Brit banned and exiled from Australia for horrifying spate of crimes

Scottish born bushranger Frank Gardiner suffered the infamy of being exiled from the colony of Australia, never to return

A Brit who moved thousands of miles to start a new life in Australia^[1] was ordered to leave and never return following an appalling spate of crimes.

Frank Gardiner was exiled from the fledging nation in the 1870s, just after Australia stopped receiving convicts^[2]. He was a known and fearsome bushranger with a well-deserved reputation who — along with various others operating outside of the law — had been a scourge on^[3] the country.

Gardiner became notorious for his lead role in the largest gold heist in Australian^[4] history, at Eugowra, New South Wales.

Gardiner and his gang stole cash and about 77kg in gold — equivalent to around £5million today. The Gardiner-Hall gang was made up of some of the best known bushrangers in history, so called because they were armed robbers who lived in Australia’s rugged and remote bushland.

Their crimes included robbing small-town banks, bailing up coach services and raiding pastoral estates. Bushrangers were also not adverse to getting into shootouts with colonial police^[5].

The Gardiner-Hall gang was made up of criminals including Gardiner, Ben Hall, Fred Lowry, Michael Burke, John O’Meally, Henry Manns, Johnny Gilbert and John Dunn.

Bushrangers often met a grisly end with Hall, Gilbert, John O’Meally, and Lowry shot to death — most by police. Burke fatally shot himself after receiving a gut wound, while Dunn and Manns were hung by the authorities.

Gardiner, was born Francis Christie, in Rosshire, Scotland^[6] before migrating to Australia as a young child in 1834. His family worked on the land with his father as an overseer where they moved around, leasing property. Gardiner became a stockman working on properties in central Victoria as a boy.

With the prospect of hard-work and little pay, Gardiner started cutting corners in a bid to get ahead. In 1850, the teenager and two accomplices stole some horses from William Morton’s station near Serpentine, 40 km northwest of present-day Bendigo. They planned to sell the horses but Morton followed their tracks to Bilston’s Inn, where the trio were arrested. Gardiner was tried under his real name, Christie on October 22, 1850, at Geelong, where he was sentenced to five years’ hard labour.

Gardiner escaped while part of a work party outside of Pentridge Prison on March 20, 1851. Most of the convicts involved were rounded up within days but the young man left the district before making his way to New South Wales.

Gardiner soon resumed his horse stealing career and was caught trying to sell stolen horses at Yass in 1854. This time he was sentenced to 14 years and was imprisoned on the infamous Cockatoo Island where he met the bushranger John Peisley, a man who was later hanged.

Gardiner, now posing as Frank Clarke was granted a ticket-of-leave in December 1859, conditional on him staying in the Carcoar district. And the convict seemed to be turning over a new leaf when he opened a butcher shop at Lambing Flat, seemingly trying to live a straight life.

But this façade did not last long as he was arrested for cattle stealing and allowed bail in 1861. Gardiner again absconded and joined Peisley before he was briefly captured after a gunfight with two troopers. Gardiner was successful in bribing one of the policemen and escaped before joining forces with notorious outlaw, Hall.

In June 1862, the bushranger robbed the Lachlan Gold Escort near Eugowra with a gang including Hall, Dan Charters and Gilbert. Much of the gold was recovered by mounted police after they later surprised the gang on Wheoga Hill, near Forbes.

What happened to the remaining gold is still a mystery and to this day treasure hunters visit the area. It has also been rumoured two Americans who were thought to be Gardiner’s nephews visited the Wheogo Station near the Weddins in 1912 claiming to be miners. Local speculation is they journeyed there from the United States to take back the missing gold.

After the large gold heist, Gardiner chose to flee to Queensland. In 1863–1864, Gardiner was living with Ben Hall’s sister-in-law Kitty Brown, nearly 1,000 miles north of the location of the robbery. Despite the large distance from the crime, he was still recognised and reported to the police in Sydney.

Gardiner’s was soon arrested by police operating outside of their jurisdiction, helped by troopers of the paramilitary Native Police made the arrest. One of the police officers even used Gardiner’s own horse, named Darkie, during the capture. The bushranger was returned to Sydney and in July, 1864 he was sentenced to 32 years’ hard labour.

A petition was organised by Gardiner’s sisters in 1872 asking for his early release. It was prepared to be presented to the new Governor of New South Wales, Sir Hercules Robinson. The Governor in his duties as a representative of the English sovereign, had the power to exercise the Royal prerogative of mercy for felony cases not subjected to the death penalty.

After careful consideration, Robinson decided if Gardiner’s conduct in prison remained good, he could leave after he served 10 years, dependent on him becoming an exile from the Australian colonies and New Zealand. Gardiner accepted the terms and wound up in the United States in 1874.

He soon acquired the Twilight Star Saloon on Kearny Street in the Barbary Coast area of San Francisco. Just a few months later he relocated a more upscale Brannan Street, which was closer to the docks. He remained a popular figure amongst Australians arriving in San Francisco who would often ask about him and have a drink at his bar.

Not a great deal is known about what happened to Gardiner but he outlived the majority of his contemporaries who were mainly hanged o rshot. Numerous reports of his death are listed as having occurred in 1882 and it was speculated he was buried in a pauper’s grave near the Legion of Honor park in San Francisco.

However, the circumstances of his death are not known with any degree of certainty, due in large part to the loss of records during the San Francisco earthquake that took place in 1906.