July 6, 2025 • 46 mins
In the lonely dunes of South Australia’s Coorong, legend speaks of a bushranger so strange he’s hard to forget: the Birdman of the Coorong. Unlike his horse-riding peers, this eccentric outlaw was rumoured to have galloped through the saltbush atop an ostrich.
Was he a real menace to passing coaches, or just a yarn spun to spook travellers on the road to Kingston SE?
Join Holly & Matthew as they dig into the history, rumour, and colonial oddity behind one of Australia’s most curious crime legends.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
Was he a real menace to passing coaches, or just a yarn spun to spook travellers on the road to Kingston SE?
Join Holly & Matthew as they dig into the history, rumour, and colonial oddity behind one of Australia’s most curious crime legends.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
They were last seen on the beach with the tall
man and that's the best description police have ever had
of it. More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared
into raging surf at Chevy A Beach, his widow has
finally revealed his last romantic words.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Docky, terrifying, mesmerizing.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That's the way a number of Australians have described the
alleged encounter with the Yowi.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
It's time for the Weird Crop in Australia podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Welcome to the Weird Crap in Australia Podcast. I'm your host,
Matthew Soul. Yes, your intrepid adventurers are back from the lovely, rainy,
terribly wet, miserable city of Melbourne and have returned to
the wet, rainy, miserable city that is Cambra.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
No camera is better because it's also colder.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
That voice, of course, belongs to the researcher extraordinary her health,
poly Soul. Hey, yeah, ladies and gentlemen, there comes a
moment for every podcaster where a story comes across their
desk that needs to be told, that resonates with all
of us, which is indicative of the Australian spirit, which
(01:28):
my fellow co host had sitting on a list and thought,
this story isn't really for us right now. But I
am correcting that mistake, that terrible, terrible oversight.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
So for context, what happened was, I was trying to
figure out what episode to do. Matthew's like, hey, can
I have a look at the list? He scrolled her
and he went, what's this? And I went, this is
what it is? And he went, and you haven't told
me so that it ended up on the list.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
There have been times in my life, ladies and gentlemen,
where Holly has terribly disappointed me, and that one occasion is,
while discussing the Egyptology, neglected to inform me that Egyptian
police officers used trained.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Baboons among other animals.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That the king of Egypt at one point, Romeses Scond
had a lion two that he fought with him battle.
Matthew's very cut up about this. Australia, ladies and gentlemen,
we have our own Ramesses. If you thought a bush
ranger who built himself a suit of armor, the first
(02:38):
iron Man, We're going to take that back, the first
Iron Man. If you thought that was the best Australian
bush Rangers had to offer, I say to you no,
because this, ladies and gentlemen, is episode three hundred and seventy.
(02:58):
This is the hail of the bushranger known as the Birdman,
whose mount that he rode into battle was an Ostrich
and we today will honor this Australian hero Holy take
it away.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
The word of Australian Bushrangers has given birth to many
weird and wonderful varieties over the years. We've covered a few,
the skinny dippers that started a rebellion in Bathist, the
men in the iron suits, the Cannibals, the Holy Man,
the women who dressed as men, the First Nations and
African American men. But there's more than one story that
we've gone past because it seems too strange to be real.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Again, I pointed out to Holly, what the title of
the podcast is.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
This episode is one of those stories too strange to
be real, but with enough supporting evidence to say it
could have been possible. In the wild blue times of
the eighteen nineties. The story of John Peggotty, the so
called Birdman of the Kurung, is a tale of a
bushranger who swapped the traditional equine steed for one of
an avian variety, making an impression on all who met him.
(04:05):
While Adelaide had been founded on the principle of free
men will not be criminals, this bushranger of Rome the
South Australian coast, holding up stagecoaches and slithering into tight spots.
This is the story of the Birdmen of the Kurung.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Ladies and gentlemen. The Americans may have their lone ranger
and his faithful steed silver good.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, that was I host, silver, high host.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Silver away. But he didn't have an ostrich. No, no,
he did not.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Peggotty was born in Limerick, Ireland at around eighteen sixty four.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And every one of them knew a dirty Limerick at.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Least it's part of being a citizen there.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
But yes, you could not get your citizenship without knowing
at least one dirty Limerick. Holly, do you know a
dirty Limerick?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
As an old man went to Nantucket?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I think is.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
One that is definitely the start of one. Will you
continue on? Let me see if I can find a
good one that's more Australian themed.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
There are reports that Peggott was born three months premature,
but it's more likely that he was born with a
form of dwarfism above him.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Though on the night he was born, the moon was
full and was silhouetted by what looked like an ostrich
for a man was born prophecy that day.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
In the era where common medical practice included caine saws
for childbirth and a boatload of hurricane, being born at
six months gestation was almost a death sentence. Thus, it's
more likely that, like Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren in
the USA, Dwarfism meant that he was not able to
blend into society as he was and would have to
find other ways of living.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Also, the house Stuff Works podcast covered the life of
Tom Thumb. Please go and listen to that after this.
It is a fascinating life, absolutely fascinating life.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Measuring about one point one meters tall by the time
he hit his mid twenties, Peggetty was the average height
of a seven year old boy, and, aside from his beard,
was able to convince many strangers that he was in
fact a trial.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
And he also would have known certain limericks, of course,
growing up on Limerick Island pulling. I have one that
maybe he said, would you like to hear it? Go
for it? All right? So this one is an actual
Australian one. Nick comes from the website Crazy Limericks for You.
In twenty twelve, a randy old sharer named Mick had
a dong that was frequentouly thick. He'd boast with a smirk,
(06:41):
it's me pride to me perk hilarue bit a clean
or real quick that saw.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
The word I thought I was getting with it, but
we're good with that. In his teenage years, Peggotty gained
employment as a chimney sweep, using his thin and small
frame to wriggle into and out of the tight confines
of people chimneys.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I bet I can get right up in here, sir.
You let me, You let me, me, me, me me,
little brushy, We're gonna get right up in your chimney.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
He was Irish.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Sorry, Holly, I cannot do an Irish high pitched accent.
The best I'm gonna it's it's either high pitched or
it's Irish. Which which wind do you want?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I think we'll stick to the high pitch all right,
just because it will be less trouble.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
This will be the voice of bird Mean for the
rest of this episode.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And then we have a quote here.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Matthew he only grew to the size of a seven
year old, so he became a chimney sweep in the
rich peoples houses. Miss Mason said he became addicted to
taking little samples of rich people's belongings, but he was
caught out by one of his landladies as he was
parading around in his finery. Quote from John Francis Peggotti,
(07:53):
the ostrich riding bush Ranger from South Australia fact or fiction.
Quote from the Abaca Patricia loved Ludgrove said Saturday, eighteen
February twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
He was seen doing this by one of his clients
and had to make a run for it, else he'd
end up in an Irish prison for the rest of
his life.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh wait, I gotta get out of here. I can't
keep women are wearing all this women's jewelry that I'm stealing.
I got a little, little little may is gonna kinna
get out of here. Oh boy, off I go.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Haggetty headed south, making his way to South Africa.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I think I might go all the way south, all
the way to South Africa. Can I swim there?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
There he found a brand news sight to his Irish eyes,
and he became heavily involved in the sport of ostrich racing.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I think I think I think I could ride on
one of those big birds, one of those I've never
seen one of those big belts. I say, Ameyu's say
they're different color, different color than ame use.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
We have a quite Holly's regretting doing this episode.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
As an eighteen year old, he traveled to South Africa,
where he learned to ride Ostrich's. Ostrich racing being a
popular sport there, Peggotty's tiny, underdeveloped frame was ideal for
the pursuit of riding large flightless birds, and he became
wildly proficient. For reasons undetermined, Peggotty left South Africa for England,
where he went on a crime spree, his tiny body
(09:20):
effortlessly sliding down chimneys to give him access to homes
where he could pilfer or he desired like some sort
of strange reverse center clause.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I am well, I'm going to come down the chimney bit.
I'm not here to I'm not here to give your presents.
I'm u take him away. Look at me go into
the night.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Whoo if I go, it's like a mix between choppered
and mister me Sikh's. That's what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Of I go. If I go into the world, it
iss soon and I'll be back. Don't you think I
won't be back? Oh? He picked me up and he's
carrying me away. What the hell is this? Get off me, cop.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
That's a quote from John Francis Peggotty, the Birdman of
Kurrong Aiden fellon a Guide to Australian bush Ranging, twenty
first February twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Unfortunately for Peggotty, he had a habit of flaunting his takings.
Peggotty was seen a few times with his golden score,
strutting around bare chested, with only the finery he'd taken
adorning his neck. One of his clients, who had recently
been robbed, saw him sporting the missing necklace in question,
and Peggotty was soon arrested.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I don't know what you're talking about I found this.
