Albury Banner and Wodonga Express (NSW : 1860 – 1938), Saturday 8 July 1865, page 4
THIS week we are able to give an illustration of the death of the notorious Johnny Gilbert, the bushranger, and accomplice with Hall, Dunn, and O’Meally in many an act of robbery and crime within the last few years. Gilbert was but twenty-five years old at time of his death, but was of a stout build and capable of undergoing great exertion. He was the son of respectable parents, and his father is now living Taradale, in Victoria where he has for some years resided, following the occupation of mining, and is stated to have been much grieved at the lawless habits of his unfortunate son. But little is known of the early life of Gilbert, except that he was engaged as stock rider in some stations about Forbes, and that at the end of the year 1862, he, like several other young men of loose habits, became inflamed with the passion and desire of becoming highwaymen, thinking it no doubt a grand thing and a noble pursuit instead of honestly and quietly working industriously for a livelihood. The violent end of Gilbert, coupled with the similar fate of two of his comrades and of Daniel Morgan, shows the fallacy of such a delusion. Throughout the year 1863, Gilbert, associated with either Ben Hall, O’Meally, and, Dunn, and, sometimes with the whole of them, perpetrated several daring crimes, such as robbing stores, stealing race-horses, stopping the mails and taking therefrom everything of value. Every thing was of late done by them in the most daring manner and in the most open way. They would ride up to places, bail up, as it is called, a whole village, adjourn to a hotel and compel those whom they pleased to join in all kinds of revelry and amusement and treat every one with the liquors, &c. of the landlord, who was forced to submit to this barefaced levy of black-mail. No one attempted to lay a hand on them, or if they did, the intended attempt was signalised to these freebooters and then vengeance was sure to fall upon the head of the person having the courage to endeavor to rid society of those who were making it their prey. The burning of the store of Mr. Morris, at Binda, is an instance in point, and it will be remembered that he nearly lost his life through attempting to secure Gilbert and Dunn. So matters went on every week, the list of crimes and offences swelling in magnitude until the 15th November last, when Gilbert, Hall, and Dunn stopped the mail from Gundagai to Yass at about four miles from Jugiong. The mail was escorted by two of the police, and on that occasion the bushrangers fired at them and Sergeant Edmund Parry was shot dead. Great excitement arose upon this and large parties of police were sent in pursuit and scattered about their haunts, but they were always “five minutes too late.” More robberies were committed, and on the 26th January last another police constable named Samuel Nelsen, was shot at Collector by these ruffians, it being believed that Dunn fired the shot which killed him, but both Gilbert and Hall were with him and were accessories to the murder. A reward of £1,000 was then put by Government on their heads, and the well known Felons’ Apprehension Act was passed into law, leading eventually to the breaking up of these gangs of robbers and murderers. At length in May the police got well on the trail of Gilbert and Dunn, Ben Hall having, been shot by a party of them near Forbes on the 29th April. On the 12th May, information was given that Dunn and Gilbert were in the neighborhood of Binalong, and that night Senior Constable Hales, with Constables Bright, King and others went to the hut of a man named Kelly and watched it all night. Kelly’s son came out in the morning, and, on being asked, denied that any one was inside. Hales, however, doubted him, and went up the door, when the elder Kelly called out, “here are some troopers surrounding the house.” King and Hales rushed inside and saw two men in another room, the door of which was shut to instantly, and a shot was fired at the police, who returned the fire, and called upon all to surrender, threatening to burn down the hut if they did not. Gilbert and Dunn thereupon jumped through a window at the back and commenced running to a paddock where their horses were, turning round and firing at their pursuers as they ran. Gilbert got into a creek, the bed of which was dry and ran along it, when Hales called on him to stand. This was unheeded, when Hales fired; Gilbert looked round and the next moment Bright aIso fired and Gilbert fell. King was close and was fired at by both Gilbert and Dunn and a shot from the latter hit him in the ankle and rendered him unable to give further assistance. Dunn got off in the scrub and was lost by the police, who, on their return, found Gilbert dead. On a post-mortem examination by Dr. Campbell, it was found that the bullet had passed through the left lung and the left ventricle of the heart, causing almost immediate death, and the jury, on the occasion of the inquest at Binalong the next day, immediately returned a verdict of “justifiable homicide.” Our illustration shows Gilbert falling from the wound, and Dunn firing at King. Dunn has not yet met his fate, which is, however, impending; and with him we hope there will be an end to our bushrangers.
