Following on from al1801’s forums re Carcoar and Ben Hall (in the Bathurst patch), perhaps the most talked about incident in the local history is the 1862 Eugowra Gold Robbery. Frank Gardiner’s bushranging gang, including the infamous Ben Hall, carried out Australia’s largest gold robbery at Eugowra. When the gold escort arrived, the gang riddled the coach with gunfire and the coach driver (John Fagan of Carcoar) and four troopers fled while the gang made off with 77 kg of gold and £3700 in cash. Not long after this incident John Fagan purchased around 60 000 acres from the then owners of “Coombing Park’ and named it ‘Sunny Ridge’.

The question is… how did a humble coach driver from Carcoar come to have enough money to purchase 60,000 acres of prime grazing land around Carcoar/Mandurama? (Did they have Lotto back then?) The local “legend” maintains that Fagan was apparently in league with the bushrangers, tipping them off as to when and where to intercept the coach and then encouraging the troopers to run off when the gang arrived. For this he purportedly received a share of the spoils. This would explain his sudden ability to become a prominent landholder & grazier.

The other notable point about this robbery is that Hall was caught and held charged but he was released when a captured gang member refused to name Hall as one of the participants in the robbery. Nowdays, many historical reports fail to mention Hall’s involvement in this most infamous of coach robberies.