I found this on the I fuck it. I'll go
you out here. They're too quick, their legs are too long.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
We have we have a quote here. After a relatively
short prison sentence, he decided to travel to Australia to
live with his farming uncle in New South Wales, but
he was not inclined to work on the farm quote
from the Birdman of Kurrong, youre wrong country.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
He moved to Orange, New South Wales, where he was
employed by a member of his extended family to help
with the grazing of sheep.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
They like me, actually like we lost we lost now
how blue helo o? Blue Helo was he? It was
a shaped dog and we lost him. So they made
me a little saddle and uh and then I'm a
male sheep.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
While a gold rush had brought some prosperity and money
to the area in the eighteen fifties, by the time
Peggotty arrived in the eighteen nineties, that money had transformed
into the establishment of farms and the slow emergence of
the orange we know today with farms of oranges, cherries
and grapes.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Fuck, so it is actually named after oranges.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it was founded long before
the oranges came to Orange, so it was.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Caught orange and then they brought oranges.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Probably because of the color of the dirt, but I'm
not sure what the color of zerdas out there, so
I could be talking completely.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Just a fucking nameship properly in this fucking country. No, seriously,
either go with the native title or name it properly,
or both or both. Tumitt right, a misquote of duma
or chumut, which is resting place by the river because
the town was settled next to a fucking river. Right,
(12:12):
makes fucking sense, right, except for the mispronounced Yeah, we
called it orange in Do you think maybe we should
set up some oranges here? Makes sense? Thank you, Mayor
of Orange fox Sake.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I've just quickly googled it. It was named after Prince
William of Orange.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Now for fox Sake, who.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Was later King William the Second of the Netherlands. So
there you go. Okay, what's a coincidence that it became
known for its oranges?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Haggetty was like a magpie, and within a few months
of his arrival, he was back to his old tricks
with the Shaneyes.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Apparently, though his family didn't approve of gambling on big
birds to make a living, so he was skipped off
to a sheep farm near Orange, New South Wales, where
an uncle took him in. Miss Mason's says that didn't
work out either. The uncle found his guest wearing his
wife's jewelry, so he was asked to leave. John Francis Peggotty,
the Ostrich writing bush Ranger from South Australia fact or
(13:11):
Fiction ABC, Petra laod Grove.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Well, you know, uncle, I was. I was just taking
it out. I was just taking it out to wear,
because you know that cleaning. I'm going to take it
out for cleaning. And I've only got these alarms, so
I thought, well, if I were around my neck, then
it will be easier to carry all of this story.
And then I have to go, now, don't I?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
And then he jumps out the window wearing the jewelry off.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I go now.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
With a reputation in the New South Wales colony, Paggotty
headed across state lines to Adelaide, where he was once
again an.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Man belongs in Adelaide, right, this is the most Adelaide
man that's ever existed. A little person who steals everything
in there thing, So he's a klepto as long as
it Shaney who likes to ride ostriches and is known
as the Birdman Adelaide. This man should have been your mayor,
(14:10):
your state prem This man could have been all of
your like. He should have held every office in Adelaide.
This is the most Adelaide person I've ever heard of
in the entire existence of Australian history.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Being in Adelaide without a reputation meant that he could
now put some of his particular skills to use again.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
From New South Wales, he traveled to Adelaide to join
a friend, but soon slipped into the old trade of
thieving with a gang of likely lads, most of whom
were caught by police. So Peggotty lay low for a
few years. Quote from the Birdman of Curung. Of course
you had Peggotty, the Birdman. You had Captain Crocodile, who
(14:50):
rode around on two crocodiles, one for each foot. Next
to them, of course was Garry Joanna why not? And
Gary Swunger. He went out It's Adelaide, of course, so
he smoked a bunch of fucking math and then he
swung the goanner around, you know, and threw it at people.
(15:12):
There was also Kerry Kowala, but he just liked to
sleep a lot. Also because of myth.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
South Australia in the eighteen nineties was a curious place,
for it would be bush rangers to turn up. Adelaide
itself was already known as the city of Churches, and
the colony had built its proud reputation on the idea
that it had been founded by free settlers rather than convicts.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
If you'd like to know more about that, we did
a tupana on the first murder in Adelaide, Pedtinger.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Remember this first name, Richard Pettinger. Unlike New South Wales
or Victoria, South Australia never had a convict system in
the same sense and had largely escaped the era of
bush ranger gangs that made folk heroes and public enemies.
But the remotest stretches of the colony was something else
entirely faced with the more realistic world than the land
of adel The Korong, the strip of low dunes and
(16:03):
salt lagoons running southeast from the Murray Mouth towards Kingston
was sparsely settled by the eighteen ninety standards. Fishing huts,
sheep stations and mail routes marked out small patches of
human presence, and the distances between them were long, flat
and windswept. The land itself felt wild, the kind of
place where a man could, if he chose, simply vanish
(16:23):
into the salt bush. For someone like Peggotty, who carried
a reputation for sticky fingers and a knife for something shiny,
traits that, combined with his size and background, made it
difficult to settle into honest work for long. This sparse land,
vaguely reminiscent of South Africa, felt more like home than
anything else in Australia, And so he thought, why not
(16:44):
bring a bit of South Africa here?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Ah?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, So I was over in South Africa for quite
a while, riding on some really big birds, and you
know what, I bloody well miss, and I think that
Adelaide really could be ah new South Africa. So tomorrow
we're going to be introducing apartheid, not where I.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Thought that was going.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Do you remember the Munty python skit with the Afrikaans? No,
we no, longer practice. Aparthoid were actually very good at it.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Yeah that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, Hey, I don't have to apologize for making fun
of racists, do I.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I don't know we run by Nazis? No, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Good.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
By the late eighteen hundreds, South Australia really did have
ostridge farms, the colonies that imported ostriches from Africa to
capitalize on the booming European and American markets for ostrich feathers.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Well, it was like a lot of costuming.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yeah, the plumes in the hats and all the feathers
on the shoulders, shawls and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And I'm assuming that's why we event like we imported camels.
We didn't port camels, Yes, I was actually thinking birds,
the ones with the big plumage feathers. Yes, we imported those, right,
They're not native to Australia, they're not. Yeah, So it's
like it was all about fancy birds, fancy feathers, chicken
(18:11):
steat duck stat we imported a lot of birds.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
People do eat ostriches.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I wasn't that. That's part of the
premise of O Man. It's a bee monster film called
Eight Legged Freaks. But one of the characters trying to
revitalize the town before it gets taken over by giant
spiders should have been set in Australia. And I think
about it, Ostridge farm to eat the ostriche meat. What
(18:38):
is it particularly good meat? Or is it just it's
better than turkey meat? Or because all bird meat is
fairly lean, isn't it? Who are you red climate and
chucking in deep brier.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Because of my occupation, I have dealt with ostriche meat,
very very rare and once upon a time, but I did.
It is almost the same color as emu, which is
bright red, the same color as kangaroo. Yep, unless you're
eating the fan filet, which is the bit that runs
where the breast would be. Yep, it's tough a shit okay,
(19:11):
and even the fan fill it is kind of tough.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Right, So I guess people are just more quality over quality.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
I mean, yes, think of how much Ostrich strumpstick would
feed absolutely Ostrich farming feed me.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
That's for one one leg, one leg? Oh my god.
You know, the freezes haven't been invented yet, but I
wish they were, because, oh boy, how'd he won one
big ostriche leg that's come. They'll kid me, mister peggotty
all oh, won't be all fed. I'll be fed for
a year.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Do you want me to fact check that whether he
could eat like it would save him for like he
could eat it over a whole year.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
The first commercial refrigerator was built in eighteen fifty four.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Oh really, but it wouldn't have been in Australia though surely.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
James Harrison was Scottish Australian. There you go.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
He wanted a cold drink, just needs.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
That cold beer because fuck the Scott's everything over there
is warm.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Well don't you just yeah, it's weird. It's weird Europe
that you don't like cold drinks. It's weird that you
do that.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
It's because most of the year is cold. You throw
it in a lot so they're in a heat way
you like currently, Well.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Remember trumtt River and you used to think I was
mad for going swimming and you're probably will still think
you're mad for going swimming in it. I'm glad she
had the qualifier, could have just left it it. I
still think you're mad, uh, And I would just remember
I just put the drinks in the in the water yeah,
and then they'd be cold, and then I encourage you
to jump in the water.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
And that was a dumb idea and I regret it
every day since it.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Came out blue.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And I'm a redhead, so I'm super white, so I
definitely was blue.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
A lot of chattering that day.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Ostrich farming wasn't common, but it wasn't a fantasy either.
Records show multiple small farms existed around Adelaide, Port Augusta
and further south. Ostriches were used mostly for their feathers,
but also for leather and occasionally meat, and inevitably a
few birds escaped. The site of an ostrich loping across
the salt bush wasn't entirely unheard of in rural South
(21:19):
Australia at the time, enough at least to stick it
in the imagination of local storytellers. Now, when the ostrich
feather industry fell over, what do you think happened to
those birds?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Oh? They let them out into the bush.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Abs fucking lutely, And they were still present as of
the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah, because I definitely have not seen an ostrich out
in the while, but.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
We haven't really gone. Yeah, that's far west on by.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Land and they're too genetically different from me used to
have cross bread right exactly.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
They are twice the size of an Indian.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, God imagine if they being the Ostrich wars puff.
We have a quote here. He was labeled the most
eccentric bush ranger in the history of Australia, as he
was often seen stripped to the waist and wearing stolen
gold jewelry whilst brandishing two ornamental pistols and riding an
Ostrich quote from the Birdman of Kuron Curon Country. Yes,
(22:11):
ladies and gentlemen, this really is our Batman villain.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
He is.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
He is the most theatrical person that I think we
have ever covered outside of Choppery, who I think is
very very theatrical.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
I don't know. I'd say ned Kelly with his rising
out of the fog wearing a suit of armor is
pretty theatrical.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I need to do a comic about a gang, right,
So a time traveler goes back and it's like, man,
we're you know, we're now under an authoritarian regime and
we need to assemble a team. Right, But it's Australia,
so who you can assemble is limited.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Moond and Joe to get you out of everything. You
need the Bushman, the birdman. In order to outrun your enemies.
