Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
According to the promotional material provided, this book is the first comprehensive biography of the godfather of Australian bushranging – Frank Gardiner – leader of the Lachlan gang and mastermind of the largest gold heist in Australian history.
The author, Ian W. Shaw, has published over a dozen books. He believes that Frank Gardiner’s story has never been fully and accurately told before, so he has gone back to primary sources to provide a full picture of this famous bushranger. In the process he has explained the term bushranger which before 1851 had two meanings. The first concerned those men who explored and prospected beyond settlement and lived within the law. The second meaning is the one we have today of those who operated outside the law, robbing and sometimes killing, terrorising the early settlers in Australia.
Frank Gardiner operated under three names in his lifetime. He was born in Scotland in 1829 and named Frank James Christie. The family came to Australia and, at the age of seventeen, Frank left home and, although finding legitimate work, was not averse to stealing animals to supplement his wages. After being caught and imprisoned in Victoria, on release he became Frank Clarke. Later, after spending more time on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour and being released as a Ticket of Leave man, he became Frank Gardiner.
This man was a natural leader and able to inspire others. He was an excellent horseman and bushman, dismissive of squatters and their police minions and prepared to live a free life with few restraints. He appears to have been well liked so that others were prepared to support him when he found himself in trouble. Although the title of the book and other historians refer to his group as a gang, Shaw suggests that this title is incorrect. Gardiner did lead a group of bushrangers, who undertook robberies in the Lachlan district, but the composition of the group was highly flexible with many members coming and going as opportunities and circumstances dictated (67).
Throughout this biography the reader learns much about the many gold strikes in the 1800s in New South Wales and Queensland as well as a little about the history of the police force. This was the period when the colonial administration struggled to establish a competent police service as there was a transition of the colony from a penal settlement to a self-governing entity responsible for its own judicial and police services (62). As this organisation became more established, it was harder for bushrangers to escape. Frank Gardiner and his group were never far from the minds of the New South Wales authority until they were eventually caught.
This book follows the lives of the key people on both sides of the law who were in the orbit of Frank Gardiner throughout his life. While many of them met a violent end, Frank managed to create an interesting life for himself once out of prison. When incarcerated he always became a model prisoner and this in turn often resulted in his early release.
As a result of petitions by his sisters and friends, his time in Darlinghurst Prison was once again shortened but this time with a life changing condition. He was exiled from any land belonging to the British Empire. After a brief period as owner of a saloon in the United States where he became quite a celebrity, his last days were spent homeless and destitute. He was in his early fifties when he died in a foreign land. Yet his name lives on in the stories of early Australian history.
The writing is straight forward, with few flourishes, and contains much that would interest readers of Australia’s history. The times in which bushrangers flourished were tough and pioneering, with the lure of the gold rushes bringing together people from many walks of life. This created situations in which some flourished while others lost everything. Here Frank Gardiner thrived. Though working outside the law there was much about him to be admired and this is probably why his name is remembered today when many others have been forgotten.
The author, Ian W. Shaw, has dedicated this book to a long-time friend and fellow childhood adventurer who passed away in 2023.
The Golden Gang
(2024)
by Ian W. Shaw
Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9-781761-424724
$34.99; 288pp