This is the story of the wild colonial boys — the bushrangers who terrorised the highways and back roads of regional Australia for a century from 1788.

This diverse group of criminals varied from 'gentlemen' to outright psychopaths, from hold-up merchants to murderers. The book relates how their very diverse circumstances drove them into lives of crime and celebrity status among the colonial population.

Bushrangers were a handful of fugitives, living on their wits, who came to epitomise the Australian spirit of rebellion.