bushranger

From humble farmer to the most brutal takedown in Australia’s history  WORDS BY AUSTRALIA REDISCOVERED WITH RICKO  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  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…