When people think of Australian bushrangers, Jessie Hickman may not be the first name that comes to mind. But the fascinating tale of 'the lady bushranger' may soon be on your TV or cinema screen.

More than 20 years ago, author Pat Studdy-Clift became enthralled in the story of Elizabeth Jessie Hickman, a woman known as 'the lady bushranger'. Now, her historical novel is set to be turned into a film. (ABC : Margaret Burin)

A mugshot of Jessie Hickman, nee Hunt, who also went by the names Martini, McIntyre, Devine and Kemp. (Supplied)

She had more than five aliases.

She had been in prison twice before.

So when Elizabeth Jessie Hickman allegedly struck her drunk and abusive husband 'Fitzy' over the head and killed him, she felt she had no choice but to run deeper down the path of crime.

Her story is the subject of a historical novel written almost 20 years ago by Pat Studdy-Clift.

The 88-year-old who now lives in Lismore on the New South Wales north coast spent four years researching the story.

It was an early 1900s tale that - along with the ancient Wollemi pine - lay hidden in the valleys of the Blue Mountains.

"After she had moved up to Nullo Mountain, she told her neighbour there, that the reason for coming to the mountain was that she had to kill her husband in self-defence," Ms Studdy-Clift said.

"This is a time when only the rich could afford morals, the poor were left with sin to survive."

Her earlier trials in Parramatta and Mudgee courts were for petty crimes by today's standards.

She had been dealt jail time for the theft of things like chooks, clothing, cattle and a horse.

Upon her release she is believed to have begun working as a housemaid for a man called Fitzgerald Henry, who is believed to have become her husband.

There is no death certificate for Fitzy.

Ms Studdy-Clift believes that Jessie Hickman buried the body so that it was never found and then spent years on the run hiding out in remote caves and canyons.

"It's that type of country you could disappear into," Ms Studdy-Clift said.

"It's so inaccessible and wild; real bushranger country."

Her early years growing up in a travelling circus had provided her with handy horsemanship and survival skills.

It was also while in the troupe that she would travel into the bush with an Indigenous performer who had shown her Aboriginal trails pivotal in her escape.

While in the remote wilderness, Hickman again found herself a focus of the authorities when she joined a team with notorious cattle duffer, Andy Black, before forming a duffing gang of her own.

"The police...set a trap for Jessie of about six stock that were clearly identifiable," she said.

"But she was able to make an escape from them, it was infuriating for them."

After numerous escape-artist escapades, one of which resulted in Hickman stabbing the foot of a policeman with a pitch-fork, the lady bushranger was finally captured in the late 1920s.

Even then, Hickman's friends helped plan the ultimate getaway.

Legend has it that on the day that she was to face court, the cattle that were to serve as evidence mysteriously went missing under the watch of an Aboriginal police tracker who Hickman had been on friendly terms with.

"At one stage he had had a bad fall on his horse, and Jessie had rescued him," Ms Studdy-Clift said.

When the trial came there was no case and Hickman was released.

The story compiled by Pat Studdy-Clift in The Lady Bushranger: The life of Jessie Hickman has been under film option by various producers since it was released.

From her small retirement village unit in Goonellebah, she has recently met with WA-based producer of Jag Films, Jennifer Gherardi, who has the rights to turn the story into a drama.

"It's a bit of a one off for Australia - we don't have another female bushranger story like this," she said.

Ms Gherardi says she is in the process of courting larger production companies to help turn it into a feature film or teleseries.

Film industry analysts have urged her to form a deal with a company able to pull off a medium to high-budget production.

The producer says the narrative couldn't be any better if someone made it up.

"This story is such a fantastic story in terms of its dramatic arc," she said.

"The fact that she was apprentice to the circus which gave her the perfect training to be a bushranger but then also be able to dress up in finery and go into town in disguise and sell off cattle... the fact that she finished up living with a violent man, then you're looking at a woman who is just about survival and ended up in cattle duffing, that the police set up a special taskforce just to get her and she escaped several times.

"And then there is the big hoorah in this story - she got her freedom. "

So why hasn't Jessie Hickman been famous (or infamous) like the Ned Kellys and Captain Thunderbolts of Australian history?

Ms Gherardi says it appears many people of that region have not wanted the story to get out.

"It's only one generation back where they were the children of people connected to her; they were wanting to leave their poverty behind and their reputations of being on the wrong side of the law. The people who were wealthy thought it would be making a hero of her," she said.

"I just couldn't believe that this story hadn't been told in a movie before, it was so exceptional."

As the production process is still in its early stages, Pat Studdy-Clift is aware that she may not be around to see the finished product.

"That doesn't worry me, I'm just glad I've started it all."