Beyond the Kelly Gang, only one other bushranging gang has truly cemented its place in the culture of Australia so firmly to become synonymous with bushranging. The early 1860s belonged to a rotating roster of brigands that operated mostly on the Lachlan Plains and came to be known popularly (for reasons that will become apparent) under the name of Ben Hall, though the contemporary press preferred to take their nomenclature for the gang from it’s most prominent figure, Johnny Gilbert. They were said to have committed hundreds of crimes ranging from robbery to murder. The following is not a detailed account of their career as the sheer scale of their depredations makes for heavy reading, but rather it is a summary of the career of the most legendary bushranging gang of the 1860s.
The origins of the Hall Gang are quite ephemeral. There was no definitive incident that forged the gang as it would come to be known, rather it evolved from the vestiges of other gangs. The one element that brought the key players together was the Prince of Tobymen, Frank Gardiner. Gardiner had been on the run after violating his ticket of leave, and after having worked the roads with companions such as The Three Jacks and John Peisley, he decided to set his sights on a bigger score than what mail coaches could yield. Gardiner wanted to have a crack at the escorts taking the gold from the diggings. He soon realised to do so he would need a lot more men to help him out. So in 1861 Gardiner began forming a gang to help him rob the Orange gold escort. This would become a defining moment for the core members of what would eventually become the Gilbert-Hall Gang.
The gang Gardiner had formed consisted of Johnny Gilbert, the flash Canadian who had been his off-sider on and off during his time in the bush; John O’Meally, a volatile Australian-born who had proven to be a reliable and enthusiastic underling; Charlie Gilbert; Henry Manns; Alex Fordyce; John Bow; and Patsy Daley. These men were to be the shock troops who would attack the escort but Gardiner needed more assistance. To hold the horses and scout he had Jack “The Warrigal” Walsh, the teenage brother of his lover, Kitty Brown. It was also rumoured that among those helping to look after the horses was a young stockman named Ben Hall and his brother-in-law John Maguire, who had turned to crime as a way of getting easy money to counter the hardships of farming life.
Ben Hall in more lawful times.
On 15 June, 1862, the Gardiner gang bailed up two bullock teams near Eugowra Rocks. They tied up the teamsters and left the drays on the road to act as a blockade. The bushrangers were disguised with their faces masked or blackened. When the wagon came up the road from the Lachlan diggings, it was forced to stop because of the blockage. As it did, Gardiner emerged and the gang opened fire and riddled the coach with bullets, injuring two of the police. Sergeant Condell was shot in the ribs, while Constable Moran was shot in the testicles. The horses were spooked and bolted, causing the wagon to strike a boulder and topple, flinging the driver and police across the road. Once the victims had escaped, the gang descended upon the wreckage and picked it clean, stealing around £6000 worth of gold and cash.
The booty was split among the bushrangers but the celebrations were short-lived as police led by Sir Frederick Pottinger soon found the gang’s hideout. Their sudden arrival forced the bushrangers to split up. Gardiner and Walsh narrowly avoided capture, but lost their share of the gold when their over-burdened packhorse was seized. The bushrangers tried to hide their booty and keep quiet but the police were quick to make arrests. Charlie Gilbert and Henry Manns were captured by Pottinger but rescued by Johnny Gilbert and Frank Gardiner. Manns set off alone and was soon recaptured. Bow and Fordyce were arrested as were Ben Hall, John Maguire and Daniel Charters, an associate of theirs. The Gilbert brothers successfully managed to escape to New Zealand to lie low. Gardiner took Kitty Brown with him and escaped New South Wales, eventually being arrested at Apis Creek in Queensland.
When Johnny Gilbert returned from abroad he started bushranging with a number of off-siders including Fred Lowry. As each of them left, John O’Meally was the only one who remained. The pair did not exactly like each other but it was a marriage of convenience that allowed them both to enjoy the lawless adventure they craved.