You need Ned Kelly for your armor or a class.
Who else are you going to put in.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
There, Collie that you've forgot the most important persons, got it?
I think you need someone to lead this little gang here.
You know, then that bloody look at that fella over there.
You know he's a bit of a soft flower. Isn't
he just a wear armor? Uncle Chop CHOP's not gonna
wear any armor, right, All I need there's six bullets.
(23:19):
Don't even need six. I need two on the best
shot on the planet. And you know I've got this.
This is me being naked chest. That's all I need
to stop a bullet. Your uncle Choptrop, he can lead
this team of Troy and time i'm traveling outlaws.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I'd rather see one of the Moran brothers in charge.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Well it's not very theatrical, then, is it.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
No, But at least they'll get shit done.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
I'm making a theatrical comic of our theatrical lunatics.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah, there's a lot of weird.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
No one can take that idea either. By the way,
some fucker will it's my.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
League of extraordinary gentlemen. But legend says that Peggotty, with
his childhood experience racing ostriches in South Africa, saw an opportunity.
In some versions of the story, he stole a single
bird from a station or a farm. In others, he
trained or purchased one that he captured.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I think a prophecy happened.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
There's this beam of light on this one ostrich stick
that sticked his head up and went.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
What Beggotty, this is the god of the ostriches. You
are out chosen and will fulfill the destiny of all
feathered brethren.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Ah By, that sounds like a press a big job
for a little old man. I'm a little little man.
I suppose that makes it feel easier to write this
ostrich in them and I can do it. Don't be
the messiah of ostriches.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
If you'd like to come to my woman.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
We're just gonna set up a show. There's just Matthew
doing that for an hour at a time.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
But I have to run off stage really quickly to
get changed right. So it's like you know, a twitch stream,
or I'll just have wigs. I'll just switch wigs.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
It's gonna be a twitch stream, but we're also going
to record it releases a podcast so you get the
full high depth experience.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I mean, like, it's when I think of Peggotty as well,
I think of like, you know, because they said he
was always bare chested right on top of this ostrich
but covered in gold. Well, obviously he's going to be
wearing pants at the time, but I really think of
him wearing those white bell bottoms from Saturday Night Fever.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Oh God, Disco.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Stew's Chance, I'm here to party and take your shit.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
You knew this would be a train wreck.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
I know it's fine. Everyone is listening to you and smiling,
I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Or they're like unsubscribed.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
There is silent judgment in my statement of that for
all of you who are currently smiling.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
You know, there have been there have been these lovely
emails coming through of like, oh my god, like you
you know, you're you're teaching us more school and I'm
so happy with your work and this is amazing. They're
going to tune into this episode and it's like Matthew's
lost his fucking mind.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Set an email saying I take all of that back.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
All out praise out the window because of one episode, Peggotty.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Taught the ostriche to tolerate a writer, or at least
to accept a light load on his back at about
one point one meters call he waited about forty five kilos.
So Peggotty may have been the only bush ranger in
Austraine history actually physically small enough to attempt such a thing,
let alone pull it off. If you've got a seven
(26:49):
year old child nearby, I have a look at it,
and then imagine it's sitting on a two meter tall ostriche,
and that's basically what you're looking at.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Or give them to a family of ostriches and let's
see if we can do this again.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Don't give your kids to ostrichers.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Do it? Send me pictures.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Peggotty sat it up, or more likely held onto a
padded harness, and set out to do what no bush
ranger had done before, hauled up male coaches from the
back of an enormous flightless bird. But why not an emu?
After all, they're local, famously fast, and far more common
in South Australia than African ostriches. But there's a practical problem.
(27:28):
E Music just aren't built for writing. There's a TikTok
video going through the rounds at the moment of naked emuse.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, I don't like it.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I don't like it either, but you can see just
what kind of build they have underneath the feather duster
feathers of them.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
They're like owls. There's not much to them. No, that's
not that's why they're little speedy bastards.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
There's absolutely no way a grown man would be writing it,
even a forty five kilo one.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I'm sorry, but this is really fucking cool though too.
I know it's clownish, but it's kind of cool. Like this,
this little a person has trained an ostriche like you're
you're you can imagine it. Right, we're on the cusp
of the new century. You're in your stage coach, right,
(28:14):
you're reading the newspaper. Maybe you're having a little cup
of stage coach ta. I don't know what the rich
did back then. Oh can you believe that? Aren't? Jemima says,
I can't believe she's of ill health. We have to
go from Adelaide and make it across too, the colony
of New South Wales. Can you believe that? New South Welshman.
(28:35):
Absolutely is that an Ostrich. Uh this fucking country.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Emis just aren't built for writing. They're lighter, shorter in
the body, and far less stable underload than an Ostrich.
An adult ostrich can weigh over one hundred kilos and
stand two meters tall, and in parts of Africa people
have raced them. Spoke contrast top out at about forty
five kilos, which is about the same way as Peggotty,
(29:05):
And anyone who's played anything with construction knows that if
you top heavy, a loaded is going over on a corner.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Peggotty's choice makes a strange kind of sense. If you're
a diminutive outlaw determined to rob coaches from the back
of a bird, you'd go for the imported Ostrich every time,
even though they're more likely to peck and scratch you.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
This can't be real. How real is this?
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Undecided?
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Right? So it's a story. It's a legend that could
be true.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yeah, there's all the elements that say it could be,
but there's no actual he was here and he did this.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
This is crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
People in the old time had really good imaginations. The
image of Peggotty is undeniably striking a bare chested man,
long hair loosed in the wind, gold chains glittering the sun,
riding an Ostrich out of the dunes to block the
track to startle passengers must have seemed like something from
a fever dream.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Hiring of the breaking in a business, Peggotty decided to
take inspiration from the likes of Tin Thunderbolt and Frank
Gardner and go bush become a highwayman. Unable to mount
a horse because of his size, Peggotty took advantage of
the birds brought to South Australia for the lucrative Ostrich
feather trade, liberating a bird and riding it like it
(30:32):
was a gallant steed. Peggotty bailed up travelers throughout Kuron
on his Ostrich, liberating them of anything that crinkled or tinkled,
before word began to spread that this impush outlaw had
become a veritable menace. Quote from John Francis Giddy, the
Birdman of Kuron, Adam fellon a guide to Australian bush, ranging.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
That's right, I'm inphamous. Now be a little long South
Australia's most most wanted am I have my luscious hair
to run your fingers.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Did he actually have lost his hair?
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yes, he had a long beard and long.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Hair, so he's manly as well. Get out of here.
I feel like I'm very in friends.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Peggotty worked the coach out south of Menengi and near Kingston,
thin lines of trade and mail running along the Kurung's edge.
These were mostly small coaches three or four passengers, a driver,
maybe some parcels and mailbags. The robberies, according to legend,
were quick and without serious violence. Peggotty brandish pistols took cash,
(31:44):
gold and jewelry, and then fled across the sand flats
at the speed that horses couldn't easily match oversoft ground.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Several travelers were most surprised to be held out by
a diminutive, bearded figure riding an ostrich brandishing two small
ornamented pistols, dripped to the waist and wearing huge amounts
of gold and jewelry. At first, the police were disinclined
to believe the story until the body of a man
was discovered surrounded by the surrounded by large bird prints.
(32:13):
In eighteen ninety nine, a party of mounted police officers
encountered Peggotty on his Ostrich. They opened fire and attempted
to give chase, but the Ostrich ran easily over a
sand hill that their horses could not climb. Peggotty committed
a dozen or more hold ups and another murder before
his career ended. Quote from The Bold, the Bad and
(32:34):
the Ugly Australia's Colonial Bush Rangers, Royal Australian Ment, Australian Government,
twenty nineteen. You have multiple sources.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
His calling cup was Ostridge PRIs.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
I'm surprised that he didn't leave a fucking Ostrich feather
on their chest.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Where's the vigilante around in this colonial because we have
John Batman but his piece of shit, so like, where
is the vigilante? Where is the zorro? The We didn't
really have one, did we?
Speaker 2 (33:07):
No?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Not really, We need to look into that colonial vigilanes.
We had freedom fighters.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Yeah, we had freedom fighters Mosquito and Pamela.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
One story even has Peggotty crossing a saltpan at dawn,
Ostrich's legs, throwing up fine white dust as the coach
horses bogged down in the.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Softer earth, choosing to haunt the region by the shores
of Lake Albert, with its towering walls of sand. Peggotty
atop his foul steed was im irrepressible. The police soon
set out in search of the so called Birdman of
the Currong quote from John Francis Peggotty, The Birdman of Kurrong.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Things finally came to a head on September seventeenth, eighteen
ninety nine. Peggotty, by now a known oddity among the Korong,
decided to rob a local fisherman named Henry Carmichael on
the banks of Lake Albert.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
He was not that far from World War One, fifteen
years two years till Federation.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
At first, Carmichael thought he was dealing with nothing more
than a cocky local kid riding up bare chested on
some strange farm bird.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I don't know why you think i'm a little boy, mister.
I'm actually I'm one of the most I'm one of
the most fild bushrangers in this entire this entire lane.
