John Whelan was an Irish-born bushranger and serial killer operating in the Huon Valley in 1855 in Van Diemen's Land (now the Australian state of Tasmania).
He was a tall man for his times, standing at 6’1” (185 cm) and of heavy build, and was nicknamed Rocky for the crags and deep pock marks of his face.
[1] He escaped from the custody of the Crown and took to highway robbery for which he was arrested and tried in Sydney, then transported to Norfolk Island, where he was involved in the unsuccessful taking of the brig “Governor Phillip.”[2] For these crimes Rocky spent a total of eighteen years on Norfolk Island after which, in 1854 the penal colony closed and all the convicts were relocated to Port Arthur.
Like all bushrangers in Tasmania, they targeted the many isolated homesteads for plunder; but they also roamed the forests ambushing lone travelers, robbing them.
[3] Whelan was hanged at the Hobart gaol with three other condemned men (including Connolly) on the infamous six-man scaffold.