John O'Meally (June 1840 – 19 November 1863), known informally as 'Jack' O'Meally, was an Australia bushranger. He was recruited to join the Gardiner–Hall gang to carry out the gold escort robbery near Eugowra in June 1862, Australia's largest gold theft. O'Meally became a member of the group of bushrangers led by Johnny Gilbert and Ben Hall, which committed many robberies in the central west of New South Wales. Considered to be the most violent and hot-headed of the group,MacAlister (1907), page 276. O'Meally was probably responsible for two murders during this time. The gang managed to evade the police for long periods and became the most notorious of the bushranging gangs of the 1860s. Jack O'Meally was shot and killed during an attack on the 'Goimbla' station homestead in November 1863.
Biography
Family circumstances John O'Meally was born in June 1840 in the vicinity of Cunningham Creek, south-east of Murrumburrah, the eldest of ten children of Patrick O'Meally and Judith (née Downey).Family records, Ancestry.com.
John's father had arrived in Sydney as a transported convict in February 1832 aboard the Norfolk, sentenced with his younger brother to seven years for sheep stealing. The brothers were recorded with the surname 'Malley' and were from County Mayo in Ireland. Patrick O'Meally was granted his Ticket of Freedom in February 1839; in July the same year he married Julia Downey at Galong (east of Murrumburrah).
By 1847 Patrick O'Meally had taken up 'Arramagong' station, with an estimated area of 26,800 acres located at the southern foot of the Weddin Mountains in the Lachlan Squatting District. In that year he was granted a license to depasture stock on the leasehold, with an estimated grazing capability of 800 cattle.Lachlan, New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney), 28 May 1847 (Issue No. 47), page 580.Claims to Leases of Crown Lands Beyond the Settled Districts, No. 92, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 October 1848, page 3. Patrick O'Meally established and worked the 'Arramagong' run in an informal partnership with his brother-in-law, John Daley (husband of Ellen Downey), though the pastoral run was held in O'Meally's name. The two households lived separately on the station, about a mile and a half distant from each other.
The children of both families probably received at least a rudimentary education; in September 1853 it was recorded that a schoolmaster named John Smith was living on the property.Bathurst Assize Court, Empire (Sydney), 7 March 1854, page 3. Young Jack O'Meally worked as a stockman on the 'Arramagong' run. He was described as "tall, smart, and a splendid horseman".Early Colonial Days, The Biography of a Reliable Old Native, John McGuire, W. H. Pinkstone, XIII. Eugowra Escort Robbery, Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal, 6 October 1906, page 2.
In June 1860 Patrick O'Meally was granted a publican's license for the Weddin Mount Inn, built beside Emu Creek on the 'Arramagong' run.Certificate by Justices to Authorise the Granting of a License, Patrick O'Maley, Weddin Mount Inn, 18 June 1860, NSW State Archives; Series: 14403; Item: [7/1512]; Reel: 1241 (per Ancestry.com). With the gold-rush that occurred in the second half of 1860 at Lambing Flat and, nine months later, the opening up of the Lachlan goldfield at Forbes, the prospects for O'Meally's inn considerably improved, being situated on a road between the two localities, 25 miles from Lambing Flat and 45 miles from Forbes.Lambing Flat, Yass Courier, 1 August 1860, page 2.The Lachlan, Yass Courier, 12 February 1862, page 2.
By 1861 a disagreement had arisen between the brother-in-laws, Patrick O'Meally and John Daley, over the leasehold of 'Arramagong' station. In June 1861 O'Meally placed the property, including stock and buildings, up for auction and Daley discovered the lease was held in O'Meally's name only. In July 1861 the leasehold of the 'Arramagong' run was sold for £1,370 to Patrick Throsby, a landholder near Berrima.Pastoral Property, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 July 1861, page 3.
Gardiner's influence As the Central West region became more populated Jack O'Meally met Frank Gardiner (at that time was using the alias 'Jones'). Gardiner was a convicted horse- and cattle-thief who had been released on a ticket-of-leave to the Carcoar district, but had left that district to run a butcher shop at Lambing Flat with his friend and associate, William Fogg.The Bushranger Gardiner, Empire (Sydney), 19 June 1862, page 4.White (1900), Chapter VI: 'Gardiner and Piesley'. Gardiner and Fogg were obtaining meat for their business from stolen livestock and developed a network of associates in the district willing to provide animals by dishonest means. Gardiner became a frequent visitor to O'Meally's inn. It was through Gardiner's network that Jack O'Meally met Johnny Gilbert, who had been working as a horse-breaker at Marengo and supplying cattle to Gardiner.
Frank Gardiner's butchering business was disrupted when he was arrested in May 1861 on a cattle-stealing charge and committed for trial, but allowed bail. He then absconded, after which his identity as a ticket-of-leave holder absent from his district was discovered. Gardiner hid out at William Fogg's house near Bigga in the upper Lachlan River district. After being located by two policemen at Fogg's house in July 1861, Gardiner escaped from captivity after a violent encounter, leaving him injured from the incident. After this incident Gardiner either kept a low profile or left the district for a time, but by February 1862 he began to carry out a series of robberies in the Lambing Flat district, in company with young men from the district attracted to the romance and excitement of the bushranging life. Gardiner used the Weddin Mountains and the nearby Pinnacle Range as refuges and the nearby O'Meally's inn as a base.