When Hall got out of remand he had a chip on his shoulder. He promptly found his way to Johnny Gilbert and John O’Meally and joined them in bushranging. The trio hit the highways with considerable success. Nobody was safe and the police could not catch up to them. Eventually they decided that they needed extra help as their operation became more prolific.
In 1863, the gang recruited John Vane to source horses for them. Vane and his cousin Mickey Burke acted as scouts for the gang but soon managed to become fully fledged members. Vane was a tall, quiet young man who was a fearless rider and a skilled bushman but not as ruthless as the others. Burke was young and feisty; itching to go on the adventure of bushranging but not keen to use violence willingly. This latter quality seemed to make him a target for bullying.
In late September, 1863, the gang began a spree of lawlessness that caused a stir throughout the colony. On 22 September they bailed up three troopers and stole their weapons and uniforms. The next day, the gang bailed up Hosie’s store dressed as police. The gang took supplies and stole all of Hosie’s sweets. It was not the first time the gang had robbed him.
On 26 September they raided John Loudon’s house at Grubbenbong dressed in their stolen police uniforms. They went through the building in search of police they believed were staying there. The search turned up nothing but the gang bragged that if any troopers came after them, they would handcuff them and march them back to Carcoar. They forced Loudon’s wife to prepare food for them. Once they were satisfied, the gang left.
The following day the bushrangers, still in their stolen uniforms, went to William Rothery’s Cliefden Station at Limestone Creek, where they engaged in a standoff with Rothery’s staff. Rothery ordered his men to stand down and the bushrangers bailed up the household, ate lunch, drank champagne then played piano. As with their visit to Grubbenbong, they left quietly after having their fill. They moved on to the township of Canowindra. They robbed Pierce’s store then quietly rounded up the townsfolk, including the local constable, into Robinson’s pub and held an impromptu party. The party continued into the morning and the gang left without fear of police intervention.
The success of the Canowindra raid bolstered the gang’s confidence and they set their sights on Bathurst, one of the biggest cities in colonial New South Wales. With John Vane on watch, the gang entered town at dusk on 3 October, 1863. They went to the gunsmith and looked at what he had in stock but could not find anything to their liking. They attempted to rob the jeweller but the screams of female onlookers roused attention. Suddenly Vane called out to signal the arrival of troopers. They mounted and bolted through the streets, escaping without a scratch. They took refuge in the house of a man named De Clouet, from whom they intended to steal a racehorse named Pasha, but the horse was not there. The gang were able to leave town without further incident after the search had been called off.
The gang decided to stick to what they were good at and once again headed to Canowindra. Again the townsfolk were rounded up into the pub and festivities took place. In the morning Mickey Burke proved difficult to rouse, his drinking having been rather excessive, but even though they were delayed in leaving, there was no sign of the police until long after the gang had left.
The reward for the gang was sitting at £4000 and things were becoming serious as police drew heavy criticism from the press over their inability to stop the bandits. On 24 October, 1864, they headed to the Keightley farm on Dunn’s Plains on a vendetta to take the flashness out of gold commissioner Henry Keightley. Keightley had bragged about his part in helping the police hunt the gang and his readiness to shoot them down. The bushrangers arrived at sunset whereupon they were spotted by Keightley and his friend Dr. Pechey. The bushrangers dismounted and opened fire as the men sheltered inside. There was a vicious shootout during which Mickey Burke was shot in the belly. Keightley and Pechey took refuge in a barricade that had been made on the roof but were low on weapons and ammunition. Burke refused to allow his wounding to lead him to be captured and he determined to take his own life. He shot himself in the head but only succeeded in further wounding himself. He shot himself in the head again, finally succeeding in committing suicide. John Vane was grief stricken and when Keightley and Pechey were captured he bashed Pechey with his pistol, mistaking him for Keightley, and was fully prepared to execute them in retaliation. Mrs. Keightley intervened and convinced them to hold her husband to ransom instead of murdering him. Dr. Pechey rode into town and fetched £500 – the equivalent of the reward money offered for Burke – from Mrs. Keightley’s father and returned to the farm. The bushrangers entrusted Keightley’s servants to convey Burke’s corpse to Carcoar then left.
