While I was researching the history of the area where my family lived I came across The Recollections of a Victorian Police Officer. The story he told, about the events of 1853 were amazing. It was John Sadleir's recollections that started my search to find out more.
In the process of research I started to realise that much of John's writing was full of clues that at first look were easy to dismiss, but his little clues like 'many a slip between the cup and the lip' were significant.
In creating the story 'The Silent Moon' I became increasingly aware that the research was taking me to places that no one had been before.
Many experts in the field will be surprised at the conclusions that I draw and it is for this reason that I have developed this site so that those that doubt the story can see the evidence for themselves.
This website is dedicated to the story behind the story.
The Silent Moon
The Research Story
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), Thursday 2 June 1842, page 3. National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2556641
Capture of Bushrangers.
About ten o'clock, on the night of the 30th ultimo, Sergt. Michael Doyle, and two troopers of the Mounted Police, fell in with a party of five armed bushrangers, at the loot of Razorback and succeeded in apprehending them. The bushrangers are the same parties who escaped from the constables on the 25th ultimo, on the road between Berrima and Campbelltown.
The police found in their possession the carbines which they took from the constables at the time of escape. They are now safely lodged in the gaol at Campbelltown. Their
names are-Francis McÑamara, per Elisa; John Jones, per Lady Macnaughton ; Edward Allen, per Asia ; William Thomson, per do ;William Eastwood, per Patriot.
The bravery and indefatigable zeal which Sergeant Doyle has at all times evinced in his pursuit of, and encounters with, bushrangers, strongly entitle him, not only to pecuniary remuneration from Government, but, in our opinion, to the consideration of his Commanding Officer, Major Nunn. Doyle has, for a number of years, been the terror of the Southern bushrangers, and perhaps there is not another in the colony, who is better acquainted with the fastness to which, on being hotly pursued, these villains retire. He has scarcely ever been foiled in his pursuit of the bushrangers on his skirmishes with them, and his scent is said to be most unerring. We are astonished that the settlers of the southern counties do not confer some public mark of their approbation upon Doyle, whose perseverance and activity cannot but be well known to
them.
The Silent Moon website does not include all the evidence that was used in the writing of the story. Below is one of the examples used to create the story.