Captain Moonlite’s Grave

Where: North Gundagai Cemetery

Andrew George Scott, bushranger, self-styled 'Captain Moonlite', was born at Rathfriland, County Down, Ireland. Scott was described as 'dark, handsome, active and full of high spirits', but was known for impulsive acts of mischievous violence.

Andrew George Scott – the man behind the Moonlite moniker – met James Nesbitt in Pentridge Prison, Coburg, between 1875 and 1877. The two reunited on the outside in 1879, and Nesbitt followed Scott on his ill-fated trek into New South Wales where, with four other companions, they “stuck up” Wantabadgery Station.

In an ensuing confrontation with police, Nesbitt, August Wernicke (the youngest of Scott’s companions) and Constable Edward Mostyn Webb Bowen were all mortally wounded. Nesbitt and Wernicke were buried in unmarked graves in North Gundagai Cemetery.

Scott and another of his companions, Thomas Rogan, were hanged for Bowen’s murder on January 20 1880. In the weeks leading up to this, as he awaited “the last dread sentence of the law” in a condemned cell in Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney, Scott wrote numerous documents, including letters intended for friends, acquaintances, clergymen and Nesbitt’s parents. In these, he recorded he loved Nesbitt and wished to “fill the same grave” as him so they might be together forever.

Many of Scott’s letters were not sent and the wish they contained was not initially acted upon.

His remains were relocated to a cemetery at Gundagai, in 1995 to fulfil his dying wish of being buried with Nesbitt, who is in a nearby unmarked grave.

Additional information can be found housed in the Infirmary building at the Old Gundagai Gaol. Please visit the Gundagai Visitor Information Centre to find out more about the self-guided tours at the Gaol.