Thursday, May 19, 2016

EPIC BUSHRANGER PROJECT

Internationally  known  Sydney electropop  musician, singer , songwriter , music-mixer  and  producer , Paul McDermott ,  who performs under the name Paul Mac , is  considering  making  a  theatrical  production  of  the extraordinary life of  bushranger " Captain Moonlite" , Andrew George Scott ,  below ,  as  either  a contemporary opera or a narrative  musical.
Magnetic Island  muso , filmmaker and history buff , Gary Hunn has been discussing   with  McDermott   details  of  the Irish  born   bushranger's  life   and is    planning  a  trip  to  Sydney to carry out further  research  in  the Mitchell Library.

As pointed  out earlier in  this blog , Hunn  has been following in the footsteps of  bushrangers  with  his   film crew  to  show  Australia  how  these  individuals and  the  conditions of  early settlement  here  and  the  oppressive regimes  overseas   shaped   our   nation . 
 
He   is currently  studying  the fascinating  death cell letters of  Captain Moonlite   who  was  hanged  in   Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney, in  1880. A document   being scrutinised  line  by  line  by  Gary  was written when Scott , a former   preacher  who  had  fought in the Maori Wars  , was  "within   thirteen  hours  of  death  and  fifty  feet  of  the  gallows. "

UPCOMING : A detailed account of  the  bushranger's  incredible  life,  including  a  claim  that Ned  Kelly  threatened to shoot  him  and  a  married  woman   who  did  not want known  her  association  with   Scott  the  night of  a  bizarre   Victorian  bank robbery   for  which  he strongly  asserted  right  up  to  his   death   he  had   been  framed.