And I love gold. I love I love patching it,
I love looking at gold. I'm not even gonna spend it. Bill,
Now put him up. Do you think a little kid
could wear a beard like this. I'm not three people
(34:34):
in the trench cart, I can tell you that.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
But it didn't take long before the penny dropped. This
wasn't just a boy. It was the Birdman of the
Kurung himself, the Ostrich riding bushranger he'd heard about in
whispers at the pub. Carmichael wasn't in the mood to
be robbed that day. He grabbed his rifle, leveled it
at Peggotty, and took aim, hoping, it's said, to claim
the reward that had supposedly been offered for the Birdman's capture.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Well, if you're going to s good of me, I'm
gonna act to fame my ostrich powers, and an Ostrich
is faster than a speeding bullet.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Peggotty didn't wait around to test his resolve. He wheeled
the ostriche around and took off across the salt bush,
the bird's powerful legs kicking up a rooster tail of
dust behind him like fucking roadrunner. Bullets cracked through the
morning air as Carmichael fired. Peggotty ducked low, trying to
make himself even smaller, but the fisherman's aim was too good.
(35:28):
One shot found his mark, striking the Ostrich and bringing
the huge bird down in a flurry of feathers and scene.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
No you killed me, Ostrich said.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Of that bit, Peggotty was thrown clear, tumbling into the
spinifex a second bullet, or so the story goes. Here's
the Birdman himself.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I've been bloody shot while I was doing a flip.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
We have a quote. By the time Carmichael reached the
Ostrich corpse, the wounded Peggotty had scampered off, leaving a
thick trail of blood in the sand. He had made
it too thick, scrubbly in so Carmichael was not willing
to pursue this armed men under cover. Peggotty had at
least two bullets in his body and was beat bleeding profusely.
Carmichael knew that he would perish in the sand hills
(36:11):
at the Kurrong, and so departed to report his impending
death to the authorities quote from The bird Man of Kurrong.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
And with the end of Peggotty came the end of
his story. Kind of literally. No reports regarding Peggotty appear
in contemporary newspapers from the eighteen nineties or early nineteen hundreds.
There's no records in the South Australian police gazettes listing
Peggotty as a wanted man, or records of a robbery
by a man in an ostrich, and colonial newspapers always
(36:41):
keen for a strange or scandalous story, made no mention
of an Ostridge writing thief, despite happily publishing stories about
escaped convicts, circus accidents and lost ostriches from farms. After all,
they reported on every blade of grass turning in the
wind if the day was slow enough, And I know
because I pucket read those.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Stands out the wind was a little bit more than
it usually is, and so we had usually one blade
of grass got broken, but by kracky there were three today.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
M So how did the story survive much late the
legend of Fisher's got The story seems to have been
passed down at the pub for fifty years before someone
thought to write it down. By the early twentieth century,
the story had been retold enough to appear in local
histories and later in books of austrained folklore. But substantiating
the story is hard. There's no coroner's report, no burial report,
(37:37):
no contemporary newspaper notices, no celebration of we got the
Bastards bride Ostrich dinner tonight, a arrive at seven pm.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
And this is where it makes it tricky, because we
actually have that for every other bush Range we've covered.
I think the only time where like this is this
goes way back when we sort of we compiled an
episode of a couple of bush Rangers and didn't have
massive stories, and it was the female bush Ranger who
(38:06):
was disguised as a man and Hinch, jes Jessica Hinch
and when you really go into her life and times, sorry,
Jessica Hinkman, that's right, Hinkman. Are you looking at our
futuristic bush Rangers poster behind me? No?
Speaker 3 (38:23):
No, that one came off a memory. But she is there, yes, yes, yellow.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
One, Yes, she is which you can actually grab that
that T shirt from our Red Bubble store, so go
grab that and tea public store. Her story was very
much lightly embellished a.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Lot, very much lightly.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yes, but we still have we have reports of her.
We have newspaper reports, we have births and deaths, we
have all of that. We have that for every single
bush range we've covered. And as much as I want
this to be real, and you have no idea how
much I want this to be because this episode has
(39:07):
been the most theatrical. I think of three hundred and
seventy episodes, definitely the most cinematic. The Birdman just makes
my heart warm. Am I Australian pride explode out of
me in theatrical entertainment?
Speaker 2 (39:26):
This was real.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
I think this is an urban legend. It's a good one.
I think it was real.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Like all good Australian yarns. In the years that followed,
the Birdman of the Kurung took on a life of
his own.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Pesmus might say this was a fabrication, fuck you, since
its first written record appears to be an old issue
of The Australasian Post, a fairly dubious publication heavy on
bikini girls the paint, aspiring writers for their contributions. They
might even say the name was pinched from Charles Dickens's
classic novel David Copperfield Well Bugg of those people. The
(40:06):
town of Minigu Meningi propped up an Ostrich statue and
Peggotty's honor in twenty thirteen. Reinforced to take the weight
of anyone wanting a photo on top of the saddle,
and that is proof enough for me. Quote from John
Francis Peggotty The Inspirit, the inspiring tale of Australia's ostrich
riding Bushranger.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Today, Fremantle has his prison tours, Ballarat has his gold fields,
and Glenn Rowan has his ned Kelly tourist stops the
Kurung for all its beauty, has something stranger. The story
of a man who swapped a horse for an ostriche
logic for legend in cautioned for gold chains and open
scend at the Meningi Foreshore. You can ride an Ostrich
yourself and imagine the fun Peggotty could have had in
(40:50):
that lawless era.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
A search for more clues around Meningi does little to
illuminate the curious holidaymaker on display in the local museum
as a goal chain and pistol reportedly presented by local
fishermen Henry Carmichael as evidence he had shot the bushranger
and his Ostrich repeatedly. On September seventeenth, eighteen ninety nine,
somehow Peggotty escaped into the sand dunes. His body was
(41:15):
never found, but it said his bones lie there, draped
in thousands of dollars worth of gold and jewels. Mick Bakti,
owner of the delightful Kurung Cabins where we stay the night,
is a peggotty enthusiast. Oh, it's an incredible story. I've
lived here more than twenty years and I've never heard
of him until about seven years ago, until one of
(41:37):
our locals, Denise Mason, dug him up. He explains, quote
from statue stands and delivers a curious tale. Stephen Corby
The Australian, August twenty fourth, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
So was the Birdman of Kurung reel? We'll let you
decide either way. It's a fun story.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
I think for me, ladies and gentlemen, the Birdman of
Kurung is going to live where he needs to live.
That is in the hearts, minds books of beautiful children,
beautiful Australian children who need a hero.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
You're gonna call Birdman two.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Do you want me to edit that one out? Well,
ladies and gentlemen, you let me know. Do you believe
that the bird Man existed? Does he belong in your hearts.
I think he does, and we'd love to hear, of
course from the residents of Qirrong. Maybe you have some
evidence that we don't know of. Maybe there is a
(42:38):
story out there that is substantive. But as Holly said, well,
actually I know the perfect quote to end this episode
on Holly, and that comes from one copy ad. Oh yeah,
never let the truth get in the way of a
good yarn. So I think we'll leave it with those
(42:59):
very prophetic words there. Holy Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank
you for joining us for one of our best episodes
of the week, Crap in Australia Podcast. I've been your host,
Matthew sol of course astraining me was hollysoul. But before
we let you go, don't forget you can reach out
to us. You can give us a shout on Facebook
or our other social media. Just type in weird crap
in Australia into those search engines. You can also send
(43:20):
us an email we grab in Australia at gmail dot com.
We love to hear from all of you. You can
also help out the weak Crap In Australia Podcast by
supporting us first and foremost being our Petreon for only
five dollars USD a month, you get access to bonus
minisodes and these mainline episodes released to you ad free
and early. You can also help us out with grabbing
(43:41):
a book. You can also grab our book series We
Crap in Australia, Volume one to five are available from
our great mates at Impactcomics dot com dot AU. Don't
forget to start shooting them through emails. If you would
like to reserve yourself a copy of for Hume six
Jesus Fuck, we will personally autograph the first twelve issue
(44:04):
twelve copies that Impact Comic has ordered, so those go
very very quickly, so once they hit twelve, you get
cut off. So if you'd like a autographed copy, make
sure that you get in nice, quick and early. Just
shoot them an email. They'll probably put together a list
(44:24):
of all the pre orders. We'll sign those off and
then maybe you might get lucky. Maybe they said in
the store, I want to guarantee it.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
Usually they've gone in two weeks.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Yeah, it's usually about two weeks before he puts in
the next order, isn't it. Yeah, gotta get in quick,
and if you haven't picked up those other volumes. Grab
those if you're living overseas and you'd like a paperback copy.
Lulu dot comsat's a print underband service, and if you're
a digital person, you can grab those from the Amazon
Kindle store. Last, but not least, you can grab ours yourself.
(44:56):
A T shirt. We haven't done a design this year.
I think we've found it.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
The Birdman.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
I think we've found it, depending on whether qu Wrong
has trademarked, I doubt it very much, the ostrich Man.
But I think I will let Ignacio know and I
will tell him. You know what goods creative control is?
Are you sure you don't.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Want your ensemble?
Speaker 1 (45:25):
What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (45:26):
Well, get leave extraordinary, gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
That's a good option to leave it with me. We
will see. But I think I have an idea about
this year's T shirt design. Uh what else, Holly? You
can grab our T shirts from Tea Public and our
red Bubble stores. Just happened when Crapping Australian too. The
search engine and before we let you go, our custom
here at weir crap in Australia is to give Calli
the final words.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
I'd like to thank Colin for bringing this episode to
our attention.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Thank you very much, Colin, you are fucking awesome. Well
that's it from us, Ladies and gentlemen. Please stay safe,
be kind to each other and we'll see you next
week for more Weird Crap in Australia. Until then, bye
for now, Baye. The Weird Crap in Australia podcast is
(46:25):
produced by Holly and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown.
