ROCKY'S HIDEOUT
Nicknamed for his facial crags and pockmarks, the notorious bushranger “Rocky” Whelan had several cave hide-outs and lookouts. One was on the mountain, below the Springs.
Wheelan was transported to Hobart in 1845 and assigned to a public works gang. He quickly escaped to the mountain’s bushlands, but was captured and sent to Port Arthur. He escaped from there too and evaded the dogs and soldiers at Eaglehawk Neck and at the Denison Canal. He took to living in a cave on kunanyi, and bush ranging, targeting isolated homesteads for plunder. He also ambushed, robbed and murdered people travelling alone through forests. Whelan was captured outside a Hobart bootmaker’s shop ten years later, in 1855. He confessed to the murders of five men, was sentenced to death, and hanged at Hobart Gaol.
His beautiful sandstone cave is a popular destination.
On the N.E. end of Mt Hull not far below the summit is a another cave reputed to have been used by the bushranger Martin Cash.