Returning to more familiar territory, near Windsor, Donohue linked up with others to continue his life of crime. In March 1829, he, along with John Walmsle, shot and killed a Mr Clements, a settler on the Hunter River. He later become one of the "Wild Colonial Boys". A loose bonded gang of twelve to fifteen men. Donohue's cunning and guile soon had him on equal standing as the leaders of this gang of Underwood and MacNamara. These two had the reputation for wily pluck, daring and desperation. The gang would operate in groups of three or four in order to bail up settlers and plunder property from Bathurst to Yass and from the Hunter region to the Illawarra.