If you've enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review on
your favorite podcatching app
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
They were last seen on the beach with the tall
man and that's the best description police have ever had
of it. More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared
into raging surf at Chevy A Beach, his widow has
finally revealed his last romantic words.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Docky, terrifying, mesmerizing.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That's the way a number of Australians have described the
alleged encounter with the Yowi.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
It's time for the Weird Crop in Australia podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Welcome to the Weird Crap in Australia Podcast. I'm your host,
Matthew Soul. Yes, your intrepid adventurers are back from the lovely, rainy,
terribly wet, miserable city of Melbourne and have returned to
the wet, rainy, miserable city that is Cambra.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
No camera is better because it's also colder.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
That voice, of course, belongs to the researcher extraordinary her health,
poly Soul. Hey, yeah, ladies and gentlemen, there comes a
moment for every podcaster where a story comes across their
desk that needs to be told, that resonates with all
of us, which is indicative of the Australian spirit, which
(01:28):
my fellow co host had sitting on a list and thought,
this story isn't really for us right now. But I
am correcting that mistake, that terrible, terrible oversight.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
So for context, what happened was, I was trying to
figure out what episode to do. Matthew's like, hey, can
I have a look at the list? He scrolled her
and he went, what's this? And I went, this is
what it is? And he went, and you haven't told
me so that it ended up on the list.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
There have been times in my life, ladies and gentlemen,
where Holly has terribly disappointed me, and that one occasion is,
while discussing the Egyptology, neglected to inform me that Egyptian
police officers used trained.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Baboons among other animals.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That the king of Egypt at one point, Romeses Scond
had a lion two that he fought with him battle.
Matthew's very cut up about this. Australia, ladies and gentlemen,
we have our own Ramesses. If you thought a bush
ranger who built himself a suit of armor, the first
(02:38):
iron Man, We're going to take that back, the first
Iron Man. If you thought that was the best Australian
bush Rangers had to offer, I say to you no,
because this, ladies and gentlemen, is episode three hundred and seventy.
(02:58):
This is the hail of the bushranger known as the Birdman,
whose mount that he rode into battle was an Ostrich
and we today will honor this Australian hero Holy take
it away.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
The word of Australian Bushrangers has given birth to many
weird and wonderful varieties over the years. We've covered a few,
the skinny dippers that started a rebellion in Bathist, the
men in the iron suits, the Cannibals, the Holy Man,
the women who dressed as men, the First Nations and
African American men. But there's more than one story that
we've gone past because it seems too strange to be real.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Again, I pointed out to Holly, what the title of
the podcast is.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
This episode is one of those stories too strange to
be real, but with enough supporting evidence to say it
could have been possible. In the wild blue times of
the eighteen nineties. The story of John Peggotty, the so
called Birdman of the Kurung, is a tale of a
bushranger who swapped the traditional equine steed for one of
an avian variety, making an impression on all who met him.
(04:05):
While Adelaide had been founded on the principle of free
men will not be criminals, this bushranger of Rome the
South Australian coast, holding up stagecoaches and slithering into tight spots.
This is the story of the Birdmen of the Kurung.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Ladies and gentlemen. The Americans may have their lone ranger
and his faithful steed silver good.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, that was I host, silver, high host.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Silver away. But he didn't have an ostrich. No, no,
he did not.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Peggotty was born in Limerick, Ireland at around eighteen sixty four.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And every one of them knew a dirty Limerick at.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Least it's part of being a citizen there.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
But yes, you could not get your citizenship without knowing
at least one dirty Limerick. Holly, do you know a
dirty Limerick?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
As an old man went to Nantucket?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I think is.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
One that is definitely the start of one. Will you
continue on? Let me see if I can find a
good one that's more Australian themed.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
There are reports that Peggott was born three months premature,
but it's more likely that he was born with a
form of dwarfism above him.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Though on the night he was born, the moon was
full and was silhouetted by what looked like an ostrich
for a man was born prophecy that day.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
In the era where common medical practice included caine saws
for childbirth and a boatload of hurricane, being born at
six months gestation was almost a death sentence. Thus, it's
more likely that, like Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren in
the USA, Dwarfism meant that he was not able to
blend into society as he was and would have to
find other ways of living.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Also, the house Stuff Works podcast covered the life of
Tom Thumb. Please go and listen to that after this.
It is a fascinating life, absolutely fascinating life.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Measuring about one point one meters tall by the time
he hit his mid twenties, Peggetty was the average height
of a seven year old boy, and, aside from his beard,
was able to convince many strangers that he was in
fact a trial.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
And he also would have known certain limericks, of course,
growing up on Limerick Island pulling. I have one that
maybe he said, would you like to hear it? Go
for it? All right? So this one is an actual
Australian one. Nick comes from the website Crazy Limericks for You.
In twenty twelve, a randy old sharer named Mick had
a dong that was frequentouly thick. He'd boast with a smirk,
(06:41):
it's me pride to me perk hilarue bit a clean
or real quick that saw.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
The word I thought I was getting with it, but
we're good with that. In his teenage years, Peggotty gained
employment as a chimney sweep, using his thin and small
frame to wriggle into and out of the tight confines
of people chimneys.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I bet I can get right up in here, sir.
You let me, You let me, me, me, me me,
little brushy, We're gonna get right up in your chimney.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
He was Irish.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Sorry, Holly, I cannot do an Irish high pitched accent.
The best I'm gonna it's it's either high pitched or
it's Irish. Which which wind do you want?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I think we'll stick to the high pitch all right,
just because it will be less trouble.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
This will be the voice of bird Mean for the
rest of this episode.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And then we have a quote here.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Matthew he only grew to the size of a seven
year old, so he became a chimney sweep in the
rich peoples houses. Miss Mason said he became addicted to
taking little samples of rich people's belongings, but he was
caught out by one of his landladies as he was
parading around in his finery. Quote from John Francis Peggotti,
(07:53):
the ostrich riding bush Ranger from South Australia fact or fiction.
Quote from the Abaca Patricia loved Ludgrove said Saturday, eighteen
February twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
He was seen doing this by one of his clients
and had to make a run for it, else he'd
end up in an Irish prison for the rest of
his life.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh wait, I gotta get out of here. I can't
keep women are wearing all this women's jewelry that I'm stealing.
I got a little, little little may is gonna kinna
get out of here. Oh boy, off I go.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Haggetty headed south, making his way to South Africa.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I think I might go all the way south, all
the way to South Africa. Can I swim there?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
There he found a brand news sight to his Irish eyes,
and he became heavily involved in the sport of ostrich racing.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I think I think I think I could ride on
one of those big birds, one of those I've never
seen one of those big belts. I say, Ameyu's say
they're different color, different color than ame use.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
We have a quite Holly's regretting doing this episode.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
As an eighteen year old, he traveled to South Africa,
where he learned to ride Ostrich's. Ostrich racing being a
popular sport there, Peggotty's tiny, underdeveloped frame was ideal for
the pursuit of riding large flightless birds, and he became
wildly proficient. For reasons undetermined, Peggotty left South Africa for England,
where he went on a crime spree, his tiny body
(09:20):
effortlessly sliding down chimneys to give him access to homes
where he could pilfer or he desired like some sort
of strange reverse center clause.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I am well, I'm going to come down the chimney bit.
I'm not here to I'm not here to give your presents.
I'm u take him away. Look at me go into
the night.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Whoo if I go, it's like a mix between choppered
and mister me Sikh's. That's what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Of I go. If I go into the world, it
iss soon and I'll be back. Don't you think I
won't be back? Oh? He picked me up and he's
carrying me away. What the hell is this? Get off me, cop.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
That's a quote from John Francis Peggotty, the Birdman of
Kurrong Aiden fellon a Guide to Australian bush Ranging, twenty
first February twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Unfortunately for Peggotty, he had a habit of flaunting his takings.
Peggotty was seen a few times with his golden score,
strutting around bare chested, with only the finery he'd taken
adorning his neck. One of his clients, who had recently
been robbed, saw him sporting the missing necklace in question,
and Peggotty was soon arrested.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I don't know what you're talking about I found this.