In the wake of the tragedy tensions were high and Vane left after a fight with Gilbert. He turned himself in and was imprisoned at Darlinghurst Gaol. Once again the gang was a trio, but they were determined not to lose face. They continued to rob travellers at an alarming rate and soon heard about a magistrate named David Campbell who had been talking about his eagerness to capture the bushrangers.
On 19 November, 1863, the gang rode to Goimbla Station, where the Campbells resided. They spread out to find a way inside. O’Meally went to the back door where he was met by Campbell. O’Meally discharged his shotgun and narrowly missed Campbell’s head. O’Meally ran to the front of the house, chased by Campbell who doubled back when he saw the others. The bushrangers began firing into the house. Campbell took cover by the kitchen and his wife, Amelia, ran under fire to fetch ammunition and weapons from the drawing room. Campbell’s brother had been roused by the firing and was shot and wounded. He ran and hid in a crop field until there was a safe moment to get help. The bushrangers took cover behind a fence and O’Meally set fire to the barn. Campbell called out for the bushrangers to set his horses free but they refused out of spite and the animals were burned alive. As O’Meally stood to admire his handiwork, Campbell shot him in the neck. Hall and Gilbert dragged him to the bush on the edge of the property and propped his head up but the wound was fatal. When O’Meally died they looted his body and evacuated, leaving the grisly find for the Campbells to deal with.
Hall and Gilbert slowed down after Goimbla but found two new recruits very quickly. James “Old Man” Gordon and John Dunleavy were inducted into the gang and soon they were up to the same old tricks. The new outfit was put through the ringer when they were ambushed at the Bang Bang Hotel and engaged in a shootout with police. The bushrangers narrowly escaped but it clearly rattled Gilbert who left the gang to return to Victoria for a spell.
Hall continued on with Gordon and Dunleavy but they were hardly alike the outfit Hall was used to. During a shootout in the bush at Bundaburra, Dunleavy was injured. He surrendered himself and was soon tried and sent to Darlinghurst Gaol. Hall and Gordon continued together briefly before Gordon also split and was arrested near the Victorian border. He too was imprisoned.
Hall now faced the daunting prospect of bushranging solo. He kept a low profile, preferring to avoid confronting police or making his presence known. From time to time police would stumble upon where he had been sleeping and he would barely escape, but the lifestyle was beginning to impact on his health. Fortunately for Hall he was soon reunited with Gilbert.
Ben Hall was just as eager to recapture the glory days as Gilbert, but they knew that they needed at least one extra set of hands. Gilbert recruited John Dunn, a teenaged jockey and Gilbert’s former bush telegraph. Dunn was wanted for skipping bail and saw bushranging as a viable alternative to honest work or gaol.
John Dunn
The trio hit the roads and bailed up as many people as possible, their exploits reaching new heights of audacity with each event. At the end of 1864 the gang went to work at Black Springs near Jugiong. They bailed up scores of people travelling the road, robbed them and kept them prisoner behind a large hill while they awaited their true goal: the mail coach. The coach arrived as expected and the bandits bailed it up, but when Ben Hall spotted the police escort catching up the trio galloped away and doubled back once they had sized up the threat. All three demonstrated their incredible horse riding abilities by steering the horses with their legs while double-wielding pistols. The gun battle was frenetic and vicious. Sergeant Edmund Parry became locked in one-on-one combat with Johnny Gilbert. They exchanged fire and a bullet from Gilbert hit Parry in the back, killing him.
A dangerous precedent had now been set and the gang had become elevated from audacious highwaymen to murderers. Undeterred, the gang continued to go about their depredations. At Christmas the bushrangers visited their girlfriends, Christina MacKinnon and Peggy and Ellen Monks, and decided to have some fun at the Boxing Day ball in Binda. They bailed up a former policeman named Morriss and robbed his store before heading to the Flag Hotel. They sang, danced and drank with the patrons while Morriss plotted to take the wind out of their sails. As the night wound on Morriss managed to escape through a window and tried to set the gang’s horses loose. When Hall discovered Morriss missing, he tried to find him outside. In an act of vengeance the bushrangers and their girlfriends burned down Morriss’ store. The women were arrested for their role in the arson but not convicted.
