"Streets of Forbes" is an Australian

folksong Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

about the death of

bushranger Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up " robbery unde ...

Ben Hall. The song is one of the best-known elements of the Australian folk repertoire. It has been recorded by many folk and popular artists and groups including

Martin Carthy Martin Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and later artists such ...

The Bushwhackers The Bushwhackers are a professional wrestling tag team who competed first as the New Zealand Kiwis and then as The Sheepherders during their 36-year career as a tag team. They wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation, Jim Crockett Promotions, ...

Gary Shearston Gary Rhett Shearston (9 January 19391 July 2013) was an Australian singer and songwriter and Anglican priest. He was a leading figure of the folk music revival of the 1960s and was notable as a performer of Australian traditional folk songs in ...

Niamh Parsons Niamh Parsons (born in Dublin, Ireland) is a singer of contemporary and traditional Irish music. Career Niamh Parsons started her professional career in 1990, in Belfast. Having been singing at sessions around Dublin, Niamh first joined the band ...

June Tabor June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is an English folk singer known for her solo work and her earlier collaborations with Maddy Prior and with Oysterband. Early life June Tabor was born and grew up in Warwick, England. As ...

and

Weddings Parties Anything Weddings, Parties, Anything. was an Australian folk rock band formed in 1984 in Melbourne and continuing until 1999. Their name came from The Clash song "Revolution Rock". Musicologist Billy Pinnell described their first album as the best Austr ...

. Paul Kelly made his public debut singing the Australian folk song 'Streets Of Forbes' to a Hobart audience in 1974. ''The Streets of Forbes'' is usually listed as traditional or anonymous, but Gary Shearston writes that "there are reasons for thinking John McGuire, (Ben Hall's brother in law), may well have been the original author".

Lyrics

:Come all of you Lachlan men :and a sorrowful tale I'll tell, :concerning of a hero bold :who through misfortune fell, :His name it was Ben Hall, a man of high renown, :Who was hunted from his station, and like a dog shot down. :Three years he roamed the roads, and he showed the traps some fun, :One thousand pounds was on his head, with Gilbert and John Dunn. :Ben parted from his comrades, the outlaws did agree, :To give away bushranging and to cross the briny sea. :Ben went to Goobang Creek, and that was his downfall :For riddled like a sieve was the valiant Ben Hall, :'Twas early in the morning upon the fifth of May :That the seven police surrounded him as fast asleep they lay. :Bill Dargin he was chosen to shoot the outlaw dead, :The troopers then fired madly and they filled him full of lead, :They rolled him in his blanket and strapped him to his prad, :And they led him through the streets of Forbes, to show the prize they had.

Explanation

The song recounts how Ben Hall left his station and became a

for 3 years, and was then shot dead by police in 1865. The song paints Ben Hall in a sympathetic light, and portrays the police as corrupt, brutal and cowardly.

Cultural references

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

is a small town in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, a

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. At the time of Ben Hall, Forbes was part of the

Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of ...

, in turn part of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

. "Lachlan men" refers to people living near the

Lachlan River The Lachlan River is an intermittent river that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, located in the Southern Tablelands, Central West, and Riverina regions of New South Wales, Australia. The Lachlan Riv ...

, which runs through Forbes. A station is a large Australian livestock farm. "Traps" and "troopers" are old Australian terms for the police.

Gilbert Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters *Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South A ...

and John Dunn were two other bushrangers who were members of

Ben Hall's gang Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, ...

Bushrangers Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under ...

were rural

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill th ...

s in

colonial Australia The history of Australia is the story of the land and peoples of the continent of Australia. Aboriginal Australians, People first arrived on the Australian mainland by sea from Maritime Southeast Asia between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago, and ...

, who typically engaged in robbery and theft.

Goobang Creek The Goobang Creek, a perennial stream of the Lachlan subcatchment, part of the Murrumbidgee catchment of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features The Goobang Creek r ...

is a small tributary of the Lachlan River. The Bill Dargin (also known as Billy Dargin) mentioned in the song was an

Australian aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait I ...

tracker employed by the police to find Ben Hall. "Prad" is old Australian slang for a horse. "One thousand pounds" refers to the

British pound Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, an ...

, the currency of Australia during colonial times. In 1910 it was replaced by the

Australian pound The pound ( Sign: £, £A for distinction) was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 14 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. As with other £sd currencies, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (denoted by the symbol ...

. In 1966 the

Australian dollar The Australian dollar ( sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Is ...

became the official currency.

References

{{Authority control Bushrangers Australian folk songs