I found this on the I fuck it. I'll go
you out here. They're too quick, their legs are too long.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
We have we have a quote here. After a relatively
short prison sentence, he decided to travel to Australia to
live with his farming uncle in New South Wales, but
he was not inclined to work on the farm quote
from the Birdman of Kurrong, youre wrong country.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
He moved to Orange, New South Wales, where he was
employed by a member of his extended family to help
with the grazing of sheep.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
They like me, actually like we lost we lost now
how blue helo o? Blue Helo was he? It was
a shaped dog and we lost him. So they made
me a little saddle and uh and then I'm a
male sheep.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
While a gold rush had brought some prosperity and money
to the area in the eighteen fifties, by the time
Peggotty arrived in the eighteen nineties, that money had transformed
into the establishment of farms and the slow emergence of
the orange we know today with farms of oranges, cherries
and grapes.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Fuck, so it is actually named after oranges.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it was founded long before
the oranges came to Orange, so it was.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Caught orange and then they brought oranges.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Probably because of the color of the dirt, but I'm
not sure what the color of zerdas out there, so
I could be talking completely.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Just a fucking nameship properly in this fucking country. No, seriously,
either go with the native title or name it properly,
or both or both. Tumitt right, a misquote of duma
or chumut, which is resting place by the river because
the town was settled next to a fucking river. Right,
(12:12):
makes fucking sense, right, except for the mispronounced Yeah, we
called it orange in Do you think maybe we should
set up some oranges here? Makes sense? Thank you, Mayor
of Orange fox Sake.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I've just quickly googled it. It was named after Prince
William of Orange.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Now for fox Sake, who.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Was later King William the Second of the Netherlands. So
there you go. Okay, what's a coincidence that it became
known for its oranges?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Haggetty was like a magpie, and within a few months
of his arrival, he was back to his old tricks
with the Shaneyes.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Apparently, though his family didn't approve of gambling on big
birds to make a living, so he was skipped off
to a sheep farm near Orange, New South Wales, where
an uncle took him in. Miss Mason's says that didn't
work out either. The uncle found his guest wearing his
wife's jewelry, so he was asked to leave. John Francis Peggotty,
the Ostrich writing bush Ranger from South Australia fact or
(13:11):
Fiction ABC, Petra laod Grove.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Well, you know, uncle, I was. I was just taking
it out. I was just taking it out to wear,
because you know that cleaning. I'm going to take it
out for cleaning. And I've only got these alarms, so
I thought, well, if I were around my neck, then
it will be easier to carry all of this story.
And then I have to go, now, don't I?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
And then he jumps out the window wearing the jewelry off.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I go now.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
With a reputation in the New South Wales colony, Paggotty
headed across state lines to Adelaide, where he was once
again an.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Man belongs in Adelaide, right, this is the most Adelaide
man that's ever existed. A little person who steals everything
in there thing, So he's a klepto as long as
it Shaney who likes to ride ostriches and is known
as the Birdman Adelaide. This man should have been your mayor,
(14:10):
your state prem This man could have been all of
your like. He should have held every office in Adelaide.
This is the most Adelaide person I've ever heard of
in the entire existence of Australian history.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Being in Adelaide without a reputation meant that he could
now put some of his particular skills to use again.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
From New South Wales, he traveled to Adelaide to join
a friend, but soon slipped into the old trade of
thieving with a gang of likely lads, most of whom
were caught by police. So Peggotty lay low for a
few years. Quote from the Birdman of Curung. Of course
you had Peggotty, the Birdman. You had Captain Crocodile, who
(14:50):
rode around on two crocodiles, one for each foot. Next
to them, of course was Garry Joanna why not? And
Gary Swunger. He went out It's Adelaide, of course, so
he smoked a bunch of fucking math and then he
swung the goanner around, you know, and threw it at people.
(15:12):
There was also Kerry Kowala, but he just liked to
sleep a lot. Also because of myth.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
South Australia in the eighteen nineties was a curious place,
for it would be bush rangers to turn up. Adelaide
itself was already known as the city of Churches, and
the colony had built its proud reputation on the idea
that it had been founded by free settlers rather than convicts.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
If you'd like to know more about that, we did
a tupana on the first murder in Adelaide, Pedtinger.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Remember this first name, Richard Pettinger. Unlike New South Wales
or Victoria, South Australia never had a convict system in
the same sense and had largely escaped the era of
bush ranger gangs that made folk heroes and public enemies.
But the remotest stretches of the colony was something else
entirely faced with the more realistic world than the land
of adel The Korong, the strip of low dunes and
(16:03):
salt lagoons running southeast from the Murray Mouth towards Kingston
was sparsely settled by the eighteen ninety standards. Fishing huts,
sheep stations and mail routes marked out small patches of
human presence, and the distances between them were long, flat
and windswept. The land itself felt wild, the kind of
place where a man could, if he chose, simply vanish
(16:23):
into the salt bush. For someone like Peggotty, who carried
a reputation for sticky fingers and a knife for something shiny,
traits that, combined with his size and background, made it
difficult to settle into honest work for long. This sparse land,
vaguely reminiscent of South Africa, felt more like home than
anything else in Australia, And so he thought, why not
(16:44):
bring a bit of South Africa here?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Ah?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, So I was over in South Africa for quite
a while, riding on some really big birds, and you
know what, I bloody well miss, and I think that
Adelaide really could be ah new South Africa. So tomorrow
we're going to be introducing apartheid, not where I.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Thought that was going.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Do you remember the Munty python skit with the Afrikaans? No,
we no, longer practice. Aparthoid were actually very good at it.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Yeah that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, Hey, I don't have to apologize for making fun
of racists, do I.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I don't know we run by Nazis? No, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Good.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
By the late eighteen hundreds, South Australia really did have
ostridge farms, the colonies that imported ostriches from Africa to
capitalize on the booming European and American markets for ostrich feathers.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Well, it was like a lot of costuming.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yeah, the plumes in the hats and all the feathers
on the shoulders, shawls and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And I'm assuming that's why we event like we imported camels.
We didn't port camels, Yes, I was actually thinking birds,
the ones with the big plumage feathers. Yes, we imported those, right,
They're not native to Australia, they're not. Yeah, So it's
like it was all about fancy birds, fancy feathers, chicken
(18:11):
steat duck stat we imported a lot of birds.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
People do eat ostriches.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I wasn't that. That's part of the
premise of O Man. It's a bee monster film called
Eight Legged Freaks. But one of the characters trying to
revitalize the town before it gets taken over by giant
spiders should have been set in Australia. And I think
about it, Ostridge farm to eat the ostriche meat. What
(18:38):
is it particularly good meat? Or is it just it's
better than turkey meat? Or because all bird meat is
fairly lean, isn't it? Who are you red climate and
chucking in deep brier.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Because of my occupation, I have dealt with ostriche meat,
very very rare and once upon a time, but I did.
It is almost the same color as emu, which is
bright red, the same color as kangaroo. Yep, unless you're
eating the fan filet, which is the bit that runs
where the breast would be. Yep, it's tough a shit okay,
(19:11):
and even the fan fill it is kind of tough.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Right, So I guess people are just more quality over quality.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
I mean, yes, think of how much Ostrich strumpstick would
feed absolutely Ostrich farming feed me.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
That's for one one leg, one leg? Oh my god.
You know, the freezes haven't been invented yet, but I
wish they were, because, oh boy, how'd he won one
big ostriche leg that's come. They'll kid me, mister peggotty
all oh, won't be all fed. I'll be fed for
a year.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Do you want me to fact check that whether he
could eat like it would save him for like he
could eat it over a whole year.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
The first commercial refrigerator was built in eighteen fifty four.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Oh really, but it wouldn't have been in Australia though surely.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
James Harrison was Scottish Australian. There you go.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
He wanted a cold drink, just needs.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
That cold beer because fuck the Scott's everything over there
is warm.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Well don't you just yeah, it's weird. It's weird Europe
that you don't like cold drinks. It's weird that you
do that.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
It's because most of the year is cold. You throw
it in a lot so they're in a heat way
you like currently, Well.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Remember trumtt River and you used to think I was
mad for going swimming and you're probably will still think
you're mad for going swimming in it. I'm glad she
had the qualifier, could have just left it it. I
still think you're mad, uh, And I would just remember
I just put the drinks in the in the water yeah,
and then they'd be cold, and then I encourage you
to jump in the water.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
And that was a dumb idea and I regret it
every day since it.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Came out blue.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And I'm a redhead, so I'm super white, so I
definitely was blue.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
A lot of chattering that day.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Ostrich farming wasn't common, but it wasn't a fantasy either.
Records show multiple small farms existed around Adelaide, Port Augusta
and further south. Ostriches were used mostly for their feathers,
but also for leather and occasionally meat, and inevitably a
few birds escaped. The site of an ostrich loping across
the salt bush wasn't entirely unheard of in rural South
(21:19):
Australia at the time, enough at least to stick it
in the imagination of local storytellers. Now, when the ostrich
feather industry fell over, what do you think happened to
those birds?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Oh? They let them out into the bush.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Abs fucking lutely, And they were still present as of
the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah, because I definitely have not seen an ostrich out
in the while, but.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
We haven't really gone. Yeah, that's far west on by.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Land and they're too genetically different from me used to
have cross bread right exactly.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
They are twice the size of an Indian.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, God imagine if they being the Ostrich wars puff.
We have a quote here. He was labeled the most
eccentric bush ranger in the history of Australia, as he
was often seen stripped to the waist and wearing stolen
gold jewelry whilst brandishing two ornamental pistols and riding an
Ostrich quote from the Birdman of Kuron Curon Country. Yes,
(22:11):
ladies and gentlemen, this really is our Batman villain.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
He is.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
He is the most theatrical person that I think we
have ever covered outside of Choppery, who I think is
very very theatrical.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
I don't know. I'd say ned Kelly with his rising
out of the fog wearing a suit of armor is
pretty theatrical.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I need to do a comic about a gang, right,
So a time traveler goes back and it's like, man,
we're you know, we're now under an authoritarian regime and
we need to assemble a team. Right, But it's Australia,
so who you can assemble is limited.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Moond and Joe to get you out of everything. You
need the Bushman, the birdman. In order to outrun your enemies.
You need Ned Kelly for your armor or a class.
Who else are you going to put in.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
There, Collie that you've forgot the most important persons, got it?
I think you need someone to lead this little gang here.
