Hardcover In good conditionBushranging - living off the land and being supported by or stealing from free settlers - was either chosen as a preferred way of life by escaped convicts or was a result of the lack of supplies in the early settlements. Australia's bushranging period spanned nearly 100 years, from the first convict bushrangers active from 1790 to the 1860s, through the outlawed bushrangers of the 1860s and 1870s who were able to be shot on sight, to the shooting of the Kelly Gang in 1880.