Australia’s Love Affair with the Anti-Hero — Why We Can’t Resist Rule-Breakers, Rogues & Reluctant Legends

If there’s one thing Aussies love more than a Friday arvo beer, it’s a bloke who breaks the rules — but only the dumb ones. The type who knows the difference between right and wrong but chooses ‘whatever works’ instead.

From bushrangers with trust issues to modern-day fixers who solve problems with a boot to the ribs and a questionable alibi, Australia’s anti-heroes are our unofficial patron saints. And it’s not just because they’re good at dodging paperwork — it’s because, deep down, we never really trusted the shiny types who follow all the rules without asking who wrote them in the first place.

The Original Outlaws — Bushrangers, Convicts & Folk Heroes with an Attitude Problem

Let’s not forget — Australia didn’t start off as the land of the free. We’re a nation built by convicts, and those poor sods didn’t get shipped here because they were good at saying ‘yes sir.’

Take Ned Kelly — part outlaw, part folk hero, part bloke who thought building his own tin-can helmet was a solid tactical plan. Ned didn’t just stick it to the authorities — he did it with style, flair, and a complete disregard for personal safety.

He was the original blueprint for every Aussie anti-hero to follow — unshaven, unrepentant, and perfectly willing to die on a hill of his own making. You can dive into his less-than-polite legacy at The National Museum of Australia.

Fiction’s Finest Rule-Benders

Aussie crime fiction isn’t about gentlemen detectives solving murders over a cup of tea. It’s about blokes like Hal Challis (Garry Disher’s Peninsula cop), Scobie Malone (Jon Cleary’s Sydney detective), and Bony (Arthur Upfield’s half-Aboriginal sleuth), all of whom could spot a loophole from 50 paces and weren’t afraid to use it.

They knew the rules — they just never let them get in the way of results.

That’s the golden rule of Aussie anti-heroes — justice matters more than process, and if you have to bend the law into a pretzel to get there, so be it.

From TV Screens to Pub Banter — Modern-Day Anti-Hero Worship

It’s not just books where we worship the rough-around-the-edges types.

From the Underbelly gangland dramas (where half the cast were criminals and the other half were just criminals with uniforms)

to Mr. Inbetween (a hitman who somehow made contract killing look like a relatable side hustle), Aussies can’t get enough of heroes who make bad decisions for mostly good reasons.

You can catch some of these loveable rogues causing havoc over on ABC iView — just don’t get any ideas.

Real-Life Blokes Who Could’ve Been Written into the Mort Files

Some anti-heroes are too good for fiction — they belong to history books, police reports, and the kind of pub stories that start with “You’re not gonna believe this, but…”

Take Mark ‘Chopper’ Read, who spent half his life in prison and the other half becoming a walking, talking, heavily tattooed legend. Part comedian, part criminal, and part cautionary tale, Chopper turned violence into an art form and storytelling into a second career. Somehow, we still kinda liked him. You can read more about Australia’s favourite ear-slicer at Biography.com.

Then there’s Nancy Wake — proof that you don’t need testosterone to be an anti-hero. During WWII, this Aussie spy ran rings around the Nazis, smuggled secrets with a smile, and had the kind of guts that’d make a navy seal feel underdressed. She might not have carried a Glock like Mort, but she had a wicked sense of humour and zero time for authority figures telling her to stay put. Read her story at the Australian War Memorial.

Why We Keep Rooting for the Rogues

Maybe it’s the convict blood. Maybe it’s decades of being told we need to follow rules written by blokes who wouldn’t last five minutes in a proper pub argument. Either way, Aussies have a deep, abiding love for the character who breaks the rules — and somehow still ends up on the right side of history.

It’s not about liking bad guys. It’s about knowing the system’s crooked enough that sometimes you need someone a little bent to fix it.

Mort — The Anti-Hero Australia Deserves

Mort’s no angel — but that’s exactly why he’s the bloke you want when things get ugly. He doesn’t pretend to be the good guy, and he doesn’t care if you call him the bad guy — so long as the right people get what’s coming to them.

If you’ve got a soft spot for the kind of justice they don’t teach in police academies, the Mortice series is your next addiction.

👉 Grab your free chapter here — just don’t expect a happy ending tied up in a neat little bow. Mort’s world doesn’t work like that - but we get the feeling that’s what you’ll love about the series ;)