You know, then that bloody look at that fella over there.
You know he's a bit of a soft flower. Isn't
he just a wear armor? Uncle Chop CHOP's not gonna
wear any armor, right, All I need there's six bullets.
(23:19):
Don't even need six. I need two on the best
shot on the planet. And you know I've got this.
This is me being naked chest. That's all I need
to stop a bullet. Your uncle Choptrop, he can lead
this team of Troy and time i'm traveling outlaws.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I'd rather see one of the Moran brothers in charge.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Well it's not very theatrical, then, is it.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
No, But at least they'll get shit done.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
I'm making a theatrical comic of our theatrical lunatics.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah, there's a lot of weird.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
No one can take that idea either. By the way,
some fucker will it's my.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
League of extraordinary gentlemen. But legend says that Peggotty, with
his childhood experience racing ostriches in South Africa, saw an opportunity.
In some versions of the story, he stole a single
bird from a station or a farm. In others, he
trained or purchased one that he captured.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I think a prophecy happened.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
There's this beam of light on this one ostrich stick
that sticked his head up and went.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
What Beggotty, this is the god of the ostriches. You
are out chosen and will fulfill the destiny of all
feathered brethren.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Ah By, that sounds like a press a big job
for a little old man. I'm a little little man.
I suppose that makes it feel easier to write this
ostrich in them and I can do it. Don't be
the messiah of ostriches.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
If you'd like to come to my woman.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
We're just gonna set up a show. There's just Matthew
doing that for an hour at a time.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
But I have to run off stage really quickly to
get changed right. So it's like you know, a twitch stream,
or I'll just have wigs. I'll just switch wigs.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
It's gonna be a twitch stream, but we're also going
to record it releases a podcast so you get the
full high depth experience.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I mean, like, it's when I think of Peggotty as well,
I think of like, you know, because they said he
was always bare chested right on top of this ostrich
but covered in gold. Well, obviously he's going to be
wearing pants at the time, but I really think of
him wearing those white bell bottoms from Saturday Night Fever.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Oh God, Disco.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Stew's Chance, I'm here to party and take your shit.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
You knew this would be a train wreck.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
I know it's fine. Everyone is listening to you and smiling,
I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Or they're like unsubscribed.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
There is silent judgment in my statement of that for
all of you who are currently smiling.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
You know, there have been there have been these lovely
emails coming through of like, oh my god, like you
you know, you're you're teaching us more school and I'm
so happy with your work and this is amazing. They're
going to tune into this episode and it's like Matthew's
lost his fucking mind.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Set an email saying I take all of that back.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
All out praise out the window because of one episode, Peggotty.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Taught the ostriche to tolerate a writer, or at least
to accept a light load on his back at about
one point one meters call he waited about forty five kilos.
So Peggotty may have been the only bush ranger in
Austraine history actually physically small enough to attempt such a thing,
let alone pull it off. If you've got a seven
(26:49):
year old child nearby, I have a look at it,
and then imagine it's sitting on a two meter tall ostriche,
and that's basically what you're looking at.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Or give them to a family of ostriches and let's
see if we can do this again.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Don't give your kids to ostrichers.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Do it? Send me pictures.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Peggotty sat it up, or more likely held onto a
padded harness, and set out to do what no bush
ranger had done before, hauled up male coaches from the
back of an enormous flightless bird. But why not an emu?
After all, they're local, famously fast, and far more common
in South Australia than African ostriches. But there's a practical problem.
(27:28):
E Music just aren't built for writing. There's a TikTok
video going through the rounds at the moment of naked emuse.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, I don't like it.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I don't like it either, but you can see just
what kind of build they have underneath the feather duster
feathers of them.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
They're like owls. There's not much to them. No, that's
not that's why they're little speedy bastards.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
There's absolutely no way a grown man would be writing it,
even a forty five kilo one.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I'm sorry, but this is really fucking cool though too.
I know it's clownish, but it's kind of cool. Like this,
this little a person has trained an ostriche like you're
you're you can imagine it. Right, we're on the cusp
of the new century. You're in your stage coach, right,
(28:14):
you're reading the newspaper. Maybe you're having a little cup
of stage coach ta. I don't know what the rich
did back then. Oh can you believe that? Aren't? Jemima says,
I can't believe she's of ill health. We have to
go from Adelaide and make it across too, the colony
of New South Wales. Can you believe that? New South Welshman.
(28:35):
Absolutely is that an Ostrich. Uh this fucking country.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Emis just aren't built for writing. They're lighter, shorter in
the body, and far less stable underload than an Ostrich.
An adult ostrich can weigh over one hundred kilos and
stand two meters tall, and in parts of Africa people
have raced them. Spoke contrast top out at about forty
five kilos, which is about the same way as Peggotty,
(29:05):
And anyone who's played anything with construction knows that if
you top heavy, a loaded is going over on a corner.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Peggotty's choice makes a strange kind of sense. If you're
a diminutive outlaw determined to rob coaches from the back
of a bird, you'd go for the imported Ostrich every time,
even though they're more likely to peck and scratch you.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
This can't be real. How real is this?
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Undecided?
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Right? So it's a story. It's a legend that could
be true.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yeah, there's all the elements that say it could be,
but there's no actual he was here and he did this.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
This is crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
People in the old time had really good imaginations. The
image of Peggotty is undeniably striking a bare chested man,
long hair loosed in the wind, gold chains glittering the sun,
riding an Ostrich out of the dunes to block the
track to startle passengers must have seemed like something from
a fever dream.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Hiring of the breaking in a business, Peggotty decided to
take inspiration from the likes of Tin Thunderbolt and Frank
Gardner and go bush become a highwayman. Unable to mount
a horse because of his size, Peggotty took advantage of
the birds brought to South Australia for the lucrative Ostrich
feather trade, liberating a bird and riding it like it
(30:32):
was a gallant steed. Peggotty bailed up travelers throughout Kuron
on his Ostrich, liberating them of anything that crinkled or tinkled,
before word began to spread that this impush outlaw had
become a veritable menace. Quote from John Francis Giddy, the
Birdman of Kuron, Adam fellon a guide to Australian bush, ranging.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
That's right, I'm inphamous. Now be a little long South
Australia's most most wanted am I have my luscious hair
to run your fingers.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Did he actually have lost his hair?
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yes, he had a long beard and long.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Hair, so he's manly as well. Get out of here.
I feel like I'm very in friends.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Peggotty worked the coach out south of Menengi and near Kingston,
thin lines of trade and mail running along the Kurung's edge.
These were mostly small coaches three or four passengers, a driver,
maybe some parcels and mailbags. The robberies, according to legend,
were quick and without serious violence. Peggotty brandish pistols took cash,
(31:44):
gold and jewelry, and then fled across the sand flats
at the speed that horses couldn't easily match oversoft ground.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Several travelers were most surprised to be held out by
a diminutive, bearded figure riding an ostrich brandishing two small
ornamented pistols, dripped to the waist and wearing huge amounts
of gold and jewelry. At first, the police were disinclined
to believe the story until the body of a man
was discovered surrounded by the surrounded by large bird prints.
(32:13):
In eighteen ninety nine, a party of mounted police officers
encountered Peggotty on his Ostrich. They opened fire and attempted
to give chase, but the Ostrich ran easily over a
sand hill that their horses could not climb. Peggotty committed
a dozen or more hold ups and another murder before
his career ended. Quote from The Bold, the Bad and
(32:34):
the Ugly Australia's Colonial Bush Rangers, Royal Australian Ment, Australian Government,
twenty nineteen. You have multiple sources.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
His calling cup was Ostridge PRIs.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
I'm surprised that he didn't leave a fucking Ostrich feather
on their chest.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Where's the vigilante around in this colonial because we have
John Batman but his piece of shit, so like, where
is the vigilante? Where is the zorro? The We didn't
really have one, did we?
Speaker 2 (33:07):
No?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Not really, We need to look into that colonial vigilanes.
We had freedom fighters.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Yeah, we had freedom fighters Mosquito and Pamela.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
One story even has Peggotty crossing a saltpan at dawn,
Ostrich's legs, throwing up fine white dust as the coach
horses bogged down in the.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Softer earth, choosing to haunt the region by the shores
of Lake Albert, with its towering walls of sand. Peggotty
atop his foul steed was im irrepressible. The police soon
set out in search of the so called Birdman of
the Currong quote from John Francis Peggotty, The Birdman of Kurrong.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Things finally came to a head on September seventeenth, eighteen
ninety nine. Peggotty, by now a known oddity among the Korong,
decided to rob a local fisherman named Henry Carmichael on
the banks of Lake Albert.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
He was not that far from World War One, fifteen
years two years till Federation.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
At first, Carmichael thought he was dealing with nothing more
than a cocky local kid riding up bare chested on
some strange farm bird.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I don't know why you think i'm a little boy, mister.
I'm actually I'm one of the most I'm one of
the most fild bushrangers in this entire this entire lane.
