The Legend of Moondyne Joe

The legend of Moondyne Joe, alias Joseph Bolitho Johns (born 1831) won fame for his gaol-breaking exploits at Toodyay and Fremantle between 1861-69. His name came from the Moondyne Hills. Wearing a kangaroo-skin cape and possum-skin slippers, Joe roamed the valleys and creeks at Moondyne Hills, Toodyay Western Australia.

Moondyne Joe was not known for gunfights or robbing banks, unlike other famous Australian bushrangers. It was Joe's amazing ability to escape every time he was placed behind bars that won him fame and the affection of early Western Australian settlers.

Johns' offences seem to have been largely horse stealing and gaol breaking.

Police records of 1861 in Perth Public Library recount how Moondyne Joe broke open his cell at the old Toodyay (then Newcastle) gaol, stole a police horse as well as the saddle and bridle of the Resident Magistrate. On another occasion at Fremantle Gaol, Moondyne escaped through a hole in the wall. A servant of the head warder gave him a suit and as Moondyne walked out the main gate, the guard innocently saluted him. They finally had to build him a special cell at Fremantle to keep him in.

There was another story that after one of his escapes he was the first man to cross the old Fremantle traffic bridge.

Moondyne's exploits ended in 1869 when he was captured in the act of stealing wine in a cellar of the Houghton Vineyard on the Middle Swan. He later settled down to a quiet life in the South-West.