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.

Atop the hierarchy of Australian bushrangers sits Ned Kelly – the ultimate outlaw, and just below him, the tragic figure of Ben Hall, who joined a gang led by a man whose name today is less well known, but who in his day was much more famous than Hall or any other bushranger – Frank Gardiner. Mastermind of the biggest gold robbery in Australia’s history, Gardiner led an extraordinary life, the full telling of which is long overdue.

In a tough country and among a group of tough men, Gardiner was regarded as the toughest of them all. But while he engaged in gunfights with police to evade capture, he was always courteous in manner and could lay claim to never killing anyone, and never stealing from those who could not afford to be robbed. He went by three different surnames in his lifetime and spent almost half of it behind bars, including as one of the original prisoners in Melbourne’s Pentridge Stockade, later on Sydney’s notorious Cockatoo Island and finally in Sydney’s infamous Darlinghurst Gaol.

If Frank Gardiner was never quite the Robin Hood he sometimes imagined himself to be, he was, like the mythical outlaw, a natural leader, a man capable of inspiring a motley bunch of stockmen and drifters to become the most effective and successful bushranging gang in the country’s history. They operated with a clockwork efficiency that culminated in the robbery of the Gold Escort at Eugowra Rocks, a deed that shocked the Australian colonies at the time and that would later be immortalised in Rolf Boldrewood’s classic novel Robbery Under Arms.

The Lachlan gang that Frank Gardiner put together included several men who became household names, Ben Hall, Johnny Gilbert and John O’Meally among them. From 1861 to 1863, they held reign over the roads of the Western Plains of New South Wales. Then, at the height of his success, Frank walked away from it all to spend a life of anonymity with the woman he loved. The relationship ended in tragedy, and Frank’s life subsequently took a bizarre turn that saw him exiled from his own country. He died a pauper in San Francisco, a stranger in a strange land, but not before regaining fame of a different kind.