After his escape from trooper Hosie on the Fish River Gardiner reappeared in the neighbourhood of Burrangong, and engaged with Piesley and others in the congenial employment of "sticking-up" travellers and settlers.
After Piesley had returned to the Abercrombie, Gardiner appears to have sought and found other and less restless followers in the Burrangong district, which became a hot-bed of bushranging. The following letter, written by Mr. Robert S. Stevens, of Marengo, and countersigned by fifteen other residents in the district, will show the state of the country about this time:– "I am the national school teacher of Marengo. My wife and family are in a distant part of the colony. I require the professional services of my wife, yet I am afraid to send for her because the schoolhouse is in an isolated position, and we have no police protection. This neighbourhood is infested with disreputable characters—from the petty larceny vagabond up to the ruffianly bushranger. Within the last three months no less than twenty robberies have been committed. About seven weeks ago the Plough Inn and Mr. Hancock's stables were broken into, and four saddles stolen; directly afterwards Mr. Kelly's house was entered by four armed bushrangers, the family tied back to back, and the place plundered. The primary cause of the death of our respected townsman, Mr. Thomas Robinson, was a burglary in his stable. About a month since, Mr. M. Scanlan was stuck up, fired upon, and escaped only through the fleetness of his horse; fourteen days ago the store of the relict of the late Thomas Robinson was burglariously entered and plundered of property to the value of seventy pounds sterling. Strong suspicions were entertained of two parties, but having no police protection within seventeen miles, the spoil was disposed of before we could obtain their assistance. Last Sunday night a burglary was perpetrated in Mr. Fowler's hotel, and all the inmates robbed and ill-treated. In every one of these cases the guilty parties have never been detected."
It soon became evident that Gardiner and his associates were operating in "flying squads", each squad making a certain part of the district its centre of operations for a short time and then suddenly appearing in another part. It was only occasionally that the full body came together, but when they did the report of some bold and dashing raid was sure to follow.
One of the most daring robberies in which Gardiner was personally engaged was on the road near Big Wombat, in the district of Young, when he stuck up Mr. Alfred Horsington and robbed him of 253 ounces of gold and £145 in money. Horsington was a digger and a storekeeper at Lambing Flat, and was proceeding from Little Wombat to the Flat in a spring cart on 10th March, 1862, his wife and a boy named De Burgh being in the vehicle with him and a Mr. Hewitt, another Flat storekeeper, riding on horseback behind. The boy was driving, as Horsington was suffering from a broken leg. They had not proceeded very far on the road—it was not yet half-past lo in the morning—when Gardiner and three other bushrangers, Gilbert, O'Meally, and McGuinness, rode up, presented their revolvers, and ordered the party to "bail up." At the same time a shot was fired by one of the men, and Mrs. Horsington declared that she heard the bullet whistle past her head. Horsington had known Gardiner when he was keeping the butcher's shop with Fogg at Spring Creek, and as none of the bushrangers were disguised in any way he had no difficulty in recognising them; in fact, he said he knew who they were before they came within fifty yards of the cart, but there was no possibility of escape. Gardiner caught the reins of Hewitt's horse, while his companions surrounded the vehicle, and at a word of command from the leader a start was made into the bush, one of the men riding in front and one on each side of the cart, while Gardiner conducted Hewitt. About half a mile away, at a convenient spot in the bush, a halt was called and the captives were told to dismount. While the three men kept their victims covered with revolvers, Gardiner personally did the searching, and very little time elapsed before the gold and notes—representing in all nearly £1000—were transferred from the owner's pocket into his. Gardiner then proceeded to search Mrs. Horsington, excusing his ungallant work on the ground that ladies were sometimes fond of planting money. Mrs. Horsington, however, had only a £1 note. "You may want that," said Gardiner, "and you can keep it." "Thank you for nothing", said the lady, who knew what he had got from her husband.
From Hewitt also Gardiner took some notes and gold, which were in a valise on his saddle. One of the other bushrangers subsequently took the saddle, valise and riding whip, and the horse was only left because it was badly bred. Horsington's horse was also left to him, because of his broken leg; but they made the boy take it out of the shafts and unharness it; to prevent speedy pursuit. "I hope you'll have another load for me next time you come along", said Gardiner, and the bushrangers rode off with their booty.
When the police at Lambing Flat heard of this exploit they at once set out to scour the country, but, as usual, their search for the robbers was futile. It was one of the most successful raids that had yet been made, and it was generally believed that instead of satisfying the robbers the large haul which they had made would have the effect of sharpening their appetites. Those who had gold dust or money in any quantity became naturally very much alarmed. And that belief was confirmed and that alarm was intensified by an exploit which made the colony ring with its record from one end to the other—an exploit which cast into the shade even the road outrages of the most notorious banditti of the olden time.
