Martin Cash was transported from Ireland to New South Wales in 1827 and moved to Van Diemen’s Land in 1837. Convictions and repeated escapes led him to Port Arthur, from which he escaped with George Jones and Lawrence Kavanagh in 1843.

A short, highly visible bushranging career

The group robbed inns and settler households before Cash entered Hobart and was captured. Later descriptions as “gentlemen bushrangers” softened the fear and coercion involved in armed robbery.

Port Arthur penitentiary ruins
Cash escaped from the Port Arthur penal landscape in 1843.Colin Chick, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A death sentence was commuted

Cash was convicted after a constable died during his capture. His death sentence was eventually commuted and he was sent to Norfolk Island, where his conduct and circumstances changed.

Map of Hobart Town near the period of Cash’s capture
Entering Hobart exposed Cash to close surveillance and capture.Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office Commons, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Memoir and record need to be separated

After returning to Tasmania, Cash worked and farmed near Glenorchy until his death in 1877. His published narrative was shaped with an editor and presents a coloured version of events, valuable but not neutral.

kunanyi / Mount Wellington above Hobart
Bushland around Hobart became part of later stories about hiding and pursuit.LKarl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Compare Cash with Matthew Brady, William Westwood and the broader convict-sites guide.