The band was brought together by lead singer Frankie McLaughlin and bassist Johnny McKelvey, who expanded the lineup to a quintet with the addition of guitarist Gabriel Whitbourne, drummer Anthony Matters, and Adam Kenny on banjo, mandolin, and bouzouki. Within a year, the hard-working band had released its debut EP, 2009's Hung, Drawn & Portered, and a second EP, Sound as a Pound, arrived before the year was out. In 2010, the Rumjacks dropped their first album, Gangs of New Holland, and watched their fame skyrocket as the video for one of the tracks, "An Irish Pub Song," want viral, eventually racking up over 20 million views online. The Rumjacks began touring heavily in the wake of the single's success, in their native Australia as well as Europe.

In 2012, the group was forced to go on hiatus when Frankie McLaughlin earned a 16-month jail sentence for two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one count of common assault against a former partner. (In a statement released by the band, McLaughlin said, "I fully acknowledge and apologise for my wrongdoing and I regret the long lasting damage to my former partner caused by my actions...I have changed my life for the better since my jail term through focus and hard work and it is my intention to draw awareness to the issue of domestic violence in the future and to actively support efforts to eradicate it from our society.")

Once McLaughlin was freed, the Rumjacks wasted no time getting back to business. They resumed their busy touring schedule, headlining clubs and theaters and sharing stages with the likes of the Dropkick Murphys, Gogol Bordello, the Aggrolites, and the U.K. Subs, and in February 2015, the band released its second album, Sober & Godless. The Rumjacks' unrelenting schedule continued as they released their third full-length, Sleepin' Rough, which was released in August 2016 by Four/Four, a new alternative imprint of Australian Broadcasting Corporation Records. ~ Mark Deming