Bh1374M-PressProofs.QX5 3/3/08 6:58 PM Page i Breaking the Bank C A R O L B A X T E R BREAKING the Bank An extraordinar y colonial robber y Bh1374M-PressProofs.QX5 3/3/08 6:58 PM Page ii First published in 2008 Copyright © Carol Baxter 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Allen & Unwin 83 Alexander Street Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 Email:
[email protected] Web: www.allenandunwin.com National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Baxter, Carol. Breaking the bank : an extraordinary colonial robbery. ISBN: 978 1 74175 449 0 (pbk.) Includes index. Bibliography. Bank robberies --New South Wales--Sydney--History--1788-1851. Criminals--New South Wales--Sydney--History--1788-1851. 364.1552099441 Set in 11/15 pt Minion by Bookhouse, Sydney Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Bh1374M-PressProofs.QX5 3/3/08 6:58 PM Page iii CONTENTS Author’s note & acknowledgements Cast of characters Prologue I II III IV V VI VII VIII Envy Greed Fear Hope Anger Wrath Despair Resignation Epilogue The value of the Bank of Australia plunder Endnotes Annotated timelines Bibliography Index v vii 1 3 55 77 99 125 179 209 251 273 276 279 282 340 346 Bh1374M-PressProofs.QX5 3/3/08 6:58 PM Page iv This page intentionally left blank Bh1374M-PressProofs.QX5 5/3/08 10:07 AM Page v AUTHOR’S NOTE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS reaking the Bank tells the true story of the outrageous Bank of Australia robbery, the largest documented bank robbery in Australian history. Written as narrative history (that is, history told as a story rather than as fiction or faction), Breaking the Bank covers not only the crime itself, but the lives of the participants and those who suffered as a consequence. A wealth of information about the theft has survived in colonial records, particularly in newspaper reports, court transcripts, correspondence, affidavits and petitions. To generate a sense of immediacy for the reader, a feeling that the characters are living their own story, I have extracted information from these sources to describe events as they happened, and I have converted conversations recounted in court hearings and depositions into verbatim speech. These conversions were not always straightforward: sometimes words, phrases, sentences or even paragraphs had to be omitted, or words added, or the arrangement tweaked slightly for ease of comprehension. Such changes would generally be denoted by the symbols for elisions { . . . } or additions [ ], however these were inappropriate for speech, so I have omitted them. Consistency then B v Bh1374M-PressProofs.QX5 5/3/08 10:08 AM Page vi BREAKING THE BANK dictated that I omitted these symbols from the entire story, as one sentence from a particular document could be reproduced as dialogue and another as a quotation