Around the year 1826, a boy named Joseph Bolitho Johns was born in Cornwall, England, the third of a blacksmith’s six children. After his father had died, Joseph went to Wales to earn a living as a miner.

For unknown reasons, in 1848 he and a friend stole three loaves of bread, some ham, cheese and a few other things. The two were then sentenced to ten years of penal servitude – a combination of prison and hard labor. 

While serving his sentence he was shipped to Western Australia, where he arrived on 30 April 1853 and was released two years later for good conduct.

So he went to live in Avon Valley – a region called Moondyne by the Aborigines. There, he built a new life for himself and earned money by catching runaway animals and collecting the reward.