The renewal of bushranging formed a very serious feature of the early years of this period, especially in New South Wales and in the districts of Queensland and Victoria which adjoin that colony. This outbreak was due partly to the remnant of the convict class which still remained, and partly also to an element of population drawn to the colonies by the gold discoveries. A large proportion of the men who came to the country at the time of the gold rush were of fine physical type and in the prime of manhood. The adventurous spirit that carried them over the seas did not desert them in their new homes, when, giving up the quest for gold, they tempted fortune in other directions, and many of the pastoralist farmers, merchants, and professional men whose careers were most successful, during the two decades following the gold discoveries, had commenced work in Australia as diggers. Besides these excellent colonists there were a large number of undesirables, persons who were already criminals when they left their Motherland, and others who inclined to crime as soon as they found themselves in the unsettled conditions then prevailing throughout Australia. It was from this class that the bushrangers and their numerous sympathizers were largely drawn.

The Land Act of 1861 was also not without its effect in making lawlessness more difficult to repress.