Your Money or your life - life in Australia
Patrick Byrnes- highway robber, convict & cedar getter Guest blog post by Rachael Byrnes. “ They were a strange and wild set... of desperate ruffians .They are certainly the most improvident men of the world” (John Henderson, Pastoralist, 1840s). As I read the above quote about the cedar cutters of the Nambucca region in the 1840s. I can’t help but think that it could easily be a description of me: a wild ruffian living hand to mouth!! Perhaps that’s going a little too far, but knowing that this small community was home to my great, great, great grandfather, I can’t help but wonder... is there a little bit of Patrick Byrnes in me? My name is Rachael Byrnes, my father, your usual blogger here, is Lindsay Byrnes and his great, great grandfather was a Patrick Byrnes; a highway robber, convict, cedar getter and tavern owner. Boy! Is that a tough infamous bill to live up too!? I can’t claim to be a cunning thief or frontier opportunist but as I read Norma Townsend’s book Valley of the