“Yellow Billy” (William White), bushranger from Yango

“Yellow Billy” (William White), bushranger from Yango, commences his career in the Wollombi area. He presumably attained his name due to his mixed descent. “Half-caste” “Yellow Billy” is caught and sentenced to two years gaol for stealing a horse from the Wollombi lockup and forcibly opening the Court House and robbing it of cash. After his release, he commits numerous robberies in the district from Singleton, to Putty and Cessnock where he bails up the Wollombi mail. A first-rate horseman from Howe’s Valley and sporting of a carbine, petty criminal “Yellow Billy” gives the police much trouble to capture. Worn down by fatige from years on the run and after causing police much embarrassment, “Yellow Billy” is captured in 1867. At around twenty-five years of age, “Billy” is sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. (Maitland Mercury articles spanning 1863-1867, courtesy of Carl Hoipo, Wollombi Historical Society).