Forbes town was built on Wiradjuri country in the Lachlan Valley in Central West NSW. The journeys of surveyor John Oxley (1817) and Thomas Mitchell (1836) through the Lachlan Valley, brought white followers seeking pastures for cattle. With the discovery of gold in 1861, the population grew to 30,000 and with the gold diggers came the bush rangers.
Ben Hall had a short bushranging career in the area, from 1862-1865 and died at the age of 27 in a shoot-out with police at the nearby Billabong Creek. History has been kind to Ben Hall as he is most often viewed with fondness as an honest, hardworking man, who only turned to thieving when his wife ran off with another man, taking with her his beloved infant son. Hall was devastated and soon developed an attitude of irresponsibility which would eventually seal his fate. About this time he became associated with the notorious bushranger, Frank Gardiner, and was soon in trouble with the law.
Hall was arrested in 1862 for highway robbery but was found not guilty and released when one of his accusers changed his story during the trial. Apparently while he was being held for one month, police burned down his home and his cattle were left to die of thirst. After this, police were captured by Ben Hall and his gang and often humiliated. Once, in a 3 day celebration at Robinson’s Hotel in Canowindra, they bailed up the village and held the local residents there for the entire three days. There was considerable merry making. They treated their prisoners well, giving them food and drink, even providing music to create a party atmosphere. The five gang members then insisted on paying the hotelier as a show of their honesty and respect for the common man. The object of this 'hold up' was not to frighten the town people but to demonstrate Ben Hall’s contempt for the police. This endeared him as the poor people's champion.
Some say he was a likeable bushranger who would tip his hat and bow to tellers as he left with the contents of their banks. They insist he was a hardworking, dedicated cattleman who was driven to crime as a result of constant harassment by the local police. Others say he was a liar and foul mouthed rogue like his ex-convict father.
When police put out a 1,000 pound reward for his death, he was betrayed by a friend who couldn’t resist the offer. About the end of April 1865, the gang temporarily split up but they had arranged to meet a few days later at a place on the Billabong Creek near Forbes. This time the police were watching and waiting. At dawn on Friday 5th May, an unsuspecting Ben Hall walked out of the scrub to collect his horses. Eight police opened fire. Ben Hall was dead. More than thirty shotgun and rifle bullet wounds scarred his body.
Ben Hall was buried at Forbes cemetery by police, with no cross or headstone to mark his final resting place, two days before his 28th birthday. Nearly two hundred people attended his funeral, such was the widespread sympathy for a young man who had fallen so far.
Over the years, locals have tended the grave and in the 1920’s a headstone was erected. There is now a white picket fence surrounding the grave. When Dave and I visited, there were fresh flowers in a vase.
