Black Bunny's Bushrangers (T) - Carcoar the failed bank robbery Carcoar, New South Wales, Australia
By Black Bunny on 06-Jan-23. Waypoint GA20393

Carcoar - John Gilbert and John O'Meally

Carcoar's Commercial Bank was constructed in 1862 but gained notoriety the following year when it played host to John Gilbert and John O'Meally who were members of Ben Hall's gang.

At 1pm, on July 30 the two men entered the premises and bailed up chief clerk Joseph Parker, telling him to be quiet and throw up his hands or they would blow his brains out. Moments earlier Mr McDonald, the bank manager, had left the building and was crossing the street to talk with a local tradesman when he happened to look back and see the two men enter the bank. Not liking their appearance McDonald went to investigate and was met at the door by O'Meally who ordered the manager to come inside but McDonald declined and ran hurriedly backwards out into the street where he fell into a cellar which was being dug for a new hotel.

Whilst Gilbert and O'Meally were being distracted Parker sprang down behind the counter and grabbed a loaded revolver which he fired twice into the air. Realising that their attempt to rob the bank had been thwarted the bushrangers coolly left the premises and threatened to shoot anyone who got in their way. The two men managed to make their getaway despite the attempt by one enterprising young woman to untie their mounts. According to a witness: 'the town was all astir, but not one gun or pistol was to be found loaded.

As luck would have it, they got no money, being afraid, to go behind the counter for fear of Mr Parker's revolver.'

The incident is still commemorated to this day with re-enactments on Australia Day.

Bushrangers.

Over 2,000 bushrangers are estimated to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and drawing to a close after Ned Kelly's last stand at Glenrowan.

Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term "bushranger" had evolved to refer to those who abandoned social rights and privileges to take up "robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base.

Bushranging thrived during the gold rush years of the 1850s and 1860s when the likes of Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner and John Gilbert led notorious gangs in the country districts of New South Wales. These Wild Colonial Boys typically robbed small-town banks and coach services.

In other infamous cases, such as that of Dan Morgan, the Clarke brothers, and Australia's best-known bushranger, Ned Kelly, numerous policemen were murdered.

The number of bushrangers declined due to better policing and improvements in rail transport and communication technology, such as telegraphy. Kelly's capture and execution in 1880 effectively represented the end of the bushranging era.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushranger & https://www.carcoarvillage.com/discover

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