Some suggest Gilbert accompanied his uncle, John Davis, to the Victorian goldfields. However, there is no mention of Davis on the passenger list for the "Revenue", though there is a ten-year-old John Gilbert. Roy Mendham, in his book, "The Dictionary of Australian Bushrangers", asserts that Gilbert was responsible for the murder of his uncle. In 1854, Davis was found shot dead, and a Joseph Roberts, an alias of John Gilbert, was tried for Davis's murder but acquitted. Roberts was later tried for horsestealing. Roberts however was said to be about seventeen, Davis's murder occurred at the Waverley Arms at Bondi Junction, New South Wales. It would seem that Roberts, although possibly an alias for a John Gilbert, is not the same John Gilbert. The Gilbert family history does not include the names Roberts or Davis in Australia, although Wilson was used as an alias by Charles, his older brother who fled first to New Zealand's gold fields then to California to avoid arrest.