During the first eighteen months of the Victorian gold rush

Victorian gold rush

The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...

, the section of St Kilda Road

St Kilda Road, Melbourne

St Kilda Road is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is part of the locality of Melbourne which has the postcode of 3004 and along with Swanston Street forms a major spine of the city....

 between Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 and Canvas Town (the temporary camp for recent arrivals in Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

) was the scene of frequent hold-ups by armed bandits and bushrangers, mostly former convicts from Van Diemens Land.

The last major offense

On 17 March 1853, gold-buyer Edward Ritter and his brother-in-law Samuel Maxwell Alexander were riding in their chaise-cart from St Kilda to Melbourne. A gang of eight or nine men attempted to hold them up near Canvas Town, but Ritter managed to pull away from the potential robbers. A volley of shots were fired, of which three hit Ritter in the legs, without causing any serious injury.

Ritter and Alexander furnished good descriptions of their assailants, two of whom had been amongst a similar group who had tried to rob Ritter about three weeks earlier. The Government offered a reward of £1600, calculated at £200 per head, for their arrests leading to conviction, and the Melbourne police began to round up likely suspects. Ten men faced Justice Redmond Barry

Redmond Barry

Sir Redmond Barry KCMG was an Irish colonial judge in Victoria, Australia.-Early life:Barry was the son of Major-General Henry Green Barry, of Ballyclough, County Cork and his wife Phoebe Drought, daughter of John Armstrong Drought and Letita Head...

 on 18 April 1853, nine being convicted and were each sentenced to ten years’ hard labour on the roads, the first two in chains. One of these men, James Grimes, had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the Nelson robbery

Nelson robbery

The Nelson robbery was one of the major crimes of the Victorian gold rush. It involved the robbery at gunpoint of 8,183 ounces of gold valued at about £30,000 by a party of thieves from the barque Nelson as she lay at anchor in Hobsons Bay off Melbourne on the night of 1–2 April...

in 1852, but there had been insufficient evidence to convict him.

With the breaking up of this gang law and order were partially returned to the roads of Melbourne.