The Royal Hotel and the Bushrangers 1863

Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner and the Royal Hotel
The first raid on Canowindra occurred on Saturday night, 26 September 1863.

At about 6pm the five bushrangers arrived in Canowindra...At half past seven, Constable Sykes, who had been making his way down town, unarmed and unsuspecting, was “stuck up” by the bushrangers. He was kept at Robinson’s Inn (the site of the present day Royal Hotel) under the eye of Gilbert and company, until five o’clock the next morning.

Soon after the arrival of the bushrangers there began at the public house what The Bathurst Times described as “quite a jollification”.

The bushrangers paid for all they drank at the hotel and Gilbert, a man of “irrepressible good humour and witty speech”, is said to have “kept the company in roars of laughter”…

At five in the morning the men left the inn, had two hours sleep in a nearby paddock and rode away at 8am, taking a valuable horse of Robinson’s with them.

On Sunday 11 October, at about 8pm, the five members of the gang rode back into Canowindra. Hall and Gilbert took possession of Robinson’s Inn and bailed up the landlord and those in the house. They searched the premises for money and took any notes they found but left all the silver. After the search, Vale, O’Meally and Burke arrived and Gilbert stood drinks for everyone there… A few hours later they told Robinson they intended to hold up the entire town.

The following morning, the gang stationed themselves to guard the approaches to the town. All who came along, townspeople and travellers alike, were brought to the hotel until, at the end of the bushrangers’ three day stay, the company numbered about forty people. Outside the hotel were tied up the horses, drays, teams and carriages of those taken into custody.

On the third day the gang left town, but maintained a watch on the town from a rise nearby, probably what is known today as Blue Jacket Hill. As they left, they took another of Robinson’s horses, but it, like all the rest, was returned a few days later.

From The Sydney Mail, 17 Oct 1963;

“Gilbert’s gang have held the town of Canowindra for three days, bailing up and detaining everybody that passed during that time, till at length they had about forty prisoners. The bushrangers made themselves agreeable by treating everyone…”