Amazed to see this bit of little-known Australian and US History covered here in a comic. I have a book on this subject. This is only a brief (and one-sided) look at the story, there was much villainy going on at the time, and not only from the Australians. This story would make an excellent mini-series. It had everything.
From Wikipedia,
'The Sydney Ducks were criminals who operated as a gang, in a community that also included sailors, longshoremen, teamsters, wheelwrights, shipwrights, bartenders, saloon keepers, washerwomen, domestic servants, and dressmakers. The largest proportion (44%) were born in Ireland and migrated during the Great Irish Famine, first to Australia as laborers and then to California as part of the Gold Rush.[2][3]
The criminality of the Sydney Ducks was the catalyst for the formation of the first Committee of Vigilance of 1851. The vigilantes usurped political power from the corrupt or incompetent officials in the city, conducted secret trials, lynchings, and deportations, which effectively decimated the Sydney Ducks. The area where the Sydney Ducks clustered at the base of Telegraph Hill was originally known as "Sydney-Town," but by the 1860s was called exclusively by its better-known name, the Barbary Coast. '
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Ducks
Amazing find!
Link to the book:
Western Killers 61
