Australian History: Frank Gardiner
Frank Gardiner was one of the few bushrangers who didn’t end up dying in prison or by being shot or hanged. Born in 1830, he began his life of crime by stealing horses when he was twenty. This brought him a five-year jail sentence. He escaped and returned to horse stealing. Caught again, he was sent to jail for seven years, but was released after three. He became a butcher. It soon became known that the meat he was selling came from stock that had been stolen.
A warrant was put out for his arrest. Rather than face trial, Gardiner took to the bush. Within a short time, many robberies began taking place in the area of New South Wales where Gardiner lived. Word got around that Frank Gardiner was leading a bushranger gang, but no one knew how large his gang was or who was in it. Like some other bushrangers, Gardiner liked to hold up a large farm, lock everyone in the house and hold a big party. Sick of small robberies, Gardiner decided to hold a big one. With six others he planned to rob a government stagecoach that carried a lot of gold and money.
While they waited forage stagecoach, the gang forced two bullock drivers to leave their bullock teams in the middle of the road so that the coach could not pass. When the coach arrived, it was forced to stop. Gardiner and his gang came out of hiding and there was a short gun battle. The police riding
with the gold were forced to hide in the bush. The gang split up the gold and money and then parted. A lot of men, including Ben Hall were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the robbery. Four o fthem were members of Gardiner’s gang. One of them turned informer in return for his freedom and the other three were jailed.
Gardiner went to Queensland where he lived under another name and bought a shop. Here he was tracked down and arrested two years later. In 1864 he was sentenced to 32 years in jail. Ten years later he was released from prison on the condition that he left Australia. The rest of his life he spent in San Francisco in America.