Mid-morning on 10 March 1862 two Lambing Flat storekeepers were robbed of gold and cash by Gardiner and his gang near Big Wombat (ten miles south of Lambing Flat). One of the storekeepers, Alfred Horsington, was suffering from a broken leg and was proceeding towards Lambing Flat in a spring-cart, accompanied by his wife and a boy who was driving the cart. The other storekeeper, Henry Hewitt, was travelling with them on horseback.Robbery of Mr and Mrs Horsington, Empire (Sydney), 1 June 1864, page 5. The group was stopped and ordered to bail-up by Gardiner and three others, O'Meally, John McGuiness and either John Gilbert, John Davis or Samuel Dinnir.The Late Highway Robbery of £1800, near Wombat, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 March 1862, page 5; republished from the Western Examiner (Orange), 22 March 1862. None of the bushrangers were disguised. The cart and Hewitt's horse were led off the road into the bush, where a search revealed 253 ounces of gold and £145 cash (being carried by Horsington) and 189 ounces of gold and £172 (taken from Hewitt).The Australian Bushranging: Eugowra Escort Robbery, Charles White, Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 27 September 1902, page 6.
By April 1862 it was reported that "Gardiner has become a perfect 'bogie'" in the goldfield districts of the central west, "and his success has drawn others into his course". It was claimed that the notorious bushranger "is supplied with information by numberless accomplices both in the township and along the roads".Miscellaneous, Empire (Sydney), 19 April 1862, page 3.
In the vernacular of the bush Jack O'Meally was considered to be 'flash', in common with Gardiner and others such as Gilbert.The Bushranging Days, Sydney Mail, 3 November 1920, page 14. 'Flashness' encompassed a flamboyant style of dress, as well as a predilection for superior horses and saddlery and swaggering manner and attitude.
The Eugowra gold escort robbery
In about May 1862 Gardiner began to plan an ambush on the regular gold escort that transported gold and bank-notes from the Lachlan diggings to Sydney. To achieve this undertaking he recruited seven accomplices: Jack O'Meally, Johnny Gilbert, Ben Hall, Dan Charters, John Bow, Alex Fordyce and Henry Manns. The ambush was planned over a number of weeks, with the gang meeting on 'Sandy Creek' station (in the Wheogo district, north-west of the Weddin mountains) in either Hall's house or the nearby house of Hall's brother-in-law, John Maguire.Central Criminal Court, Freeman's Journal (Sydney), 7 February 1863, page 2.
On Sunday, 15 June 1862, the gang of bushrangers commanded by Gardiner ambushed the gold escort near Eugowra, 23 miles east of Forbes, and robbed the coach of gold and bank-notes of an estimated value of £14,000. The regular gold escort from the Lachlan diggings had departed from Forbes late in the morning on its journey to Sydney. The coach was carrying four policemen of the Western Escort, given the task of providing safe passage for a considerable amount of money and gold. At about five o'clock in the afternoon, just under three miles north-east of Eugowra, the coach came across two drays and their teams which were blocking the road, forcing the coach-driver, John Fagan, to slow the horses to a walk in order to pass close to a large rock beside the road. As it passed, the coach was fired upon by the group of eight men concealed behind the large rock and others in the vicinity. The bushrangers were dressed in "red serge shirts, and red nightcaps, with faces blackened". They fired at the driver and policemen in successive volleys, displaying considerable discipline and precision in their actions; as soon as the first group delivered their fire, they fell back to be replaced with the second group. When the gunfire began Fagan jumped off the coach still holding the reins. Several of the escort were wounded in the volleys of gunfire: Sergeant Condell in the box with the driver was hit in his side and Senior-sergeant Moran received a bullet in the groin. The policemen returned fire, but in the exchange of gunfire one or more of the coach horses were struck, causing them to bolt and the vehicle to capsize as the wheels struck broken rocks. When the coach overturned, the bushrangers "began to cheer and rushed down pell mell to secure their booty". The driver and men of the escort scattered into the surrounding bush; "the law of self-preservation came into operation, for every man sought cover from the fire". The outlaws loaded two of the coach horses with the strongboxes and mail-bags and departed. The total plunder stolen from the coach was 2,719 ounces of gold and £3,700 in cash. Sergeant Condell later reported that, as the bushrangers were firing at the coach, they were commanded by one man, "who gave them orders to fire and load" in a voice the policeman recognised as that of Frank Gardiner.The Gold Escort Robbery, Freeman's Journal (Sydney), 19 July 1862, page 8.Further Particular, Empire (Sydney), 24 July 1862, page 8; republished from the Western Examiner.Special Criminal Commission, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 February 1863, page 5.
The New South Wales government promptly offered a reward for information regarding "the band of armed men, said to be ten in number" who robbed "the Gold Escort from the Lachlan". A notification dated 17 June 1862 announced that a reward of £100 would be paid for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of "each of the guilty parties" (to £1,000 in total). For any accomplice to the robbery who would give such information, a pardon was offered.Mail and Gold Escort Robbery, New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney), 17 June 1862 (Issue No. 105 Supplement), page 1110.
The hunt for the gold escort robbers