To achieve this undertaking he recruited seven accomplices: Jack O'Meally, Johnny Gilbert, Ben Hall, Dan Charters, John Bow, Alex Fordyce and Henry Manns.

[24][25][26] The New South Wales government promptly offered a reward for information regarding "the band of armed men, said to be ten in number" who robbed "the Gold Escort from the Lachlan".

[28][24] Sanderson's party followed one set of tracks for about nine miles from where the packhorse was found, which led them past John Nowlan's station to the vicinity of Jack O'Meally's place near the Weddin Ranges.

Police Inspector Pottinger asked that the prisoners be remanded to await the appearance of a witness to identify bank-notes found in possession of one of their number and claimed by William Hall as his property.

It was reported that Daley was "very nervous and trembled like a leaf"; noticing his unease several of the captives pressed forward at which point Hall intervened and warned them to stay back.

It was reported by witnesses that the other bushranger called out, "Blow his bloody brains out" and "Shoot the bugger", at which O'Meally fired his pistol, the ball striking Cirkel above his left ear and killing him instantly.

[52] On Thursday, 30 July 1863, Gilbert and O'Meally were thwarted in their attempt to rob the Commercial Bank at Carcoar in the middle of the day, managing to escape from the town when the alarm was raised before they could carry out the robbery.

That evening the pair robbed Stanley Hosie's store at nearby Caloola, taking cash and a number of articles of clothing, including silk dresses, boots and shoes which they said they wanted for "their people".

Gilbert and O'Meally "carried on the contest", advancing and receding as they fired at the police, "and it is said they exhibited extraordinary expertness in the management of their horses – at times dropping at their sides, and then ducking down to the pommel, as they received and exchanged shots".

However, John Vane, who had agreed to join Gilbert's gang about a week before this incident, claimed in his biography (published in 1908) that the bushrangers had intended to rob the mail coach and the presence of policemen had taken them by surprise.

[60] On 16 August 1863 a police patrol which had been hunting for the bushrangers, led by Inspector Frederick Pottinger and consisting of three troopers and two Aboriginal trackers, came across the tracks of five horses south of the Weddin Mountains.

O'Meally, who had approached from the opposite side, had managed to secure a horse and the five bushrangers then galloped through the scrub and onto a flat, when they turned and kept their pursuers at bay with their rifles, having a longer range than the police revolvers.

[66] During the morning of 24 August 1863 Gilbert, O'Meally, Hall, Vane and Burke stuck up and robbed several people on the Hurricane Gully Road between Young and the Twelve-mile Rush.

[70][71][69] After the robbery the two bushrangers stopped at a slab hut two and a half miles from 'Demondrille' homestead, occupied by Walter Tootal, his mother and two younger siblings, as well as a carrier named George Slater.

The squatter, Alexander McKay, emerged from the house and O'Meally ordered him to the station store where he selected boots, a coat and hat, the bushranger explaining it was "for my mate, for he lost them last night in a skirmish with the police".

[80][81] After about a week at the camp O'Meally and Vane loaded up two pack-horses with stolen store goods ("chiefly drapery"), intended as gifts for their friends and sympathisers, and travelled back to the Carcoar district.

The Marengo correspondent to the Yass Courier commented: "People around here say that as some police inspectors find themselves incompetent to take the leading bushrangers, they therefore vent their disappointment and rage upon the robbers' relatives, i.e, by rendering houseless their aged parents, wives, and children".

[86][87] On Friday evening, 25 September 1863, John Loudon's household at 'Grubbenbong' station, fifteen miles from Carcoar, was robbed by the gang of bushrangers, Gilbert, Hall, O'Meally, Vane and Burke.

[88][89][90] Late on Saturday morning, 26 September 1863, the bushrangers arrived at William Rothery's 'Cliefden' station at Limestone Creek, south-west of Carcoar, where they bailed up the occupants and "partook of dinner – regaling themselves with champagne and brandy".

O'Meally and Burke remained at the inn while Hall, Gilbert and Vane "went on a foraging expedition" to the two stores in the township, belonging to Pierce and Hilliar, taking a quantity of men's clothing and three pounds in cash.

[88] In the morning Hall, Vane and Burke rode to 'Bangaroo' station in search of horses, but finding none, returned to Canowindra where Gilbert informed them that troopers were camped on the opposite side of the Belubula River, now in full flood, waiting for the waters to subside.

[93] Early on Saturday evening, 3 October 1863, Gilbert's gang of bushrangers rode into Bathurst, the most populous township west of the Blue Mountains and headquarters of the Western police force.

[100][101] While they had been waiting for the ransom the bushrangers arranged with men from a neighbouring station to take Burke's body on a spring cart to his father's house, for which they were paid two pounds each.

Campbell's wife Amelia went to the dining room and retrieved a spare gun and ammunition, which, under fire from the bushrangers, she brought to her husband who had sought refuge in a bedroom.

[103] After she had brought the firearm to her husband, Amelia Campbell left by the back of the house and, in the darkness, crossed a paddock about a hundred yards to a hut where four servant men slept, in order to seek their assistance.

In a letter to her mother after the events of that night, Amelia Campbell disclosed that the servant "heard one of them regretting not having shot the woman, – meaning, I suppose, myself, – but his comrade called out to him to hold his tongue, and mind what he was about".

[103] At the homestead after about half an hour after the shooting had ceased, by which time it was half-past eleven o'clock, David Campbell cautiously approached the spot where he had shot at the man, where he found a single-barrelled carbine rifle and a cabbage-tree hat behind the fence amongst the oats.

The Police Magistrate, Mr. Farrand, addressed the meeting; describing the Campbells as "a brave man and a true-hearted woman", he commended their "courageous stand" that had delivered "a serious blow and sore discouragement to the band of ruffian freebooters, who, for a considerable period, had kept the Western districts in continuous alarm".

At the meeting a purse of sovereigns was also contributed "as a testimonial to the servant girl at Goimbla, who had manifested great personal daring throughout the contest, and whose conduct was worthy of the highest praise".

[107][108] On 2 March 1864 a public meeting was held in the Chamber of Commerce in Sydney, to decide on the best method of "expressing approval of the gallant conduct" of David Campbell of 'Goimbla' "in repelling the attack of the bushrangers upon his station, and by the death of O'Meally breaking up the gang that so long infested the Western districts".