Author(s): Ian W. Shaw

Australian History

Atop the hierarchy of Australian bushrangers sits Ned Kelly – the ultimate outlaw, and just below him, the tragic figure of Ben Hall, who joined a gang led by a man whose name today is less well known, but who in his day was much more famous than Hall or any other bushranger – Frank Gardiner. Mastermind of the biggest gold robbery in Australia’s history, Gardiner led an extraordinary life, the full telling of which is long overdue. In a tough country and among a group of tough men, Gardiner was regarded as the toughest of them all. But while he engaged in gunfights with police to evade capture, he was always courteous in manner and could lay claim to never killing anyone, and never stealing from those who could not afford to be robbed. He went by three different surnames in his lifetime and spent almost half of it behind bars, including as one of the original prisoners in Melbourne’s Pentridge Stockade, later on Sydney’s notorious Cockatoo Island and finally in Sydney’s infamous Darlinghurst Gaol.