Euroa Bank

EUROA BANK ROBBERY 10 DEC 1878

This was the first of the gang's well planned and meticulously carried
out raids.
As the bank was being robbed, twenty-two people were being held captive
in a storeroom.
The gang came perilously close to capture, when Benalla police
magistrate Mr. Wyatt traveling to Euroa had been informed by a
telegraph repairman that the wires were broken. Wyatt set off towards
Faithfull's Creek when he came across a man who turned out to be Steve
Hart. As the horse Wyatt was on was slow, he turned around and
returned in order to catch his train. It was during this time that the
gang were robbing the bank.

Joe was left on guard whilst three members of the gang set off to rob
the bank. Ned drove a spring cart taken from a group of captives, Dan
drove the hawker's van and Steve rode on horseback. Ned took a National
Bank cheque from the Failthfull's station as his way into the bank, the
bank having already closed for the day. The plan worked, and with his
cheque the three finely dressed 'gentlemen' managed to gain access to
the bank with ease. During the robbery Steve Hart would run into an old
school mate named Fanny Shaw and then be identified as the third member
of the Kelly gang. Joe Byrne was now the only unknown identity of the
hunted Kelly gang of bushrangers.

It is of interest to note that money from this robbery made its way
quickly to Kelly sympathisers and was spent throughout the district.