ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

(Founder, Dorothea Mackellar Student Poetry Awards) Mikie Maas is a Gunnedah resident , the founder of the poetry awards for students. I didn't realise that Mrs Maas had wriiten poetry herself until i came across a (1988) bi-centennial eisteddfod poetry book in which her poem was published.


"The Ballad Of Ben Hall"

Ben Hall was borned at Breeza,
In Eighteen Thirty Seven,
An honest lad, who earned his keep,
When barely aged eleven.

He grew into a strong willed man,
Who owned a squatting run,
He shared his life with a pretty wife,
And a precious son.

Then suddenly in sixty two,
There came that fateful day,
When troopers stormed his pieceful camp,
And took Ben Hall away.

In Orange he was falsely charged,
With Highway robbery,
A month in jail .... till truth prevailed,
And justice set him free.

Relief turned into bitter grief,
When coming home he found,
His wife had gone .... they took his son ...
His cattle dead ... all 'round.

Down on his knees he clenched his fists,
And crying beat his chest,
'They said i was a Bushranger ...
Now i be one! and the best!'

Who roamed the roads for three long years?
Who gathered wealth and fame,
Who robbed, but never killed a man,
BEN HALL! that was his name.

A thousand pounds was on his head!
And claimed .... by his best mate,
In Forbes the troopers shot him dead,
He just turned twenty eight.

His riddled body on parade,
The traps in triumph led!
A silent crowd dispersed to find,
The Judas-Friend had fled.

Today some say Ben earned his fate ....
Yet others will recall,
The way our poets mourned the death,
Of Breeza boy, BEN HALL.



Mikie Maas (Founder, Dorothea Mackellar Student Poetry Awards)

Good on ya Duncan.

The "facts" of Ben Hall, I suppose are those things that depend on who's telling the story.

like most stories I think Neville.

That's a real Mickey Mouse story Duncan - Oh I know Bushrangers were criminals but they certainly seemed to have a sense of panache about them in those days - or maybe I need to change my rose coloured glasses and put on the bi focals again.

Thank you for sharing.

Cheers

Maureen

Good On You Duncan, would you have a copy of Col Newsome's poem abot Ben Hall that you could post here?
Vic Jefferies

The Ben Hall poems that I have read are mostly good rhythmic rhyming poems, but far from the truth.
Any one who may have read The Sandy Creek Bushranger by Edgar Penzig (one of our greatest bushranger historians) would soon put to rest the lie that Hall's cattle perished in his stockyards after the troopers had arrested him and took him away.
The men working with Hall would not have gone home at the end of day and left the cattle to die. His wife would not have left them there either.
Hall's home and stockyards were less than half a mile from his inlaws, the Walsh family.
And any cattleman would tell you that cattle left overnight in the yards such a short distance away, would not be heard by neighbours and would drive you absolutely mad from their bellowing without some sort of investigation next morning, let alone weeks or more later when they had died.

RE. Mickey Maas. I penned a profile on her in the ABPA magazine some time back. If anyone would like to read it let me know.

Joe