This transported convict in 1856 set the Ipswich robbery record that still stands today. I told  a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.

His name was Richard Austin, or Dick Austin to his friends. He was born in 1828 in Staffordshire, England. He worked as a cloth cutter and got into a spot of bother and was convicted of horse theft, and sentenced to 7 years transportation.

Austin was one of 297 convicts who arrived at Moreton Bay aboard the ship Bangalore on the 30th of April 1850, and they were immediately given their ticket-of-leave.

In 1856, Austin was living in Ipswich and was betrothed to marry an Irish girl Mary Anne Prendergast, and that’s when things really went bad.

You see, on the evening of Friday the 14th of March 1856, the politician Arthur “Slippery Mac” Macalister held a meeting of electors at the Queen’s Arms Hotel in Ipswich on the corner of Brisbane and East streets. Macalister would go on to become the Queensland premier responsible for the narrow-gauge railway.

With most of Ipswich at the Queen’s Arms, sometime between ten and eleven o’clock Austin slipped out of the meeting and went to Bigot & Parkes, the watchmakers and jewellers on Union Street. The business was owned by John Parkes who would become an Ipswich alderman. Austin wasn’t there to buy a ring for his wedding in eleven days’ time.

Austin cleaned out the entire stock, taking all manner of jewellery, watches and gemstones. In all over £400 worth which is over half-a-millions dollars in today’s money. That beats even the $400,000 robbery of Hastings Jewellers in Ipswich in 1931. On that occasion the burglar used a giant tin opener, but Austin he broke in through the front door. His half-million-dollar robbery is an Ipswich record that stands to this day, 170 years later.

Austin must have thought he got away with it, because it was a full six months before he was arrested when some of the missing jewels were found in a box in his room at the Red Cow Inn on Union Street. This was only fifteen metres from the jewellery store that he robbed. His trial defence was probably doomed when he called as witnesses the forger Willam Bell and thief Adam Watson. Austin was convicted of the lesser charge of receiving stolen goods and sentenced to three years hard labour on the road gangs. His first child was born while he was incarcerated.

Austin did his time, regained his ticket-of-leave, and he and his wife had two more children.  He also stayed in touch with his travelling companions from the Bangalore. Among those on the ship were convict John Hutton who became Queensland’s first ever public executioner, and the pensioner guard Michael Turley who became oldest man ever murdered in prison.

There was also the convict Peter Gentle who was one of the first hotel keepers in Toowoomba. While Gentle would appear in the Ipswich courthouse charged with things like forging bank cheques and receiving stolen goods, he always refused to name names. His personal mission was to keep fellow ticket-of-leave men out of gaol.

By 1861, Austin had three children under four and finding it tough. He was arrested for stealing a bullock’s yoke. Austin was in the Toowoomba lock-up when Gentle paid a visit and offered the constable in charge a £50 bribe to let Austin go. The constable declined.

Austin was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment. Gentle then almost certainly bribed one of the constables assigned to escort Austin to Brisbane gaol. After delaying tactics by Austin, the party arrived at Gatton Creek on nightfall. Austin without handcuffs was sent to cross over a log first. When he got to the other side as you might expect he bolted into the bush. Horses would have been waiting and Austin was never seen again.

Constable Burton was promoted to acting chief constable in Toowoomba, Peter Gentle continued to protect ticket-of-leave men, and Dick Austin retains to this day the record of the biggest robbery in Ipswich history.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Dick Austin sets the robbery record 1856 – Copilot image.
Representation of Dick Austn based on his convict description 1850 – Copilot image.
Hon. Arthur Macalister – State Library of Queensland.
Representation of Dick Austin escaping with help 1861 – Copilot image.