From humble farmer to the most brutal takedown in Australia’s history. The story of Ben Hall – legendary Australian bushranger.
The notion of a good man turned bad through the harassment by law enforcement agencies is nothing new in early Australian history, but in most cases, it is a notion based on romanticised fiction, rather than fact. Perhaps the most famous tale along these lines is that of old Ned Kelly, however, the harsh truth is that Ned was always a bad apple, right from the start.
Enter Bold Ben Hall, who fell in with the wrong crowd and was targeted by the local Police Chief until the bitter, and brutal end!
Ben Hall was said to be born in 1837 in either Breeza or Maitland in NSW to convict parents, Ben Snr and Eliza. They settled in the northern NSW town of Murrurundi and Ben Snr even opened a store selling freshly butchered meat, alongside fruit and vegetables. However, it was around the end of 1850 that Ben Snr packed up the kids and headed off for a fresh start on the Lachlan River, where young Ben would spend his formative years developing his skills as a stockman and bushman – skills would serve him well later in life. Ben Snr eventually returned to Murrurundi, but young Ben stayed behind, and in 1856 at the age of 19, he married Bridgette (better known as Biddy) and three years later they had a son, who they named Henry.
By 1860, Ben and his business partner (and Brother-In-Law) John Maguire took up a lease of some 10,000 acres called Sandy Creek, around 50km out of Forbes in NSW. For a time, Ben Hall was a respected farmer and by this time, he was a horseman and bushman of the highest order.
Biddy also had a sister, named Kitty and although Kitty was married to a local stockman named John Brown, she began an affair in 1862 with the bloke who would play a huge part in Hall’s life going forward – Frank Gardiner. By this time Gardiner was already well known to police, having been convicted for horse theft, having escaped from Victoria’s Pentridge Prison, and also having done time in Sydney’s notorious Cockatoo Island facility.
In late 1862, Hall came home after a long day working his Sandy Creek run, to find that Biddy had taken young Henry and run off with another local stockman, James Taylor. They moved well away to a place called Humbug Creek, near Lake Cowal in NSW. Hall was devastated, and over the coming weeks, he found himself spending time with Gardiner and seeking solace in the drink. Hall was weak, vulnerable and now under the influence of a hardened criminal in Gardiner. Perhaps it was Gardiner’s influence, or maybe Hall felt he had nothing left to lose, but it was around this time he was convinced to join Gardiner in holding up a local man, Bill Bacon and his drays. He was promptly arrested by the local Police Chief, Sir Frederick Pottinger. Although having been recognised as being present at the robbery, the Crown’s key witness inexplicably changed their story, saying they couldn’t confirm that Hall had actually been present at the time of the robbery, and he was acquitted.
Not too long after the Bill Bacon robbery, Frank Gardiner came up with an audacious plan to pull off what would become the largest robbery in Australian history. Gardiner, along with Hall, and a gang of six other men would complete what would become known as the Eugowra Gold Escort robbery. The gang blocked the track with a couple of drays, and when the escort party pulled up to clear the way, the gang sprang into action. The heist was spectacularly successful, and the gang made off with more than 2,700 ounces of gold, worth in excess of $4,900,000 in today’s money!
Soon after members of the gang were tracked down and arrested, and once again, Hall was acquitted and was set free. It was around this time that despite the success of the gold robbery, financial hardship forced Hall to sell his stake in the Sandy Creek lease, and as a part of the deal, he was permitted to stay on in the shack that he had built. However, Police Chief Pottinger had grown tired of Hall’s luck in escaping justice and ordered for the shack to be burnt down. If Ben Hall hadn’t already turned to a full-time life of crime, he had now. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Hall put his own gang together of crims and men of unscrupulous backgrounds. Flash Johnny Gilbert, John O’Meally, Mickey Burke, John Dunn and others joined Hall as they roamed the countryside bailing up mail coaches, drays, pubs and post offices.
At one time, Hall and his gang bailed up the Robinson’s Hotel in Canowindra, NSW and held the townsfolk captive in the pub for a few days. The local copper suffered the humiliation of being locked in his own cells! Hall treated the townsfolk well and made sure all were well fed and had plenty to drink while they held the town captive. In a bizarre move, Hall insisted on paying the townsfolk for their time and even swam across a swollen creek to bail up another nearby pub to get the cash to settle the bill with the publican of the Robinson’s Hotel.
During the period between 1863 and 1865, Hall and his gang had over 100 robberies attributed to them, and as other members of his gang were either captured or killed in various skirmishes with police, Hall remained on the run.
By 1865, the three constants in Hall’s gang, Hall, John Gilbert and John Dunn were the country’s most wanted men, with Gilbert having killed a police constable near Jugiong, and Dunn killing another officer during a hold-up of the Bushranger Hotel in Collector, NSW. The authorities had seen enough and put into effect new legislation called the Felons Apprehension act. This new law meant that any man could kill, on-site, any felon who had been deemed an outlaw, without warning. While the new legislation was before the parliament, Hall decided that the heat was getting to be a bit too much to handle, and made plans to head south into Victoria and lay low down there. Hall had organised through a friend known as Goobang Mick to pick up some fresh horses and provisions before making a run for it.
The price on Hall’s head was too much of a temptation for Goobang Mick, and he fronted the police and alerted them of Hall’s whereabouts and the plan. At dawn on May 5th at Goobang Creek, the police lay waiting for Hall. When Hall arrived he was ambushed by eight well-armed police officers, and was shot in excess of 30 times! As he fell and held himself up against a sapling he is said to have cried out, “I am shot, shoot me dead now” before collapsing and dying a short time later. Hall was just 27.
Legend has it that Hall’s share of the Eugowra Gold Escort Robbery is still buried somewhere up in the mountains of the Weddin Ranges near Forbes, and it is here that you can also visit Ben Halls Cave, a hideout he used frequently while on the run. In the Forbes cemetery, you will find the grave of Bold Ben Hall, who was beloved by the common folks and despised by the law.
The final twist in the death of Ben Hall is that when he was brutally gunned down, the Felons Apprehension act was still before parliament, and had not actually come into effect making his shooting, in purely legal terms, murder. No one was ever tried for the killing of Ben Hall, but his legend lives on.
