Frank Gardiner, of whom so many stories have been told lately, writes to a person in Burrangong, stating that he is married to a wealthy American widow, and has comfortably located himself in Nevada. He intimates that he had quite enough of the roads in Australia, without resuming so precarious an occupation in a foreign land, and where Judge Lynch has such unlimited jurisdiction.
As time went on further elements were added to the story, specifically the existence of relatives who were given a map to Gardiner’s buried treasure. In some versions Gardiner had twin sons, in others they were nephews as in this extract from an article in Young Witness in 1918 which relays events that allegedly took place in 1912:
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[Mr. Butler] next met two men—unmistakable Yankees, with an aggravated twang; they were at the camp with Jackson, and subsequently visited the narrator at his home; here harmonious evenings were spent, one of the visitors being an accomplished musician. He gave out that he had been sent to Wheogo by the Forestry Department for the purpose of enquiring about the timber around there. He eventually developed a genius for prospecting for anything he could find claiming to be a specialist in searching for radium … One night “‘Monte” as one of the visitors was called, came as usual to indulge in some music, and in course of conversation said, “A chap met me up there to-day, and asked if I was looking for gold.’ To this he replied, “You must reckon I’m a fool to be looking for gold at the top of a hill;” the man who had accosted him (an employee on Wheogo) said, “I don’t mean ordinary prospecting, but bushrangers’ gold.” Monte replied, “I wish I knew where there was some planted here; I’d soon have a look for it.” He then drew from Mr. Butler the story of the bushrangers’ gold, including the Eugowra episode, everything that happened, and how long that was ago. He remarked that the robbery occurred about the time he was born — forty six years ago. He feigned ignorance of the whole matter. Soon after this Mr. Butler walked over the hill, and then found where they had been working. There was a big hole, extending some forty feet along the surface, and some two to three feet deep; at what seemed to be the spot where the search ended in success was a hole about two feet deep and a foot across, at the bottom of which was rubbish. The searchers were not then present.
One reads with great interest and true tale of these murderous exploits and even fiction on these lines finds many readers. However, the tale I’m about to relate, the particulars of which I have collected whilst following the Rainbow Trail during the past twelve months, is as far as I know absolutely true and much of it is well known to the “powers that be” in this state.[…]A rather amusing incident connected with Gardiner and buried treasure happened in the nineties when D. C. M’Connell and Sons, of Cressbrook, owned Apis Creek Station. The place on Apis Creek where Gardiner at the time of his arrest, in 1864 kept the Apis Creek Hotel is situated about a mile and a half from the station homestead and a young man engaged in acquiring the knowledge necessary to qualify him to control a station property of his own had heard so much of Gardiner’s gang and buried treasure, that he had a vision of a hoard buried in a grave situated in a patch of scrub at the back of the site of the old hotel.
A rough bush fence surrounded the grave and it certainly was a likely spot for the hiding of a camouflaged hoard of treasure. When the dream was repeated the second night and again on the third night it seemed like getting money from home so away the dreamer went with a pick and shovel and dug down in the grave until at last he saw it – not the treasure – but the skull of a man dressed in a grey flannel shirt and moleskin trousers. However the seeker decided to dig down deeper for surely a dream such as his repeated three times in succession could not possibly be false. So stacking the remains by the side of the hole he dug down until he came to solid ground and knew that he had reached the bottom of the old grave and that some lying spirit had led him on a wild goose chase. Replacing the remains – which he afterwards learned were those of a poor old bullock driver who had been killed – he carefully tilled in the grave and retired. And so ended his first and last treasure hunt.
Later on in the nineties two men arrived at Apis creek, also on a treasure quest and they were believed to have met with success. They represented themselves as Yankees and arrived at the station with riding horses, pack horse; rations, and prospectors outfits and obtained permission to prospect for gold on the run. For about a month they were fossicking about and finally left hurriedly but before doing so they gave out that they bad discovered nothing. But strange to say they gave away most of their equipment and sold their horses, saddles and packs for a mere nothing. Afterwards it turned out that they had confined their attention chiefly to the old hotel site, where they bad done a lot of excavation work and left lying on the surface a big empty rusty iron box after the style of the old oblong colonial oven, which had apparently come from underground and which was shrewdly suspected of containing the gold that they had been prospecting for.
An old miner on the Boyne River, known as “Jack Blunt” – by reason of his continued reiteration of the fact that he was Jack Blunt, that is to say outspoken – told mcethat be heard that Gardiner confided to his, lawyers in Sydney, at the time of his trial there, that he had valuables secreted, but that he would let them lie there and get them out when he was a free man. So when Jack Blunt was passing along the Peak Downs road, after hearing this rumour, he cut across to the old road and visited the site of the old hotel, but found that others – the Yankees I suppose – had been there before him and rooted up the ground and probably got the treasure.
After the great gold escort robbery at Eugowra in June, 1862, when a very large quantity of gold was taken which could not be fully accounted for, it was often surmised that many thousand ounces were still hidden somewhere to the Weddin Mountains. On a hill about three miles south of Ben’s old homestead there is a standing rock of about 15ft. high, which gives it the name of “Trig Hill.” Over twenty years ago three mysterious strangers arrived by train at Grenfell. Their spoke a highly. American accent and asked the direction of Ben’s old homestead. They said that they were going ‘prospecting’ for some mineral that was not gold.
“Frank Gardiner.” Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931) 1 December 1879: 3.
“STRANGER THAN FICTION.” Young Witness (NSW : 1915 – 1923) 12 March 1918: 4.
“THE RAINBOW TRAIL.” Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 – 1954) 21 December 1925: 14.
“THE ROARING 60’s” The Forbes Advocate (NSW : 1911 – 1954) 28 May 1943: 6.