On 26 January, 1865, the gang bailed up several travellers on the road near Collector before heading to Kimberley’s Inn. The occupants were marched outside and robbed while Hall and Gilbert raided the interior. As the local police were in the bush looking for the gang there was only one constable in town – Samuel Nelson. Nelson heard that the inn had been bailed up and set out on foot to confront the bushrangers. When he arrived there was a brief standoff between himself and John Dunn before Dunn shot him in the stomach and head, killing him.
The raid of Kimberly’s Inn as portrayed in The Legend of Ben Hall.
In response to the murders and countless other offences committed by bushrangers in the colony, the New South Wales government passed a legislation called the Felons Apprehension Act. This would render any person declared an outlaw to lose all protections of the law, and anyone could kill them without provocation and with no fear of punishment. It literally rendered the proclaimed outlaws as exempt from human society and encouraged people to treat them as vermin. The act allowed the wanted people 30 days to turn themselves over to police before being officially declared outlaws.
Things became very treacherous for the gang. Several ambushes occured where the gang narrowly escaped alive. The decision was made to do one last heist and get out of the colony before they were officially outlawed. They recruited John Dunn’s mate Daniel Ryan to help strike at a gold escort. The gang lay in wait on a stretch of road in the bush at Araluen and when the gold escort arrived they opened fire. The heist was a poor imitation of what Gardiner had masterminded and the end result was that the gold remained untouched and the gang was forced to retreat. Daniel Ryan would carry out several other robberies with the gang before disappearing from the line-up.
Back down to a trio, the gang attempted to rob a wagon full of teenage boys – the Faithful brothers. What the gang did not anticipate was that the brothers, who had been out hunting, would resist with firearms. A gunfight broke out wherein Gilbert accidentally shot his own horse and was trapped under it. The brothers succeeded in getting to safety, leaving the gang to lick their wounds.
The Faithful brothers
The gang decided the time had come to call it quits. Ben Hall took care of some business around Forbes before heading to a rendezvous with the others at Billabong Creek. Unfortunately Gilbert and Dunn had seemingly gotten spooked by teamsters they mistook for plainclothes officers and Hall decided to set up camp near the home of police informant Mick Coneley. On 5 May, 1865, Hall was ambushed as he fed his horse. He ran to escape but was shot over and over until, as he held a sapling, he died from around 30 bullet wounds, two passing through his brain. Coneley would earn £500 for selling Hall out.
The death of Ben Hall from a contemporary illustration.
Gilbert and Dunn continued to run from place to place before seeking shelter at Dunn’s grandfather John Kelly’s place near Binalong. In the wake of Hall’s death they had learned not to trust harbourers, especially as the date to turn themselves in by was rapidly approaching. Unfortunately the belief that Dunn’s family was a safe bet was another poor judgment and Kelly sold them out as well. A team of police surrounded the house and the bushrangers were forced to escape through a window. As they ran Gilbert was shot through the heart and killed. Dunn sustained a leg injury but managed to escape.
Death of Gilbert
Dunn by virtue of being the only survivor of the gang at large became the first person to be declared an outlaw in New South Wales. Rumours abounded that he had joined up with Captain Thunderbolt, but in fact he had gone into hiding on a farm under an assumed identity. He was soon discovered, however, and once again tried to escape. He shot a trooper in the leg but was himself shot in the back, the bullet lodging in his spine. He fought off the police as much as he could but the pain was too intense and he was captured.
He was taken to the lock-up in Dubbo but managed to escape despite his crippling injuries by climbing out of a window. He crawled along the ground, unable to walk from his wound, but was soon recaptured. He was tried for the murder of Constable Nelson and sentenced to death. He was hanged in Darlinghurst in January 1866. With Dunn’s death the Gilbert-Hall Gang had finally been snuffed out for good.
