Royal Commission report day 11 page 15
The Royal Commission evidence for 12/4/1881
(see also introduction to day 11)
[[../../people/peU_Z/wyattMag.htm|Alfred Wyatt, P.M.]] giving evidence
2197 What time?— A little before twelve. Captain Standish also informed me himself a long time ago that he got my message before he got Mr. Gorman's message a few minutes; the message I sent at 9.45. Unfortunately, he was out on some occasion and did not get the message till long after it arrived in Melbourne , and he got Mr. Gorman's message when Scott and the other captives came back, ten minutes after my message. The moment he got these two he telegraphed to Mr. Whelan, he told me, and I remember the words of the telegram, roughly speaking. They were— “Bank at Euroa stuck up. You have now a good case. Go ahead.” That was the first information he received officially. I do not know anything about the constable.
2198 Do you know that the police in Benalla did get information?— No.
2199 Did you see the constable?— No.
2200 Did Whelan say the constable came and told him?— I cannot remember that. With regard to the constable, I will state this. The constable chanced to be absent on duty from Euroa at the time the robbery went on.
2201 That is hearsay?— I have learned it, not from the constable, for I never saw him, but I cannot remember from whom; but I am certain of that, that it is the fact. I heard it from so many quarters.
2202 Did Whelan inform you that he had orders to despatch a special train, and ask you to go by it, before or after he received the word from Captain Standish the bank being stuck up?— After the sticking up of the bank. My impression is that Whelan received the authority to send the special train somewhere about the same time, within a few minutes of the other message that I have referred to, from Captain Standish.
2203 That did not come in the same message?— No
2204 We may suppose that Whelan's being instructed to send a special train was in consequence of the information conveyed to Captain Standish?— By him he sought liberty to send it.
2205 Did Whelan obtain the order in consequence of the information that you had conveyed to him that he had sent to Captain Standish?— Yes, undoubtedly, and that only. I am positive of that.
2206 And it was not in consequence of the bank robbery at Euroa?— No, it was not. Perhaps it is rather too much to say that, but I feel absolutely certain in my own mind that the only thing that induced him to send that was my other information, and my own consent to go with it.
2207 At all events, he asked for the permission before he heard of the robbery?— Long before. With regard to his message to Mr. Nicolson, I should state this, that Whelan informed me that he delayed the sending of that message till nearly twelve o'clock for this reason: Mr. Nicolson could not possibly get the message till he was at Albury, and could not arrive there to get it; therefore he kept it back, after I told him, till a reasonably short time before the time when Mr. Nicolson could get to Albury. I then went back and prepared myself to go with this special train.
2208 Did you arm yourself?— I did. I then meant business, whatever it was. I went back and made all preparations, and came back with the man on to the station. I should state we were delayed a time, that provoked my indignation very much indeed, by two or three accidents. One was, as I considered, a want of rehearsal in the task of putting horses into the trucks; the other was a blunder on the part of the railway authorities. They brought up the trucks in such a manner that it made it exceedingly difficult to put the horses in. It was an old-fashioned truck with a convex roof, very low indeed. The eaves of the carriages so low that there was only just space to go in, and the roof was half cut away to let them go in—[explain the same]. —There were two horses of the party that could not be got in any way at all, by pushing, hauling, or enticing, till at last this device was resorted to—Constable Johnson, a very energetic and keen man, took off the saddle, jumped on the horse's bare back, and rode him at the thing, and lay own on its back like an acrobat, and rushed him at it, and that was the only way he was got in—we were delayed at least half-an-hour that way. I rode outside the engine, on one side.
2209 At what time did you start from Benalla?— I have a memorandum of the time—[looking at a book]. —No, I have no memorandum of the hour at which we started, but I can recollect as a matter of fact we did not start till about half-past one. It was bright moonlight. I rode on the frame of the engine outside, with a very powerful field-glass, to keep a watch on the driver's side that the line was not taken up, about which I had some little apprehension.
2210 Do you remember who was with you?— No one on the engine.
2211 Who were the party?— Sergeant or Constable Johnson, Detective Ward, and a number of troopers—I cannot remember how many. They took a load in a large van like a goods van, or like an open horse truck. When we were coming near the spot—the Faithfull's Creek station—I changed my side, and went round the end of the engine and watched the wires. It was then becoming an imperfect light from the rest haze that spread over the moon. That had made me anxious to lose no time.
2212 You had travelled slowly?— No, at a very high rate. I had never travelled so high before —sixty miles an hour at some parts. I have no doubt that when we came to the spot I told the driver to slow......
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