To say the town of Forbes—then in the height of its popularity as the chief centre of the Lachlan goldfields—was thrown into a state of the greatest consternation, when on the night of Sunday, June 15th, 1862, a mounted messenger brought the news that the gold escort had been "stuck-up" and robbed by bushrangers on the road near Eugowra, conveys but a feeble idea of the effect created by the startling intelligence. The news was first taken to the police camp, but soon spread from one end of the diggings to the other; and before many hours had elapsed the thousands of gold-seekers and those who lived by them and on them were engaged in the discussion of one absorbing topic, each being anxious to learn if his neighbour knew more than himself, and each speculating in his own way whether the police would manage even to find out who the bushrangers were and where they had gone to.
The gold escort was instituted shortly after the discovery of gold. The necessity for making special provision to convey the precious metal safely from the goldfields to Sydney was apparent to the authorities even before any pronounced case of bushranging had taken place. The individual digger very rarely kept the treasure which he had succeeded in winning from his "claim", whether that treasure could be weighed in ounces or in pounds or in hundredweights; almost invariably he sold it, either to peripatetic buyers who made it their profitable business to give coin or notes for gold dust and nuggets, or to the banks, who purchased, also with an eye to profit, in order to forward the precious metal to headquarters in Sydney. The banks also undertook to transmit gold for depositors, whether diggers or buyers. The gold thus accumulated was, of course, not sent by ordinary conveyance along the road at irregular and uncertain intervals; packed in strong boxes and safely sealed, it was handed over to a properly constituted escort of police, who placed it in the mail coach and guarded it all the way from the diggings to the metropolis. The escort travelled on fixed days, generally once a week.
On the morning of the 15th June, the four-horse covered mail coach was drawn up at the police camp at Forbes, and four iron boxes containing gold and bank notes amounting to about £14,000 in value, were safely placed therein.
Sergeant Condell was ordered to take charge of the escort on this occasion, the large quantity of gold that was being obtained rendering a weekly escort necessary. Everything having been set in order the coach started, driven by John Fagan, one of the best-known drivers on the western line, who is now, by-the-way, a wealthy squatter in the Carcoar district, where most of his life has been spent. Besides the driver and Sergeant Condell there were on the escort Senior-constable Moran, Constable Haviland, and another constable—five in all.
The treasure on board was made up as follows: For the Oriental Bank, £700 in cash and 2067 oz. 18 dwts. gold; for the Bank of New South Wales, 521 oz. 13 dwts. 6 grs. of gold; for the Commercial Bank, £3000 in cash and 129 oz. 18 dwts. gold; altogether 2719 oz. 9 dwts. 6 grs. gold and £3700 cash. In addition to this treasure there was a very heavy mail, containing many registered letters. This was a small escort, large though the amount of treasure may appear. The gold sent down by the previous week's escort from the Lachlan goldfields amounted in value to £34,000. And the fact that the attack was made when a comparatively small amount was "on board" seemed to indicate that the robbers had nothing like an organised or well-designed plan, but rather acted without preparation. The police authorities found in this something upon which to build hopes of being able to run them down speedily, judging that those who had not carefully organised an attack would not be likely to lay any elaborate plans for eluding their pursuers.
The escort started from Forbes at about noon, with Sergeant Condell on the box beside the driver and the three constables in the coach. During the five hours consumed between Forbes and Toogong—27 or 28 miles—nothing occurred to warn the party of impending danger. But near Mr. Clements' station two or three bullock teams were drawn up in the roadway; as this was not altogether a strange sight, very little thought was given to it until the coach came quite close to the spot. It was then seen that there was only a small passage left between the obstructing teams and a huge mass of broken, perpendicular rocks which jutted overhead at this particular pass. Even now the escort never suspected a design to attack the coach, although the driver had to bring his horses to a walk to steer in safety between the drays and the rocks. While the horses were thus quietly walking and the constables no doubt enjoying a more comfortable chat, the jolting of the coach not interfering with smooth thought or conversation, suddenly there was an alarm, and all became confusion.
Six men, with blackened faces, each wearing a red serge shirt and red "comforter" on his head in the shape of a night-cap, showed themselves from behind a breastwork of rock. "Fire!" cried one, and a volley crashed into the coach and its occupants. The sergeant was wounded in the side by one bullet, another bullet was supposed to have gone through the driver's hat, and a third penetrated Constable Moran's groin.
