Breaking the Bank:
Breaking the Bank: An Extraordinary Colonial Robbery was published in 2008 to critical acclaim. It received First Prize in the Society of Women's Writers Biennial Award for Non-fiction in 2009, and has also drawn feature film interest - including from Hollywood. One day, maybe!
The blurb and prologue, as well as some reviews, are shown below. To purchase a book, go to Orders.
In brief: Breaking the Bank tells the true story of Australia's largest ever bank robbery. In 1828 thieves tunnelled through a sewerage drain into the vault of the Bank of Australia and stole the equivalent, in today's terms, of about $20 million. While the backdrop to An Irresistible Temptation tells the story of the liberal versus conservative politics of NSW in the 1820s, the backdrop to Breaking the Bank is the upstairs-downstairs politics of Sydney in the same period.
The blurb and prologue, as well as some reviews, are shown below. To purchase a book, go to Orders.
In brief: Breaking the Bank tells the true story of Australia's largest ever bank robbery. In 1828 thieves tunnelled through a sewerage drain into the vault of the Bank of Australia and stole the equivalent, in today's terms, of about $20 million. While the backdrop to An Irresistible Temptation tells the story of the liberal versus conservative politics of NSW in the 1820s, the backdrop to Breaking the Bank is the upstairs-downstairs politics of Sydney in the same period.
Blurb
A fast-paced history of Colonial Sydney that tells the extraordinary story of the country's largest ever bank robbery and the people caught up in its wake - from the author of An Irresistible Temptation.
It was the largest bank robbery in Australian history. On Sunday 14 September 1828, thieves tunnelled through a sewage drain into the vault of Sydney's Bank of Australia and stole 14 000 in notes and cash - the equivalent of $20 million in today's currency. This audacious group of convicts not only defied the weekly exhortation 'thou shalt not steal!', they targeted the bank owned by the colony's self-anointed nobility.
Delighted at this affront to their betters, Sydney's largely criminal and ex-criminal population did all they could to undermine the authorities' attempts to catch the robbers and retrieve the spoils. While the desperate bank directors offered increasingly large rewards and the government officers cast longing looks at the gallows, the robbers continued to elude detection. Then one day ...
With a rich cast of characters who refused to abase themselves to the establishment, this meticulously researched and fast-paced history tells the story of the daring Bank of Australia robbery and of the scheming robbers, greedy receivers and unfortunate suspects whose lives were irrevocably changed by this outrageous crime.
It was the largest bank robbery in Australian history. On Sunday 14 September 1828, thieves tunnelled through a sewage drain into the vault of Sydney's Bank of Australia and stole 14 000 in notes and cash - the equivalent of $20 million in today's currency. This audacious group of convicts not only defied the weekly exhortation 'thou shalt not steal!', they targeted the bank owned by the colony's self-anointed nobility.
Delighted at this affront to their betters, Sydney's largely criminal and ex-criminal population did all they could to undermine the authorities' attempts to catch the robbers and retrieve the spoils. While the desperate bank directors offered increasingly large rewards and the government officers cast longing looks at the gallows, the robbers continued to elude detection. Then one day ...
With a rich cast of characters who refused to abase themselves to the establishment, this meticulously researched and fast-paced history tells the story of the daring Bank of Australia robbery and of the scheming robbers, greedy receivers and unfortunate suspects whose lives were irrevocably changed by this outrageous crime.
Prologue
At 10 am on 15 September 1828 a messenger dashed out of Sydney’s Bank of Australia, raced down George Street and burst into the Police Office. Messengers were a familiar sight on Sydney’s earthen streets as they zigzagged through jostling crowds and darted around horse-drawn carts, bullocks and gangs of fettered convicts. But this particular messenger had pushed through the crowds with the heedlessness of urgency.
Merchants striding from the docks to their shops, matrons hastening home with baskets of provisions, urchins frolicking around ankles: all turned to watch and to listen. The news filtered from the police office even before the constables thrust open the door and bustled out. Thieves had plundered the Bank of Australia. Not the overflowing cash drawers guarded by the tellers or the neatly stacked wads caressed by the directors – the vault itself.
Crowds swarmed around men hammering news-bills onto prominent doors, walls and posts, begging an answer to that crucial question: ‘How much?’ Haughty government officers sporting their ₤100 to ₤200 incomes, hardy artisans toiling for ₤40 to ₤60 per year, weary housemaids struggling on a ₤6 to ₤15 subsistence, penniless but hopeful convicts, all eagerly jockeyed to hear the response. ‘Fourteen thousand pounds!’
As Sydneysiders gasped at the enormity of the robbery and wallowed in the details, another emotion bubbled to the surface: malicious delight. The thieves had targeted the ‘gentlemen’s’ bank rather than the ‘people’s’ Bank of New South Wales. ‘Such are the unpopular and impolitic principles on which the Bank of Australia was originally founded by Mr John Macarthur and his adherents,’ warned the Monitor’s editor snidely, ‘that among the bulk of Sydney’s inhabitants the Bank’s loss has created secret and in many cases open satisfaction.’ With remarkable prescience, the Monitor added: ‘We feel greatly afraid that facility rather than impediment will be given to the circulation of the stolen notes to such a degree as will prevent detection.’
While the newspapers heckled, the citizens crowed and the bank directors fumed, the most vital question of all still demanded an answer: Who had the effrontery to commit such a crime in a penal settlement, of all places?
Merchants striding from the docks to their shops, matrons hastening home with baskets of provisions, urchins frolicking around ankles: all turned to watch and to listen. The news filtered from the police office even before the constables thrust open the door and bustled out. Thieves had plundered the Bank of Australia. Not the overflowing cash drawers guarded by the tellers or the neatly stacked wads caressed by the directors – the vault itself.