Even in their own lifetimes, the bushrangers who formed the roster in the gang were something akin to celebrities. They developed a reputation as daring highwaymen and folk heroes that robbed from the rich but would never molest a needy person or woman. The truth was far from this lofty ideal and the gang had its fair share of indiscriminate robberies to their name. It has been estimated by some that the gang committed hundreds of crimes in their short career. Indeed, the number of bail ups attributed to them is probably far and away the largest of any organised gang of bandits in Australian history. It was the inefficiency of the police that helped seal their reputation and turned this band of robbers into glorious rebels, rather than incorrigible ne’er-do-wells. What pushed them into this life of crime is hard to pinpoint as most members of the gang came from respectable backgrounds. Perhaps the allure of reaping the benefits of the gold rush without having to engage in the back breaking labour was just too big a temptation to refuse.
Between Gundagai and Jugiong in New South Wales lies Black Springs, an area with rolling hills and girt by dense scrub. It was here that Johnny Gilbert, the flash Canadian bushranger, would cement his reputation as a violent criminal. The Ben Hall Gang, consisting of Gilbert, Hall, and John Dunn, were at the peak of their success at the end of 1864. Always game to push the limits of their capabilities they chose Black Springs to perform their most audacious robbery yet.
On 18 November the gang were ruling the roost, having taken a number of men and women captive on the outskirts of Jugiong at a place known as the Black Springs. Among the growing collective were Mr. And Mrs. Hayes, Mr. Body, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Whitton, and thirty Chinese men and ten European men. Earlier in the day there was a brief clash with Constable McLoughlin who was escorting a pack horse along the road in advance of the mail coach. Without warning Hall and his confederates charged down the hill and attempted to bail the policeman up. McLoughlin was no pushover and immediately let go of the pack horse and went for his colt revolver. McLoughlin unloaded every chamber of his revolver in the ensuing skirmish, the bushrangers hardly knowing what hit them. When his ammunition was expended Dunn closed in on the constable as he retreated into the scrub to reload. With his horse wounded and his revolver unloaded, McLoughlin surrendered and was added to the throng on the other side of the hill. Gilbert proclaimed McLoughlin to have been the finest man in the shape of a constable he’d ever encountered.
As the morning rolled on Ben Hall kept watch over his growing collection of captives, pacing slowly and lordly with his horse with Gilbert and Dunn keeping the group covered with their revolvers. In the afternoon heat came the soft clomping of hooves in the dry earth and the rattle of coach wheels. The mail coach on its way from Gundagai to Yass rattled along with two police, Sergeant Edmund Parry and Sub-Inspector William O’Neill, a safe distance behind as escorts. Inside police magistrate Alfred Rose sweltered in the heat and up top Constable William Roche sat with the driver. Hearing the arrival Hall spurred his men into action and they rode up to the crest of a hill overlooking the track. No doubt Gilbert flashed his trademark grin as he clapped eyes on their quarry. The bandits cocked their revolvers and pounded down the hill to the coach. Blocking the road, Hall bellowed “Bail up!” while training his weapon on the coach driver. Constable Roche was encouraged not to use his rifle with the expert persuasion of Gilbert and the presentation to his person of six chambers of instant death. Rose wasn’t quite so ready to let the coach be plundered and with a cry of “Bushrangers!” he signaled to Parry and O’Neill by waving his hat out the window of the coach. Digging their spurs into their mounts the escorts thundered towards the coach.
“There’s a bloody lot of traps,” said Hall as he spotted the incoming lawmen and the gang quickly turned tail and galloped back up the hill as if retreating. Any relief the lawmen and the coach driver must have felt was short lived as the gang paused and Gilbert was heard to say “There are only two of them; Come on, let’s rush the bastards!” turned back and charged like cavalry at the mounted policemen screaming “Fight us like men!” with a revolver in each hand, their supreme horsemanship on show as they steered their mounts with their bodies like fearsome centaurs. The police were game and began to reel of shots at their opponents and calling on them to surrender. Constable Roche leaped from his perch and scurried into the scrub with his rifle. The police escorts were separated with Dunn aiming for O’Neill who fought like the devil firing a shot at Ben Hall who effortlessly dodged the bullet. O’Neill’s horse, spooked by the gunfire careened into a tree, the branch striking O’Neill and injuring his hip. Reeling in pain two shots struck him, one in the right shoulder, the other tearing at the left flap of his tunic. In desperate pain, an impotent click from his revolver informing him that he was out of bullets, O’Neill drew his carbine and tried to aim it at the approaching bushrangers. Hall unwisely came in close to O’Neill and received a bash on the skull with O’Neill’s carbine almost pushing the bandit out of the saddle. Dunn then attempted to wrestle the carbine away from O’Neill. Dunn and Hall finally cornered the sub-inspector and leveled their guns a him.
