Harry Redford
| Captain Starlight | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Henry Arthur Readford December, 1841 Mudgee, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | March 12, 1901 (aged 59) Northern Territory, Australia |
| Cause of death | Drowning |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Jane Scuthorpe (m.1871) |
| Children | 1 |
Henry Arthur "Harry" Readford (sometimes spelt "Redford" in Queensland) (December 1841 – 12 March 1901), was an Australian bushranger.
Although Readford himself never used, and had never been associated with the moniker, Rolf Boldrewood indicated that the 'Captain Starlight' character, in his 1882–83 novel Robbery Under Arms, was a composite of several bushrangers of the era, including Readford. Readford's 1870 cattle drive was a major story arc in the book.
Henry Arthur Readford was born in December 1841 near Mudgee in the Cudgegong District of New South Wales to a respectable family. Little is known of his early life. He originally operated locally, but later moved to Queensland where there were more opportunities for rustling.
In 1870, Readford was working as a on Bowen Downs Station near Longreach in Queensland. Realising that remote parts of the property, which stretched some 228 km (142 mi) along the Thomson River, were seldom visited by station workers, he devised a plan to steal some of the station's cattle. With two associates, George Dewdney and William Rooke, he built stockyards in an outlying part of the property, and gradually assembled a mob of about 1,000 cattle, which he then took from the property, all without any of the station workers realizing what was going on.
Readford knew the cattle would be recognized from their brands as being stolen if he tried to sell them in Queensland, so he headed for South Australia through the Channel Country and the Strzelecki Desert. Only ten years earlier, explorers Burke and Wills had set out to cross the continent along the same track, and died in the attempt. As a droving exercise, it was a remarkable achievement, as anyone who has travelled the present-day Strzelecki Track will know. Three months and 1,287 km (800 mi) later he exchanged two cows and a white bull for rations at Artracoona Native Well near Wallelderdine Station. They then moved the remainder of the mob via Mt Hopeless, and sold them for £5,000 (2009:A$250,000) at Blanchewater Station, east of Marree.
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