Confusion and consternation reigned at once. The attack had been so unexpected and so forcible that the escort was completely unnerved, and could not handle their own firearms promptly. No sooner had the six men emptied their revolvers, then they fell back with military precision, and were replaced by other six, who fired and fell back in the same way. After the first fire there was no one on the box seat of the coach, for Fagan had jumped down and was holding the reins as the horses walked slowly on, while Condell also was on terra firma. He subsequently declared that the bullet knocked him off his seat.
The second volley roused the constables to action. Those inside the coach had a very narrow escape, their clothes being pierced in several places, though they themselves sustained only trifling flesh wounds. Moran and Haviland now discharged their carbines at the bushrangers, but their aim was not of the truest, and no damage was done; the firing frightened the horses, they bolted, and in an instant the coach had capsized, and driver and police had disappeared in the bush. At once the bushrangers ran forward with a cheer.
To seize the boxes containing the gold and to cut open the most promising-looking of the mail bags was the work of a few moments; and while the late escort was making its way towards Clements' station, the bushrangers were preparing to decamp with their treasure loaded on the two leading coach horses.
Mr. Clements was in his paddock when the attack was made, and on hearing the firing he immediately galloped over. Meeting Fagan he learned what had taken place, and while the coach-driver sought shelter at the house, Clements went forward, expecting to come across the dead bodies of the constables, who had, so Fagan said, all been killed. He shortly afterwards met Sergeant Condell limping towards the place, and he said he thought the others had been killed; but just then they saw Moran and Haviland at the top of the paddock. Mr. Clements at once rode forward and brought them down; and, the party having been housed, he started immediately for Forbes to carry intelligence of the affair to Sir Frederick Pottinger, the head of police at the diggings, riding at the rate of about ten miles an hour through the dark and on a very bad road.
Meanwhile the bushrangers had made good use of their opportunities, and were pushing their way with all speed over rough country towards the spot they had selected for a camp—about three miles distant and on the opposite side of a lofty ridge.
The bullock-drivers, whose teams had been used by the bushrangers to block the road, had been kept there in waiting for two hours before the coach reached the spot, and after having been treated to some grog had been compelled to lie on their faces some distance off and preserve absolute silence. They were graciously told that they could resume their journey after the police had been put to flight and the gold secured.
As soon as the news reached Forbes, Sir F. Pottinger gathered all his available force and prepared to search for the bushrangers. At 2 o'clock on Monday morning he reached Mr. Clements' station, with eleven troopers, two black trackers, and several civilian volunteers. The blacks picked up the tracks without delay, and shortly after daylight reached the spot where the bushrangers had camped. The embers of their fire were still burning, and the fag-ends of their red shirts and comforters were found therein, the articles having been destroyed to prevent their being used in evidence against the wearers. The men themselves, of course, were gone long before, and the tracks made by their horses indicated that they were making for the Weddin Mountains.
The mailbags were found empty, but, strange to say, many of the registered letters remained untouched.
The broken boxes, bags, letters and newspapers scattered about were gathered up and brought back to Clements' station; two of the horses and the coach were recovered, the broken escort and the empty shells were again sent on their journey, arriving in Orange about 7 o'clock on Monday evening. News of the attack had reached Orange some hours before—and the excitement was intensified by a tragedy that occurred immediately after the escort's arrival, the victim being one of the constables.
Having delivered the mailbags to the Orange Postmaster, by command of his superior officer. Constable Haviland re-entered the coach with the others and proceeded in the direction of Dalton's inn, where the escort usually put up. Sergeant Condell was seated on the box, and Moran and Haviland, with a male and female passenger who had come down from Clements', occupied places in the coach. About half way between the Post Office and Dalton's the report of a revolver was heard, and his fellow travellers saw that Haviland had been shot.
"My God!" said the woman passenger, "the man is shot!" and stretching her hand across felt the blood pouring out from the unfortunate man's chest. Her companion caught him by the coat and held him up till the coach stopped at the hotel door, when he was lifted out dead. It seems that he had put a loaded and capped revolver under the seat he was sitting on, and was picking it up in readiness to leave the coach at Dalton's when, by some mischance, it went off and shot him through the throat and spine.
Some have thought that he took his life voluntarily, through disappointment and the fear of being laughed at by his companions, for having no wound to show from the attack; but those who knew him were vigorous in their efforts to repel the insinuation of suicide, and there can be very little doubt that the sad event was a pure accident.
Within a few days every newspaper in the colony had published an account of the daring exploit of Gardiner and his gang; for the public took it for granted that Gardiner was the leader, while the authorities made no secret of the fact that they were in possession of proof indisputable that the ex-butcher of Lambing Flat was the man who gave the order to the other bushrangers to fire. Sergeant Condell, in his official report, dated June 23rd, said "The bushrangers were commanded by one man, who gave them orders to fire and load. I believe it to have been the voice of Gardiner, as I know his voice well. I cannot identify any of them with the exception of the voice I heard." Who the companions of Gardiner were was a mystery, even to the police, nor were they at all sure how many had attacked the coach—one report giving thirteen, another twelve, another ten, and others down to four.
