Bushrangers originally referred to escaped
convicts in the early years of the
British settlement of Australia who had the
survival skills necessary to use the
Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term "bushranger" had evolved to refer to those who abandoned social rights and privileges to take up "
robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base. These bushrangers, mostly colonial-born sons of convicts, were roughly analogous to British "
highwaymen" and outlaws of the
American Old West, and their crimes typically included robbing small-town banks and coach services; in more infamous cases, such as that of
Dan Morgan, the
Clarke brothers, and Australia's most well-known bushranger,
Ned Kelly, numerous policemen were murdered. Kelly's execution in 1880 effectively represented the end of the bushranging era.