by Carol Baxter
The portico to the two-storey building on the right
was the entrance to the bank.
The Bank of Australia robbery took place in Sydney in 1828. It was arguably the largest bank robbery in Australian history, based on the amount stolen and its financial impact on the bank. The full story of the robbery and its aftermath is told in Carol Baxter's Breaking the Bank.
When Carol was writing her first popular history, An Irresistible Temptation: the true story of Jane New and a colonial scandal, she stumbled across a reference mentioning that Jane had provided information to the authorities about "the bank robbery".
"What bank robbery?" she asked herself.
So she placed a newspaper microfilm in the reader (there were no online digitised newspapers at that time) and searched from the relevant date backwards. When she found references to the robbery, she realised why they hadn't bothered to say when or where the robbery occurred or which bank was robbed. What a tale!
Four hours after she handed over the manuscript for An Irresistible Temptation, she started work on Breaking the Bank.
"As gripping as any modern true crime story."
Police Association Journal, Australia
An extraordinary colonial robbery
by Carol Baxter
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 pounds 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.
Allen & Unwin, 2008
Trade paperback
(trade paperback)
RRP: $35.00
Website price:
$29.90
International & Kindle
This is a history book written as the best of novels, and is action packed from beginning to end ... [a] remarkably fascinating tale.
SA Life, Australia
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, Australia
A story like this 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, Australia
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, Australia
A great story.
Launceston Examiner, Australia
Skulduggery in early Sydney: Australia's biggest bank robbery
Sydney Institute - 56 minutes