Gold and Myth in the Australian Blue Mountains

At the end of a glorious day hanging out at galleries, antique shops and the pub with friend and historian Matt Allen we walked to the station at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, Australia (where I live) for Matt to get the train back to the city. We were confronted with this glorious mural representing a bushranger named Govett, leaping off the cliff with gun in hand and bags of gold strapped to his horse. How gleeful is he? Ecstatic with ‘you’ll never catch me alive’ liberation – short-lived though (what with gravity and the considerable depth of the valley) his life or liberty from here on must surely be. Also RIP horsey. Image: mural of Govett’s Leap at Blackheath railway station. That is not a period weapon, said Matt, ever expert on colonial Australia. And I dunno, I answered. If I were carrying bags of gold I don’t reckon I’d label them with GOLD in big black letters. Here is a statue of the bushranger Govett, also in Blackheath, where he appears to be in the act of leaping.…