, and sell them”. By the early 1850s he was known as ‘Bill the Native’ and was described as “a notorious horse thief” in the Avoca district where he lived “a lonely life in the mallee scrub which then abounded there”. He had “several narrow escapes from the squatters, who frequently pursued him”. On one occasion he was being chased “for several miles by two settlers” and one of them shot him in the knee.
In June 1854 Owen was convicted under the name ‘John Smith’ of “highway robbery”. He had stuck up two travelling hawkers in the Castlemaine district in Victoria and left them tied up to trees. The police followed his tracks and captured him after “a desperate resistance”. As ‘John Smith’ Morgan was sentenced to twelve years hard labour and eventually confined in the prison ship Success lying offshore at Williamstown. While working at a quarry near where the Success was berthed, Morgan lost the top of one of his fingers in an accident. The finger “was jammed between a heavy bar and the stone they were lifting”.
On 27 March 1857 the Inspector General of Penal Establishments, John Price, was brutally murdered by a group of prisoners from the prison-hulk Success. Price had been standing on the tramway of the bayside quarry where the prisoners were working, hearing complaints about rations, when he was attacked. A number of the prisoners overpowered him and “dragged him down the side of the earthwork opposite the Bay, out of sight of the guard, felled him to the ground, and battered his head with large stones”. Price later died of his injuries. Seven of the prisoners were convicted of Price’s murder and were hanged for the crime. Morgan may have been considered to be amongst the group that had rushed at the Inspector and was transferred to Pentridge prison after the incident.