I don't think I would have got into this whole blogging thing if it wasn't for my girl Cass. BUt i'm actually now kind of enjoying it which is A) a little unexpected B) pretty unlike me and C) Something the guys will give me heaps for! but D) I don't care Matty becuase your just jealous and can't pull a girl!
Anyway, the whole Bushranger thing is because my great great grandfather was Ben Hall "The Gentleman Bushranger" (check out http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1520338.htm).
Its really interesting stuff... Ben Hall always maintained that it was Police brutality that lead him to the course he ended up taking. Whatever the case, he was always a gentleman to the people that he robbed and never killed a civilian...
This is his case for what he did in his own words...
"I'm not a criminal. I've been driven to this life. Pottinger arrested me on Forbes racecourse last year and I was held for a month in gaol, an innocent man. While I was away me wife ran away - with a policeman. Well, with a cove who used to in the police force. Then I was arrested for the mail coach robbery and held another month before I was let out on bail. When I came home, I found my house burned down and cattle perished of thirst, left locked in yards. Pottinger has threatened and bullied everybody in this district just because he can't catch Gardiner. Next thing I knew is that the troopers fired at me 3 weeks ago for robbing Pinnacle police station, when I had nothing to do with that little joke. Trooper Hollister has skited that he'll shoot me on sight. Can you wonder I'm wild? By Gawd, Mr Norton, it's your mob have driven me to it and, I tell you straight, you'll never take me alive!!"
Anyway, our family is trying to re-open the case and help ensure that history takes a fair look at Bens plight.
Sorry i'm rambling and getting carried away as I always do when I get onto the topic.