Birdman Of The Coorong

There's nothing Golden Guitar winning Australiana singer/songwriter Matt Scullion loves more than when he stumbles across a story like this one. According to legend, South Australia only ever had one bushranger, and unlike the infamous Ned Kelly or Ben Hall, he rode an ostrich instead of a horse. The year was 1898, and John Francis Peggotty, a small, fiery Irishman, riding high on an ostrich, brandishing two pistols, terrorised The Coorong, 150 km south-east of Adelaide. ‘The Birdman Of The Coorong” as he became known, was too quick for the law as he robbed travellers and outran local troopers time and time again, escaping into the saltbush sand dunes.