This week, Roy and I decided to visit the 'The Bushranger Hotel' in Collector (near Canberra). Although you may not have heard of Collector, it was for a long time a thriving town with the main road to Canberra passing through. In its heydey it had 5 hotels and many shops. Now the Federal Highway no longer goes through the town it is a much smaller place, and only one of the five hotels survives, The Bushranger Hotel.
The first people to live in Collector,father and son Terrence and Terence Aubrey Murray, moved to the area in 1829. In 1841 they decided to break part of their land up into smaller areas, and gave some of these to their workers. Ten years later, in 1851, a leather worker called Thomas Kimberly opened a shop in Collector selling boots. Apparently, his boots became well known throughout the state! In 1861 Kimberly built a hotel, called the Kimberly's Commercial Hotel, and incorporated his boot shop into the building itself. The hotel was actually one of five in town at the time. There were lots of people using the hotel and the town because people traveled through on their way to the Kiandra gold fields. The hotel did not remain Kimberly's Commercial Hotel, and today it is known as 'The Bushranger Hotel'. It is the only one left of the five original hotels in the area. So, how did it get its name?
On January 26th 1865 Ben Hall and his gang entered the town while most of the police were out searching for them on the road. They collected hostages on their way in to town and left them guarded outside the hotel by one of their men, John Dunn while Ben Hall and John Gilbert went into the hotel to get money and weapons. There was one policeman left in town, Constable Samuel Nelson, and he and one of his sons approached the Hotel. Another of his sons was already a hostage. John Dunn warned him to stay away, but Samuel Nelson kept coming, was shot and killed. Now there is a memorial to Samuel Nelson next to the hotel. If you would like to learn more about Bushranger Hotel, click here or here.
Although he might not be as famous as Ned Kelly, Ben Hall was well liked, and was probably the best of the Bushranger Leaders. He was known as 'Brave' Ben Hall, and it is likely that he only turned to bushranging after a series of problems. First, he was wrongly arrested. Then, his wife left him for a policeman, taking with her his young son. Next, he was wrongly arrested - again! By the time he got back to his land at Sandy Creek (near Wheogo Station), his house had been burned down (probably by the man who had ordered his arrest in the first place Sir Frederick Pottinger) and his animals had all died because when he was arrested the police didn't let his animals out and they had no food or water. There is some evidence to suggest he simply decided to do what he was being blamed for anyway - nothing else was going right! He joined Frank Gardiner, a bushranger, and later took over as leader of the gang.
In a few years, Ben Hall committed over 600 robberies, but he never killed anyone. In fact, in 1863, the gang bailed up all the people in Canowindra, kept them in Robinson's Hotel, and told them to eat and drink all they wanted, all at the gangs expense. It was a three day party and only ended when some of the 'guests' warned Ben Hall that the river was rising and they needed to leave before they got stuck there! Ben Hall was seen by some as a bit like Robin Hood, taking from the rich and giving his gains to friends, family and those who supported him. When he was eventually killed in 1865, he was so well liked that lots of people came to his funeral. His grave is in Forbes Cemetary. If you would like to learn more about Ben Hall click here or here. To see pictures of him, click here.