Forever unsolved – the Beaconsfield bank robbery

During the boom days of Beaconsfield’s gold era, which spanned a period of around 40 years, coaches transporting the precious metal on its hazardous journey to Launceston each carried a contingent of armed guards to prevent the valuable cargo from falling into the hands of bushrangers, who were an ever-increasing scourge of the times. However, when the Beaconsfield branch of the Bank of Tasmania was robbed in 1884, the names of famous lawless characters were markedly absent from the list of suspects, and instead, a small number of locals, described as being of “somewhat dubious character”, were at once deemed responsible for the robbery. The story goes that on the evening of 23rd July, 1884, when the then acting bank manager, 21-year-old Cecil A. Stackhouse, was on the return journey from one of his regular visits to the Richie family’s home and store at nearby Swift’s Jetty, he was brutishly grabbed from behind, gagged, bound to a tree, and robbed of his keys. Stackhouse was never able to identify his attackers, but in his account of the incident, told how he was guarded by two of the men for some hours and only released when a shot, fired by an unknown person, echoed from the direction of the town. For the times, the amounts stolen in the robbery were quite substantial, namely £2,100 in notes, £500 in gold and silver coins, 30oz of alluvial gold and a number of cheques. Prior to the theft, the bank had issued notes overprinted with the word BEACONSFIELD in red in the top righthand corner, and then, immediately after the crime was committed, they recalled these notes and restocked the branch with new batches bearing BEACONSFIELD in blue across the centre.

One of the highlights of a trip to the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre is an inspection of the head frame and the miner’s cage

News of the crime spread like wildfire, and in Beaconsfield, small-town gossipmongers were kept exceedingly busy, as in fact was the entire state of Tasmania, where an unprecedented amount of interest was shown in the case; a set of circumstances which greatly assisted a police party from Launceston, who, in a pre-dawn raid, swooped on several homes in the Beaconsfield area and arrested seven locals, namely, William and John Barrett, George and Richard Collins, Charles Ward, Edmund O’Keefe and Walter Masters. Then followed a most remarkable chain of events, which began when police decided Masters had no connection with the crime and would be released, while the remaining six alleged offenders were placed under guard in the local hotel until they could be transported to the lock-up in George Town. When their trials began in Beaconsfield Court on 4th August, the Collins brothers’ case was immediately dismissed due to lack of police evidence. Trials of the remaining four men were adjourned to 8th August and when proceedings were about to begin the court received urgent notification, by way of telegram, that the bank did not consider it had sufficient evidence to convict the men and had decided to drop the case against them. Elated by the quite amazing outcome, the seven freed men then got their scheming heads together and decided to sue the bank for false prosecution and wrongful imprisonment. Each of the successful cases was heard in the Hobart court and reaped George Collins and Walter Masters the tidy sum of £150 damages, Charles Ward received £300, and when the bank decided to settle out of court, William and John Barrett and Edmund O’Keefe each collected an even larger windfall of were awarded £175, while Richard Collins received a neat £225. Charles Ward, who claimed to be a man of the highest integrity, stated that his reputation had been most seriously defamed and was awarded an undisclosed amount.

The police, however, remained determined to make an arrest. They understood that the cash and bullion from the loot could not be identified but the old notes were a different proposition, and it wasn’t long after the prisoners were released that notes started to appear around the town with the red BEACONSFIELD having been none-toocleverly erased with chemicals. For the people of Beaconsfield, solving the crime had become a community project. Rumours kept circulating, and in December, Charles Ward was rearrested and charged with giving false evidence at the damages trial. Then, just two months later, John Barrett was again taken into custody while attending the Launceston races and charged with having in his possession, bank notes which appeared to have been treated with chemicals. Barrett was then charged with the robbery and with receiving stolen goods. However, in March, in the Hobart Supreme Court, again due to lack of evidence, John Barrett was acquitted of the robbery charge but found guilty of the charge of receiving and was sentenced to four years hard labour. The next day, in the same courtroom, Charles Ward was sentenced to six years gaol when the prosecution proved he had lied under oath in the damages case. Ward had a string of previous criminal convictions under various aliases but had somehow forgotten to mention this when claiming that his character had been assassinated as a result of being falsely charged with robbery. Finding himself again marooned between prison walls, Ward realized his only road to freedom was to turn informer, and as a result of his new information, police rearrested Edmund O’Keefe, along with a Mr John Rice, a new man on the scene. Both were charged with assaulting the bank manager and robbing him of his keys. The trial was to be held in Launceston, and after the offer of a bribe, together with a short stay in solitary confinement, Barrett was only too willing to give evidence with Ward. In his statement he alleged that Rice and O’Keefe had planned the robbery, and that they had guarded the bank manager while he and Ward carried out the theft. He told how the proceeds had been divided five ways at nearby Brandy Creek, the fifth share going to none other than the bank manager’s host that evening, Mr Ritchie of Swift’s Jetty. Ward also claimed that the men’s legal costs for their actions against the bank were all financed from the proceeds of the robbery. Nevertheless, despite all the preparation by the prosecution, the jury refused to accept the evidence, believing that the men had been coerced into their confessions by the police, and they were again set free. To this day, no person has ever been convicted of having robbed the Beaconsfield branch of the Bank of Tasmania. And to give the story its final comical twist, it was reported that in a friendly gesture, the people of Beaconsfield presented Walter Scott, the Sub-Inspector of Police, with a horse, saddle and bridle for his ardent work on the case and his success in recovering part of the money. No doubt some contributors, especially those who held prominent positions in the town, were eternally grateful that their reputations had remained unscathed.

NOTE: Beaconsfield became the centre of attention once again when the Beaconsfield Gold Mine collapsed due to an earthquake on 25th April, 2006. Of the 17 people who were in the mine at the time, 14 escaped immediately following the collapse. One miner, Larry Knight, was killed and the remaining two, Brant Webb and Todd Russell, were found alive on the sixth day by miners Pat Ball and Steve Saltmarsh. Webb and Russell were rescued on 9th May 2006, two weeks after being trapped nearly one kilometre below the surface. The mine closed in 2012.