Jack Cook View the Map

Jack Cook was born at Gloucester in Worimi country in about 1838 and grew up to be a talented stockman.  As a young man, he handled horses for Thunderbolt the bushranger.  He was later employed as a tracker, but did not actively pursue Thunderbolt whose partner was an Aboriginal woman named Mary Ann Bugg who also came from the Gloucester district.  [ref]Interview with Robert Syron, 15 October 2014; Gloucester Advocate 18 August 1925: 2.[/ref]

Jack was also peripherally involved in the search for Jimmy and Joe Governor after they murdered members of the Mawbey family at Breelong (near Gilgandra) in July 1900.  As the brothers approached the Gloucester district for the second time in late October 1900, Cook was called in by a settler to investigate a supposed sighting near Craven Creek.  Cook followed the tracks of two bare-footed men heading in a westerly direction towards Little Manning but lost them in the scrub.  Although both brothers were in the area, the sighting was spurious and the police did not investigate further. [ref]Scone Advocate 26 October 1900: 2.[/ref]