John Tennant

Who is John Tennant?

John Tennant was an Australian bushranger who was active around the Canberra district in the 1820s. Mount Tennent is named after him as it was on the slopes of this steep mountain behind the village of Tharwa where he would hide.

Tennant was born in Belfast, Ireland, and was 29 years old when he was sentenced to transportation to Australia for life in 1823. He arrived in Sydney on 12 July 1824 on the 'Prince Regent'. He was assigned to Joshua John Moore and sent with two other men, James Clarke and John McLaughlin, to establish Moore's property Canberry or Canberra, the first European habitation on the Limestone Plains.

In 1826 Tennant and another man, John Ricks, absconded from their assigned landholder and took to the bush. At about noon on November 21 or 22 1826, he and John Ricks robbed the camp of James Ainslie, the overseer at Duntroon. He stole nine vests of various colours, foreign and local currency, two silk handkerchiefs, 150 lbs of flour and 29 lbs of Brazilian tobacco. He then hid out on Mount Tennant, then called Mount Currie, and took to the bush.