Australian Bushranger Research Paper

For over 40 years the life and times of the Australian Bushranger, Ben Hall has held my imagination. My first introduction to the name Ben Hall came about by my father when on a long drive from our home in Queensland to our former Victorian home following my fathers service in Viet Nam, and our first opportunity as a family to visit my grandmothers and the wider family of Uncles, Auntys and Cousins, and to recover my sister who was holidaying at the family 's holiday home at Phillip Island. As for anyone who has taken the long road anywhere, a car ride of such distance could be tiresome, not with my father, who had a great interest in the early history of Australia and as well as a wider interest in world history. (something I have inherited) He was a collector of weapons from the earliest periods relating to our country and those which flooded the colony during the great gold rushes of the 1850 's - 1860 's, the Colts Revolvers, Lee Enfield Rifles, The Brown

However, the trip to Melbourne was broken up into stages and one of those stages was a stop off at Forbes, whilst here my father asked me if I had ever been taught anything about the bushrangers, only Ned Kelly was my response, to which my father then asked if I knew of Ben Hall, I had no idea who Ben Hall was, this was followed by a short overview of who and what he was, which was told in away that captured my imagination. Early the next morning we packed the car and prior to hitting the road my father drove us out to the Forbes cemetary and to the grave of Ben Hall, where we stopped a short time, took some photo 's and Dad pointed out the grave of Ned Kelly 's sister Kate. After an uneventual trip following our stop at Forbes, we made Melbourne and had a fabulous holiday and recovered a sister who wanted to stay longer, as the summer on Phillip Island, was for us kids was the greatest. Not long after our return my father persented me with Frank Clunes account of Ben Hall in the Wild Colonial Boys, and I was