Breaking The Bank: An Extraordinary Colonial Robbery

The Age

Saturday June 14, 2008

Reviewer, Thuy On

Breaking the Bank: An Extraordinary Colonial Robbery

Carol Baxter

Allen & Unwin, $35

IN SYDNEY IN 1828, A GANG of thieves robbed the vault of the Bank of Australia, making off with #14,000 (roughly $20 million in today's currency). Who had the chutzpah to commit such a daring raid in a penal settlement? Who else but the convicts recently shipped there from England - a motley crew of opportunistic ruffians whose daring heist won as much admiration as disapprobation.

Breaking the Bank charts the lives of the villains before, during and post robbery as well as some of those who aided and abetted them. It's a busy book, with a seeming cast of thousands; fortunately Carol Baxter minimalises confusion by listing the characters (robbers, suspects and receivers). In particular, she focuses on William Blackstone, the blacksmith and career criminal whose specially crafted tools enabled the breaking of the bank but who ultimately turned informer on his fellow malefactors.

Though based on a true story, the book is written as narrative history, with Baxter using her research to recreate the events. Moving beyond the robbery itself, the book also provides a solid overview of colonial life in NSW, offering an indictment of the excessively punitive treatment of the convicts, a practice that far from encouraging reformation, only bred resentment and rebellion - to wit the breaking of the bank.