1866 Mail Robbery by Bushranger in Queensland
OHMS envelope franked with four 1865 2d blue stamps tied with 152 barred oval hand-stamps
Printed ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH STATION at the lower left with manuscript Taroom 11th Jany 1866
Pencil: Recovered from robbed mail. Taroon. 1866. R H Watt.
Torn open by a literate Alexander McPherson, Bushranger, although endorsed: Vouchers
Date-stamp TAROOM JA11 1866 QUEENSLAND; manuscript Recovered from robbed mail from Taroom 12th inst
One of Three Recorded Bushranger ‘Robbery’ Covers
Offices
Taroom Post Office opened 25 March 1856
Taroom Telegraph Office opened on 29 December 1865, two weeks before the robbery
Route
107-mile weekly Condamine and Taroom Service operated by a mounted mailman with a packhorse. Left Taroom at 0600 on Friday and arrived at Condamine at 1800 on Saturday
Mailman left Taroom 0600 on Friday 12 January with this letter
Held up by Alexander McPherson, Bushranger, 30 miles south of Taroom, on 12 January 1866
The Only Recorded Cover from an actual Robbery by an Armed Bushranger
Two other items dated 1851 and 1856, both from Victoria, are considered to be survivors of robberies by Bushrangers.
It was subsequently established that they are both the product of collusion between the mailman and an accomplice.
There was no armed hold up in these two incidents.