"Ben Hall - Bushranger" In 1860, Ben Hall took up the lease of a property at Sandy Creek, south of Forbes, where he lived with his wife Biddy and baby son Henry.
He and his partner, John McGuire, sold cattle to the miners on the diggings at Lambing Flat. But in early 1862 his life was turned upside down when his wife left him for another man, taking their son with her. Ben Hall was devastated by this turn of events and lost all interest in running his property, caring little for the future or his own welfare. He began associating with Frank Gardiner, a charismatic career bushranger who frequented the area.
Soon he was in trouble with the police when he was arrested on charges of highway robbery, but was released after a witness changed his evidence. The Bushranger Act. By 1830 there were so many bushrangers roaming around New South Wales that the government passed a special Act to make it easier to catch people who might be bush- rangers.
The Act said: Anyone could arrest a person if he suspected him of being an escaped convict or bushranger. It was then up to the arrested per- son to prove that he was not an escaped convict.