[1] After arriving at Moreton Bay on 19 January 1855, John Macpherson found work as a farm labourer,[1] while James began school at Ipswich,[2] where he displayed a skill for languages, becoming fluent in French and German.

[3][6] Macpherson is said to have committed highway robberies on his way to find the gang,[1] and to have combined his father's given and mother's maiden name to create the alias John Bruce.

[9] On 17 August 1864, Macpherson was almost apprehended by Sir Frederick Pottinger, a New South Wales Police officer, who had earlier pursued Ben Hall and Frank Gardiner, with mixed success.

[8] He was described as 'about five feet nine inches in height, has light hair, blue eyes, florid compaction, and altogether not a forbidding sort of a look about him' with a mark on his arm where Pottinger had wounded him.

[1] Macpherson was still wanted over the Willis public house robbery and was to be returned aboard a coastal steamer,[3] but managed to escape from the custody of the police constable who was escorting him.

[2] The second time he sent £1700 worth of cheques and money orders to the Governor of Queensland Sir George Bowen with a note explaining that he had no need for them.

[13] Macpherson was found guilty and given two twenty-five-year sentences, to be served concurrently,[13] at St Helena Island, Moreton Bay.

[14] Macpherson entered St Helena on 14 September 1866,[1] and, on 11 April 1870, while attempting to escape from the island, was shot in the wrist and apprehended with six others who had freed themselves from the stockade and were hiding in the scrub.