Captain Brown and Mr. Gold-Commissioner Grenfell were to have left Forbes with the escort, but owing to special instructions from Inspector-General McLerie, they started in advance and were some miles further on the road towards Orange when the attack was made. They, therefore, escaped the danger, although had they been with the escort as outriders they might have immortalised themselves and saved two men from injury and one man from death, besides preserving the treasure that was stolen, by attacking the bushrangers from their vantage point on horseback. As it was they had passed through Orange on their way to Bathurst before the news of the robbery had reached that town.
Some of the newspapers were very severe in their strictures upon the authorities for despatching an escort without a mounted guard, at a time when the roads were infested with daring bushrangers. The Lachlan paper, speaking of the escort, said:– "The people of Forbes feel that these unfortunate men have been handed over to the Philistines, as it were, bound hand and foot, and are persuaded that if the suggestions which have from time to time been put forth from this locality had been adopted, the sacrifice, pecuniary or otherwise, which we are now called upon to make, might have been prevented. The mode in which the escort business is conducted is neither more nor less than a premium upon crime. The coach with its four guards, cooped up in a box, containing the precious treasures of the Lachlan, is, to all intents and purposes, a locomotive advertisement to the vile and the criminal, to avail themselves of a splendid harvest; and that the invitation has been responded to is no matter of astonishment to anyone at all conversant with the facts of the case. True to its instincts of plunder and profit, villainy has done its best and its worst, and if it had rested in a state of inaction, with such prospects of success, the circumstance would have been something little else than wonderful...Of what mortal use, pray, as a fighting body, are four men stuck in a wooden frame, in two rows, with their firelocks in their hands, as if placed there for the express purpose of shooting only in one direction, or of being shot down?...Under such circumstances bravery is of little avail, the assailants taking good care that the advantages shall be on their side, both as regards number, position, and the first volley. The mechanism of the escort requires alteration, and until it is remodelled and strengthened, we consider neither the persons nor the property in charge of the escort safe, after the excitement caused by the present onslaught has subsided." This was but an echo of the strong denunciations which sounded through the colony, and there were many sympathisers with the remark of poor Haviland's, that he would not again do duty as escort constable unless a mounted guard accompanied the coach.
That the authorities heard and heeded these denunciations, may be gathered from the following inspired paragraph which appeared in the "Sydney Morning Herald" within a week after the robbery:–
A very large quantity of gold is accumulating in the banks at the Lachlan, in consequence of the insufficiency of the escort guard. The Oriental Bank alone has upwards of 13,000 ounces waiting to be forwarded to Sydney. The Government have lost no time in taking the necessary steps to provide an efficient escort, and they have given instructions to the Inspector-General of Police to provide suitable vehicles, to be built in this colony, for carrying out the object. It is intended to have an advance and rear guard mounted. In addition to this there will be three guards with the coachman, riding in the vehicle. The vehicles will be so constructed that no passengers can be taken. Two of the guards will be seated with their backs to the driver, and the other by his side.
But not even the presence of a mounted guard was sufficient to deter bushrangers from making an attack, when they had become emboldened by the repeated failures of the police to capture them. In fact, it seemed to be the height of their ambition to "stick-up" the troopers, either singly or in company, strip them of their Government arms, and send them back to "report progress." They would not think of taking the Government horses, for these animals were such as no good bushranger would think of riding. Times without number the criminals owed their escape from arrest to the weak-kneed and bad-winded horses ridden by their pursuers; and in straight chase it was invariably a case of reporting, "Troopers' horses knocked-up; bushrangers escaped."
It was so in this case. Sir Frederick with his force did not tarry long at the vacated camp, but pushed on through the bush, led by the black trackers, who, once fairly on the scent, would undoubtedly have run the quarry to earth if the horses had held out; but there was a break in the chase just at the time when close following was necessary, and some of the party had to return to Forbes to obtain fresh animals, theirs having knocked up. These men reported that the tracks had been followed to within a short distance of Finn's public house, within ten miles of Forbes; but that the trackers could only make out the tracks of six horsemen, and these had now been made difficult to follow by heavy rain which had set in.
Sources:
- THE BUSHRANGERS (1915, May 4). The Farmer and Settler (Sydney, NSW : 1906 - 1955), p. 8.
- The Bushrangers (1915, May 7). The Farmer and Settler (Sydney, NSW : 1906 - 1955), p. 4.
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