Vern's fate
"Colonel" Vern, on the other hand, not only had a wanted poster to himself, but had a reward of £500 on his head. This was apparently in the mistaken belief, perhaps based on his self-aggrandising about his military skills prior to the "battle", that he was the man they really had to catch. This just goes to show that Rede's sources of information don't appear to have been as good as he thought.
Vern was apparently supposed to be an "expert" on fortifications. While he may have been Hanoverian, despite Raffaello's blatherskiting, his design of the stockade was definitely not the work of an expert, although if he was responsible for the walls leaning outwards he appears to have known a little bit. But the great size of the stockade, with walls so long a very sizeable army would be needed to defend them all, and the defensive focus on the northern wall, leaving the other walls largely undefended, are strong indicators his skills were far from great.
As it happens, Vern was also not handed in. Several sources refer to him heading abroad, but we think we can say with a great degree of accuracy that these tales are untrue. Surprisingly, Vern actually made his way back to Ballarat, where he hid out in the tent of a couple of other miners for several months. He "borrowed" money, and was more than recalcitrant about repaying it. When he did repay, under quite a bit of pressure, he pulled a sizeable wad of cash out of his pocket to do so.
The suggestion appears to be that Vern was paid the money by government agents for services rendered. We have no idea whether this is true, but when people read Carboni's probably lying account of Vern running at the first shot being fired, they put two and six together and got twenty-six. There was talk of regular trips to Melbourne and so on. The conclusion was drawn that he had been meeting with Hotham.
Vern's life in Ballarat must have become impossible, and he left a year or so afterwards. He had been an active letter writer, full of weird combinations of truth and humbuggery, but he seems to have completely disappeared off the scene, until he much later offered his military skills to the NSW government.
The files appear to indicate the NSW public servants knew perfectly well who Vern was, and, in the apparent belief he still had a wanted reward on him, his offer was refused. It's unknown whether they bothered to dob him in to the Victorian authorities. There wouldn't have been any point, anyway, because he seems to have been pardoned at the same time as everyone else.
Vern was apparently supposed to be an "expert" on fortifications. While he may have been Hanoverian, despite Raffaello's blatherskiting, his design of the stockade was definitely not the work of an expert, although if he was responsible for the walls leaning outwards he appears to have known a little bit. But the great size of the stockade, with walls so long a very sizeable army would be needed to defend them all, and the defensive focus on the northern wall, leaving the other walls largely undefended, are strong indicators his skills were far from great.
As it happens, Vern was also not handed in. Several sources refer to him heading abroad, but we think we can say with a great degree of accuracy that these tales are untrue. Surprisingly, Vern actually made his way back to Ballarat, where he hid out in the tent of a couple of other miners for several months. He "borrowed" money, and was more than recalcitrant about repaying it. When he did repay, under quite a bit of pressure, he pulled a sizeable wad of cash out of his pocket to do so.
The suggestion appears to be that Vern was paid the money by government agents for services rendered. We have no idea whether this is true, but when people read Carboni's probably lying account of Vern running at the first shot being fired, they put two and six together and got twenty-six. There was talk of regular trips to Melbourne and so on. The conclusion was drawn that he had been meeting with Hotham.
Vern's life in Ballarat must have become impossible, and he left a year or so afterwards. He had been an active letter writer, full of weird combinations of truth and humbuggery, but he seems to have completely disappeared off the scene, until he much later offered his military skills to the NSW government.
The files appear to indicate the NSW public servants knew perfectly well who Vern was, and, in the apparent belief he still had a wanted reward on him, his offer was refused. It's unknown whether they bothered to dob him in to the Victorian authorities. There wouldn't have been any point, anyway, because he seems to have been pardoned at the same time as everyone else.