Crowds swarmed around men hammering news-bills onto prominent doors, walls and posts, begging an answer to that crucial question: ‘How much?’ Haughty government officers sporting their ₤100 to ₤200 incomes, hardy artisans toiling for ₤40 to ₤60 per year, weary housemaids struggling on a ₤6 to ₤15 subsistence, penniless but hopeful convicts, all eagerly jockeyed to hear the response. ‘Fourteen thousand pounds!’
As Sydneysiders gasped at the enormity of the robbery and wallowed in the details, another emotion bubbled to the surface: malicious delight. The thieves had targeted the ‘gentlemen’s’ bank rather than the ‘people’s’ Bank of New South Wales. ‘Such are the unpopular and impolitic principles on which the Bank of Australia was originally founded by Mr John Macarthur and his adherents,’ warned the Monitor’s editor snidely, ‘that among the bulk of Sydney’s inhabitants the Bank’s loss has created secret and in many cases open satisfaction.’ With remarkable prescience, the Monitor added: ‘We feel greatly afraid that facility rather than impediment will be given to the circulation of the stolen notes to such a degree as will prevent detection.’
While the newspapers heckled, the citizens crowed and the bank directors fumed, the most vital question of all still demanded an answer: Who had the effrontery to commit such a crime in a penal settlement, of all places?
Reviews
‘Colourful characters, daring deeds, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion: Carol Baxter’s meticulously researched book has it all... Baxter brings long-dead people to life so vividly it’s hard to see why novelists and producers have overlooked the story... The precision of the writing, the controlled but graphic descriptions of people and events, engage sympathy and arouse anger. Breaking the Bank should be a contender for whatever Australian history prizes are going.’
Peter Corris, The Australian
‘Carol Baxter tells this amazing piece of Australia’s criminal history as a narrative rather than an academic text, making it extremely readable ... This is an historical piece that is as gripping as any modern true crime story ....’
Police Association Journal
‘[Breaking the Bank] is a history book written as the best of novels, and is action packed from beginning to end ... The picture of life in Old Sydney Town is drawn with compelling images, many of which are very poignant ... [a] remarkably fascinating tale.’
SA Life
A story like [Breaking the Bank] is a mine of historical information but rather than a dry retelling of the facts, Baxter writes it like a crime thriller ... [It is] riveting.'
Adelaide Advertiser
‘One must admire the dogged perseverance of historical writers as they delve into Australia’s past and manage to come up with new takes on some fascinating aspects of our wild colonial days. Carol Baxter is a respected historian who in Breaking the Bank relates a true story that begs to be made into a movie.’
Courier Mail
‘Baxter [provides] a detailed description of an amazing bank robbery ... As a crime story and detection tale, Breaking the Bank is well worth reading. As a vehicle telling the tale of 180 years ago, it is precious history well presented.’
Waikato Times
‘A great story ....’
Launceston Examiner
‘Breaking the Bank is another example of the genre of popular history with a ‘novelistic feel’. Baxter is careful to base her reconstructions closely on contemporary evidence ... She succeeds in putting flesh on the bones of the convict society described by historians such as Hirst and Hughes.’
Good Reading Magazine
‘[Carol Baxter] deserves to be congratulated on a number of counts. First and foremost there is assiduous research into the characters’ lives, the minutiae of events of both the crime and the subsequent transgressions and activity of the participants ... Her portraits are compelling and believable. Her intention has been to write accessible and popular history, building on the detective story aspect inherent in uncovering the perpetrators of the crime and the sage of bringing (or not bringing) the culprits to justice. Throughout Baxter proves an accomplished story-teller.’‘
David Dunstan, Australian Historical Studies
Orders
Click here if you wish to order a book or check out prices and packages.
Peter Corris, The Australian
‘Carol Baxter tells this amazing piece of Australia’s criminal history as a narrative rather than an academic text, making it extremely readable ... This is an historical piece that is as gripping as any modern true crime story ....’
Police Association Journal
‘[Breaking the Bank] is a history book written as the best of novels, and is action packed from beginning to end ... The picture of life in Old Sydney Town is drawn with compelling images, many of which are very poignant ... [a] remarkably fascinating tale.’
SA Life
A story like [Breaking the Bank] is a mine of historical information but rather than a dry retelling of the facts, Baxter writes it like a crime thriller ... [It is] riveting.'
Adelaide Advertiser
‘One must admire the dogged perseverance of historical writers as they delve into Australia’s past and manage to come up with new takes on some fascinating aspects of our wild colonial days. Carol Baxter is a respected historian who in Breaking the Bank relates a true story that begs to be made into a movie.’
Courier Mail
‘Baxter [provides] a detailed description of an amazing bank robbery ... As a crime story and detection tale, Breaking the Bank is well worth reading. As a vehicle telling the tale of 180 years ago, it is precious history well presented.’
Waikato Times
‘A great story ....’
Launceston Examiner
‘Breaking the Bank is another example of the genre of popular history with a ‘novelistic feel’. Baxter is careful to base her reconstructions closely on contemporary evidence ... She succeeds in putting flesh on the bones of the convict society described by historians such as Hirst and Hughes.’
Good Reading Magazine
‘[Carol Baxter] deserves to be congratulated on a number of counts. First and foremost there is assiduous research into the characters’ lives, the minutiae of events of both the crime and the subsequent transgressions and activity of the participants ... Her portraits are compelling and believable. Her intention has been to write accessible and popular history, building on the detective story aspect inherent in uncovering the perpetrators of the crime and the sage of bringing (or not bringing) the culprits to justice. Throughout Baxter proves an accomplished story-teller.’‘
David Dunstan, Australian Historical Studies
Orders
Click here if you wish to order a book or check out prices and packages.