And I love gold. I love I love patching it,
I love looking at gold. I'm not even gonna spend it. Bill,
Now put him up. Do you think a little kid
could wear a beard like this. I'm not three people
(34:34):
in the trench cart, I can tell you that.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
But it didn't take long before the penny dropped. This
wasn't just a boy. It was the Birdman of the
Kurung himself, the Ostrich riding bushranger he'd heard about in
whispers at the pub. Carmichael wasn't in the mood to
be robbed that day. He grabbed his rifle, leveled it
at Peggotty, and took aim, hoping, it's said, to claim
the reward that had supposedly been offered for the Birdman's capture.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Well, if you're going to s good of me, I'm
gonna act to fame my ostrich powers, and an Ostrich
is faster than a speeding bullet.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Peggotty didn't wait around to test his resolve. He wheeled
the ostriche around and took off across the salt bush,
the bird's powerful legs kicking up a rooster tail of
dust behind him like fucking roadrunner. Bullets cracked through the
morning air as Carmichael fired. Peggotty ducked low, trying to
make himself even smaller, but the fisherman's aim was too good.
(35:28):
One shot found his mark, striking the Ostrich and bringing
the huge bird down in a flurry of feathers and scene.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
No you killed me, Ostrich said.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Of that bit, Peggotty was thrown clear, tumbling into the
spinifex a second bullet, or so the story goes. Here's
the Birdman himself.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I've been bloody shot while I was doing a flip.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
We have a quote. By the time Carmichael reached the
Ostrich corpse, the wounded Peggotty had scampered off, leaving a
thick trail of blood in the sand. He had made
it too thick, scrubbly in so Carmichael was not willing
to pursue this armed men under cover. Peggotty had at
least two bullets in his body and was beat bleeding profusely.
Carmichael knew that he would perish in the sand hills
(36:11):
at the Kurrong, and so departed to report his impending
death to the authorities quote from The bird Man of Kurrong.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
And with the end of Peggotty came the end of
his story. Kind of literally. No reports regarding Peggotty appear
in contemporary newspapers from the eighteen nineties or early nineteen hundreds.
There's no records in the South Australian police gazettes listing
Peggotty as a wanted man, or records of a robbery
by a man in an ostrich, and colonial newspapers always
(36:41):
keen for a strange or scandalous story, made no mention
of an Ostridge writing thief, despite happily publishing stories about
escaped convicts, circus accidents and lost ostriches from farms. After all,
they reported on every blade of grass turning in the
wind if the day was slow enough, And I know
because I pucket read those.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Stands out the wind was a little bit more than
it usually is, and so we had usually one blade
of grass got broken, but by kracky there were three today.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
M So how did the story survive much late the
legend of Fisher's got The story seems to have been
passed down at the pub for fifty years before someone
thought to write it down. By the early twentieth century,
the story had been retold enough to appear in local
histories and later in books of austrained folklore. But substantiating
the story is hard. There's no coroner's report, no burial report,
(37:37):
no contemporary newspaper notices, no celebration of we got the
Bastards bride Ostrich dinner tonight, a arrive at seven pm.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
And this is where it makes it tricky, because we
actually have that for every other bush Range we've covered.
I think the only time where like this is this
goes way back when we sort of we compiled an
episode of a couple of bush Rangers and didn't have
massive stories, and it was the female bush Ranger who
(38:06):
was disguised as a man and Hinch, jes Jessica Hinch
and when you really go into her life and times, sorry,
Jessica Hinkman, that's right, Hinkman. Are you looking at our
futuristic bush Rangers poster behind me? No?
Speaker 3 (38:23):
No, that one came off a memory. But she is there, yes, yes, yellow.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
One, Yes, she is which you can actually grab that
that T shirt from our Red Bubble store, so go
grab that and tea public store. Her story was very
much lightly embellished a.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Lot, very much lightly.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yes, but we still have we have reports of her.
We have newspaper reports, we have births and deaths, we
have all of that. We have that for every single
bush range we've covered. And as much as I want
this to be real, and you have no idea how
much I want this to be because this episode has
(39:07):
been the most theatrical. I think of three hundred and
seventy episodes, definitely the most cinematic. The Birdman just makes
my heart warm. Am I Australian pride explode out of
me in theatrical entertainment?
Speaker 2 (39:26):
This was real.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
I think this is an urban legend. It's a good one.
I think it was real.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Like all good Australian yarns. In the years that followed,
the Birdman of the Kurung took on a life of
his own.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Pesmus might say this was a fabrication, fuck you, since
its first written record appears to be an old issue
of The Australasian Post, a fairly dubious publication heavy on
bikini girls the paint, aspiring writers for their contributions. They
might even say the name was pinched from Charles Dickens's
classic novel David Copperfield Well Bugg of those people. The
(40:06):
town of Minigu Meningi propped up an Ostrich statue and
Peggotty's honor in twenty thirteen. Reinforced to take the weight
of anyone wanting a photo on top of the saddle,
and that is proof enough for me. Quote from John
Francis Peggotty The Inspirit, the inspiring tale of Australia's ostrich
riding Bushranger.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Today, Fremantle has his prison tours, Ballarat has his gold fields,
and Glenn Rowan has his ned Kelly tourist stops the
Kurung for all its beauty, has something stranger. The story
of a man who swapped a horse for an ostriche
logic for legend in cautioned for gold chains and open
scend at the Meningi Foreshore. You can ride an Ostrich
yourself and imagine the fun Peggotty could have had in
(40:50):
that lawless era.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
A search for more clues around Meningi does little to
illuminate the curious holidaymaker on display in the local museum
as a goal chain and pistol reportedly presented by local
fishermen Henry Carmichael as evidence he had shot the bushranger
and his Ostrich repeatedly. On September seventeenth, eighteen ninety nine,
somehow Peggotty escaped into the sand dunes. His body was
(41:15):
never found, but it said his bones lie there, draped
in thousands of dollars worth of gold and jewels. Mick Bakti,
owner of the delightful Kurung Cabins where we stay the night,
is a peggotty enthusiast. Oh, it's an incredible story. I've
lived here more than twenty years and I've never heard
of him until about seven years ago, until one of
(41:37):
our locals, Denise Mason, dug him up. He explains, quote
from statue stands and delivers a curious tale. Stephen Corby
The Australian, August twenty fourth, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
So was the Birdman of Kurung reel? We'll let you
decide either way. It's a fun story.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
I think for me, ladies and gentlemen, the Birdman of
Kurung is going to live where he needs to live.
That is in the hearts, minds books of beautiful children,
beautiful Australian children who need a hero.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
You're gonna call Birdman two.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Do you want me to edit that one out? Well,
ladies and gentlemen, you let me know. Do you believe
that the bird Man existed? Does he belong in your hearts.
I think he does, and we'd love to hear, of
course from the residents of Qirrong. Maybe you have some
evidence that we don't know of. Maybe there is a
(42:38):
story out there that is substantive. But as Holly said, well,
actually I know the perfect quote to end this episode
on Holly, and that comes from one copy ad. Oh yeah,
never let the truth get in the way of a
good yarn. So I think we'll leave it with those
(42:59):
very prophetic words there. Holy Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank
you for joining us for one of our best episodes
of the week, Crap in Australia Podcast. I've been your host,
Matthew sol of course astraining me was hollysoul. But before
we let you go, don't forget you can reach out
to us. You can give us a shout on Facebook
or our other social media. Just type in weird crap
in Australia into those search engines. You can also send
(43:20):
us an email we grab in Australia at gmail dot com.
We love to hear from all of you. You can
also help out the weak Crap In Australia Podcast by
supporting us first and foremost being our Petreon for only
five dollars USD a month, you get access to bonus
minisodes and these mainline episodes released to you ad free
and early. You can also help us out with grabbing
(43:41):
a book. You can also grab our book series We
Crap in Australia, Volume one to five are available from
our great mates at Impactcomics dot com dot AU. Don't
forget to start shooting them through emails. If you would
like to reserve yourself a copy of for Hume six
Jesus Fuck, we will personally autograph the first twelve issue
(44:04):
twelve copies that Impact Comic has ordered, so those go
very very quickly, so once they hit twelve, you get
cut off. So if you'd like a autographed copy, make
sure that you get in nice, quick and early. Just
shoot them an email. They'll probably put together a list
(44:24):
of all the pre orders. We'll sign those off and
then maybe you might get lucky. Maybe they said in
the store, I want to guarantee it.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
Usually they've gone in two weeks.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Yeah, it's usually about two weeks before he puts in
the next order, isn't it. Yeah, gotta get in quick,
and if you haven't picked up those other volumes. Grab
those if you're living overseas and you'd like a paperback copy.
Lulu dot comsat's a print underband service, and if you're
a digital person, you can grab those from the Amazon
Kindle store. Last, but not least, you can grab ours yourself.
(44:56):
A T shirt. We haven't done a design this year.
I think we've found it.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
The Birdman.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
I think we've found it, depending on whether qu Wrong
has trademarked, I doubt it very much, the ostrich Man.
But I think I will let Ignacio know and I
will tell him. You know what goods creative control is?
Are you sure you don't.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Want your ensemble?
Speaker 1 (45:25):
What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (45:26):
Well, get leave extraordinary, gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
That's a good option to leave it with me. We
will see. But I think I have an idea about
this year's T shirt design. Uh what else, Holly? You
can grab our T shirts from Tea Public and our
red Bubble stores. Just happened when Crapping Australian too. The
search engine and before we let you go, our custom
here at weir crap in Australia is to give Calli
the final words.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
I'd like to thank Colin for bringing this episode to
our attention.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Thank you very much, Colin, you are fucking awesome. Well
that's it from us, Ladies and gentlemen. Please stay safe,
be kind to each other and we'll see you next
week for more Weird Crap in Australia. Until then, bye
for now, Baye. The Weird Crap in Australia podcast is
(46:25):
produced by Holly and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown.
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