The Bushranger's Motto

Marauding bushrangers and bandits were a constant source of fear in the first half of nineteenth century Van Diemen's Land. Many were escaped convicts who felt they had little to lose. They lived by the motto, 'A Short Life and a Merry One!' Farm buildings were burnt to the ground, houses and their inhabitants were robbed, stage coaches were held up at gunpoint and cold-blooded murder was not uncommon. One of the most notorious bushrangers hid out in a rough bark hut not far from Oatlands, beside the shores of Lake Tiberias.

His name was Richard Lemon and he and his cohorts, Irishmen, John Brown and Richard Scantling were violent outcasts.  Their crimes included the murders of three officers from the New South Wales Corp. Governor Collins prohibited all boats from crossing the Derwent until Lemon and Brown were captured and killed. 

Scantling and Brown would often converse in Gaelic, which Lemon couldn't understand.  He was so infuriated that one day, while Brown was hunting, he shot Scantling and hung his corpse by the heels from a tree.  However, Lemon and Brown were also to meet a violent end.  After being shot, Lemon's head was exhibited on a stake in Hobart Town and Brown, having been captured, was executed. 

Despite his criminal ways, Richard Lemon is immortalized by various landmarks near Oatlands including Lemon Springs and Lemon Hill.  Can you find his silhouette, high on a hill?