Captain Moonlite (left) and James Nesbitt, with Moonlite’s headstone at North Gundagai Cemetery, where the two men are buried just metres apart. Image: Edwina Mason.
There’s a place for James Nesbitt at North Gundagai Cemetery — marked on maps and in council records as General Section OS 2627.
But on the ground, there’s nothing to see. Without the record, you’d walk straight over it.
That absence is what Adam Warren is trying to change.
While researching his family history, the Melbourne man discovered he was related to Nesbitt — one of several young men who joined Andrew George Scott, known as “Captain Moonlite”, in the final years of bushranging in colonial NSW.
“I had known about Captain Moonlite since primary school,” Mr Warren said. “Years later, while researching my family history, I discovered that James Nesbitt was actually part of my own family.”
The connection runs through his great-great-grandmother, Nesbitt’s sister Ann.
Nesbitt’s life was short and unsettled. Born in 1858, he had spent time in prison for petty theft offences before he was out of his teens.
It was at Pentridge Prison in Victoria in 1878 that he met Captain Moonlite.
By the following year, Nesbitt was part of Moonlite’s small group moving through southern NSW when, in November 1879, Wantabadgery Station, west of Gundagai, became the scene of one of the last major bushranger sieges in the colony.
In search of provisions and shelter, the gang took hostages at Wantabadgery homestead before police closed in, and over two tense days the confrontation escalated into gunfire.
The skirmish resulted in the deaths of two bushrangers — one of them Nesbitt, then aged 21 — and one police officer.
In the days that followed, letters written by Moonlite, later uncovered in the NSW State Archives in 2004, revealed the depth of the connection between the two men.
In one, addressed to Nesbitt’s mother, he enclosed a lock of his hair as a keepsake — a letter that was never delivered.
Accounts from the time, along with more recent research and literature, including the historical biography Moonlite by Gary Linnell, point to a close personal bond between them.
For Mr Warren, those details have shifted the story from distant history to something more personal.
“From what is known, James had a very hard upbringing and spent much of his youth in trouble and in prison,” he said. “Learning about his life, and how he and Andrew George Scott first met while imprisoned at Pentridge, has made his story feel very personal as a member of his family.
“Reading Moonlite’s letters and knowing how deeply James was loved, I feel very sad that his mother never received the lock of his hair that was meant for her.”
Following his death, Nesbitt was buried at North Gundagai Cemetery in 1879 near fellow gang member August Wernicke. Both graves were unmarked.
On the other hand, Moonlite was captured at the end of the Wantabadgery siege in November 1879, tried in Sydney the following month and executed in January 1880.
Originally buried in Sydney’s Rookwood Cemetery, his remains were exhumed in 1995 and reinterred at North Gundagai Cemetery beside James Nesbitt, fulfilling his death cell request.
According to a heritage report prepared for Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council (CGRC), the two graves are formally linked within a single heritage listing — highlighting not just crime and violence, but a rare example of a same-sex relationship openly acknowledged in the 19th century.
The Heritage NSW listing also defines an irregular area connecting the two sites: a broad circle of about 15 metres around Captain Moonlite’s grave, including a eucalyptus tree and its canopy, narrowing into a triangular corridor as it approaches Nesbitt’s grave.
The stated purpose is to maintain a visual connection between the two men.
On the ground, it reads differently. One grave is clearly marked and easy to find. The other is impossible to pick out.
That contrast now sits at the centre of Mr Warren’s efforts.
After contacting CGRC, Mr Warren learned any permanent marker must be approved through Heritage NSW, with the site also classified as an area of historical archaeology, requiring careful assessment before any work can proceed.
Even the marker itself must meet strict conditions — it must be modest, historically appropriate and installed without disturbing human remains.
“It’s about doing it properly,” Mr Warren said.
He’s now working with CGRC and Heritage NSW to develop a suitable headstone, while also seeking potential support through the council’s Local Government Heritage Grants program, with his inquiry currently under consideration.
At the same time, a public fundraiser has been steadily gaining support, raising about $1800 so far towards an estimated $7000 to $8000 needed to cover the headstone, installation and approvals.
“There has been strong interest from the community and beyond,” Mr Warren said.
More recently, it has also drawn attention from the film industry, which he says has been an unexpected but positive development.
“Overall, it’s been very encouraging to see the level of engagement and support the project has received so far,” he said.
For Mr Warren, the aim is simple.
“I just want to make sure his grave is properly identified after all this time,” he said. “It feels important that someone who is remembered in history is also recognised where he is actually buried.”
Original Article published by Edwina Mason on About Regional.
