There's an inaccuracy in the claim here that Frank Gardiner was the only bushranger not to die of gunshot wounds or hanging. His co-prisoner in Cockatoo Island Prison, Fred Ward (Captain Thunderbolt) wasn't shot at Uralla as the police claimed. It was his uncle, Harry Ward, who doubled as 'Captain Thunderbolt' to the annoyance of the real McCoy. The police cover-up of the facts surrounding the 'death' of Thunderbolt had its roots in the way Sgt Walker (who shot Harry) wrongly claimed the reward. The crime remains hidden by a shameless NSW Police to this day, and my attempts to get a state MP to get access to incriminating records have so far been thwarted.

Fred Ward, like Gardiner, went to California. I'm sure he looked Gardiner up at his Saloon in San Francisco. Ward and his wife were true folk heroes, the legends of whom were trashed by corrupt police. The way Ward was treated tells us a lot about how Australia ended up as a nation of individuals with little real character. Basically good men like Ward were (i) treated badly by corrupt officials, and (ii) disposed of as a nuisance. We pay the cost of that shabby colonial policy to this day.