Australian Heist

Australian Heist

forgotten, charisma found, he was once again the Prince of Thieves, the King of the Road. ‘Take a look at this, lads,’ he said as he slapped a folded broadsheet on the kitchen table. Hall sent a puff of fresh smoke from his pipe into the air before putting his head down to study it. ‘Ten thousand ounces,’ he said. ‘Are you kidding me? That’s almost forty thousand pounds worth of gold. We could buy the whole damn Empire.’ The mob rushed in. ‘What does it say?’ demanded Manns. ‘Yeah, read it,’ said Fordyce. Gardiner picked up the broadsheet, now damp with spirits. ‘“The Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, eleventh of June 1862,”’ he began. ‘“The escort from Bathurst last night took down the following quantities of gold: Bathurst, 326 ounces; Lachlan, 8366 ounces; Turon, 1640 ounces; Orange, 48 ounces. Total, 10,380.”’ Gardiner slammed the grog-stained paper back on the table. ‘My god – 10,380 ounces,’ he said. ‘And there it is. Written in print.’ Gardiner had been considering robbing an escort ever since the Lambing Flat gold rush had begun. It was nicknamed the Aussie El Dorado. In March 1860, on the squatting station called Burrangong, gold had been found on a horse’s hoof at an afternoon muster. The find had sparked a search and soon gold was also located in a creek. The Sydney Morning Herald ran a story and with that thirty thousand men stormed the region, all hoping to make a fortune. Most didn’t. But some did.

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