Meanwhile Gilbert had drawn Sergeant Parry away from the others and the two dueled on horseback spitting curses at each other until a blast from Gilbert found its mark. The shot struck Parry across the back of the head, but was not enough to subdue him. Bleeding from the head Parry came at Gilbert to entreated him to surrender. Parry screamed over the thunderous din of his horse’s hooves “I’ll never surrender to a bushranger, not while I have a shot left!” Gilbert was impressed by the recklessness of this lawman, which is why, in Gilbert’s mind, it was so unfortunate that he had to shoot him. Gilbert raised his pistol and fired. The bullet struck Parry in the breast and perforated his body straight through. He slumped in the saddle and tumbled lifeless to the ground. Riding over to his fallen foe Gilbert turned the body over and examined his handy work. “He’s got it in the cobra…” he said to nobody in particular. Dunn and Hall took Sub-Inspector O’Neill back downhill to the coach and demanded the mailbags from the driver. Not in a position to argue, the driver complied. Tearing the bags open Dunn and Gilbert rifled through the letters and took all they desired. As the others worked Ben Hall dragged magistrate Rose out of the coach and threatened to shoot him for signalling the police. Rose, O’Neill and the coach driver were added to the gang’s collection of captives over the hill. Gilbert sauntered up to Constable McLaughlin and scowled “How would you like a cove like me after you?” McLaughlin was unimpressed. Gilbert pressed the point, “See what that bloody fool has got for not standing? He’s the first man I ever shot; I don’t like to shoot a man, but I can’t help the unfortunate man now.” McLaughlin asked if he could attend to Parry and see if anything was to be done and Gilbert allowed him to go, fully aware that it was pointless.
Constable Roche was soon uncovered by the gang, cowering in the undergrowth nearby. His carbine was confiscated and he was forced to walk back to Yass. Before the gang left Hall proclaimed that the police would need a bigger troop than what they’d mustered that day for the gang planned to stick up an escort the next day. The gang shot off into the expanse leaving behind their bewildered captives and the body of Sergeant Parry. Parry’s body was taken into town and buried in Gundagai cemetery the next day.
Sources:
“INQUEST ON SERGEANT PARRY.” The Goulburn Herald and Chronicle (NSW : 1864 – 1881) 23 November 1864: 3.
“GILBERT, HALL, AND DUNN AT JUGIONG.” Queanbeyan Age and General Advertiser (NSW : 1864 – 1867) 24 November 1864: 4
“THE STIRRING DAYS OF YORE.” The Gundagai Times and Tumut, Adelong and Murrumbidgee District Advertiser (NSW : 1868 – 1931) 12 September 1899: 4.
“JOHNNY GILBERT like lightning with a gun” The World’s News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 – 1955) 6 June 1953: 24.
“The battle of Black Springs” The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995) 24 August 1988: 27.
“STICKING UP OF THE GUNDAGAI MAIL.” The Australian News for Home Readers (Vic. : 1864 – 1867) 24 December 1864: 10.
“MORE MAIL ROBBERIES.— ENCOUNTER WITH THE BUSHRANGERS.—SERGEANT PARRY, OF THE GUNDAGAI POLICE, SHOT DEAD.” The Goulburn Herald and Chronicle (NSW : 1864 – 1881) 19 November 1864: 3
“Bushranging near Gundagai” The Gundagai Independent (NSW : 1928 – 1939) 9 October 1930: 5.
The Legend of Ben Hall is a 2016 independent Australian film depicting the last few months of the life of legendary outlaw Ben Hall. This clip shows part of the fateful hold-up at Jugiong that sealed the fate of the Hall gang.
The Legend of Ben Hall is available in Australia and Germany on DVD and Blu-Ray, iTunes, Ozflix and YouTube Movies. It has also been signed up for HBOEurope and is released in America on DVD and Blu-Ray on August 1, 2017.
