A de Havilland Vampire erected beside Lake Forbes in 1971 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Royal Australian Air Force

The grave of bushranger Ben Hall

The road passes by a rocky outcrop known as Escort Rock. A cairns marks what is believed to be the spot where the Eugowra stage coach robbery took place

Grave of Kate Kelly, sister of bushranger Ned Kelly

Ruins of the Goimbla homestead, held up by bushrangers in 1863

Lake Forbes

A typical central west town serving a district which produces grain, dairy produce, beef cattle and fat lambs, honeys, wine grapes and fruit. It was birthed in a gold rush in 1861.

Where is it?: New South Wales: Central & Far West. Forbes is 303 km west of Sydney and 33 km south west of Parkes, at the intersection of the Newell and Mid Western Highways on the Lachlan River.

Events: The Forbes Show is held in September, the Festival of Roses in November, the Jazz Festival in January and the Bush Traditions Folk Festival in August. The Forbes Hang-gliding Championships are held each January.

Things to see and do:

The history of the town - from its meteoric rise from nothing to a boom town of 28,000 people in two years after gold was found here in 1861, to a ghost town when the gold ran out, then a thriving market town - is told in the Forbes & District Historical Museum. Another museum to check out is McFeeters Motor Museum. It has a collection of meticulously restored motor cars, including, vintage, veteran, classic and street rods.

Forbes has numerous historic buildings and important heritage places, many listed by the National Trust of Australia (NSW) and some which you will recognize from the hit film The Dish, which was filmed here. The Centenary of Federation Heritage Trail brochure, about Forbes' buildings, is available at the Forbes Railway Arts & Visitor Information Centre.

Being a goldrush town, Forbes attracted its fair share of opportunistic characters. Priot to embarking on his life of crime, Ben Hall was a law-abiding farmer who lived in the area and sold cattle to the miners at Lambing Flat 9now Young). But in early 1862 his life was turned upside down when his wife left him for another man, taking their son with her. Devastated by this turn of events, he lost all interest in running his property, and began associating with bushranger Frank Gardiner before leading his own bushranging gang. Hall was eventually shot dead by police in May 1865. He was buried in the local cemetery, where his grave is still tended. Also buried in the cemetery are Kate Foster, who was Ned Kelly's sister, and Rebecca Shield, the great grand-neice of navigator James Cook.

Surrounding area:

Ben Hall's Place on Ben Hall Road, Yarrayang, 26 km north west of Forbes, is where it is believed Ben Hall was shot dead by a police party in May 1865.

Eugowra Rocks, on the road to Orange near Eugowra, is the site of Australia's largest stage coach robbery. on 15th June 1862, bushrangers Gardiner, Hall and others held up a coach carrying 14,000 pounds worth of gold and money. The place chosen for the robbery was a gully 5km north of Eugowra known as Eugowra Rocks. Here the coach was forced to slow down and negotiate a steep gully running down to Mandagery (Eugowra) Creek. With the exception of Hall and Gardiner’s share, most of the gold from the robbery was recovered from the back of the abandoned coach horse.

In the same Eugowra region, in 1863, bushrangers Ben Hall, John Gilbert and John O'Meally raided and besieged the Goimbla homestead. The bushrangers set fire to the barn and stable, but in the many exchanges of gunfire between the bandits and the Campbell family, bushranger John O'Meally was killed. At the time this was seen as a major victory for the community over the lawlessness perpetrated by bushrangers.

Kate Kelly, the sister of bushranger Ned Kelly, disappeared from Victoria following the hanging of her famous brother, Ned, in November 1880. She performed as showgirl in Sydney and Adelaide under a variety of aliases until 1888, when she married William Henry Foster, a respected blacksmith, and settled down in the town of Forbes. The couple had six children, though three died in infancy. Kate drowned in Lake Forbes while saving a Aboriginal child during one of the lake's floods in October 1898. She was buried in Forbes Cemetery, age 36, not far from bushranger Ben Hall.
Close by is the grave of Rebecca Shield, the great grand-niece of British explorer, Lieut. James Cook. She died in September 1902, aged 84 years. Buried in unmarked graves are Ben Hall's brother-in-law, John Walsh; John O'Meally, a member of Ben Hall's gang who was shot dead at Goimbla homestead on 19th November 1863, age 23; police aboriginal tracker Billy Dargin, died Forbes 28th October 1885, age 22.

History: The area was occupied by the Wiradjuri people prior to European settlement. John Oxley passed through in 1817 during one of the first inland expeditions. Oxley named the site Camp Hill. He was unimpressed with the clay soil, poor timber and swamps and he concluded, it is impossible to imagine a worse country. The first settlers moved into the district in 1834.
Gold was discovered by Harry Stephens, also known as "German Harry", in June 1861. Initially about 30,000 people moved to the goldfields, but by 1863 this had declined to about 3,500 because of the difficult mining conditions.
The goldfields were originally named "Black Ridge", and the name "Forbes" celebrating Sir Francis Forbes was declared from Sydney as the result of a possible government administrative error, it is said that the name was meant for the town now known as "Hill End" between Orange and Mudgee, New South Wales where gold was discovered around a similar time. Gold was initially found in the area known as Halpin's Flat. The Albion Hotel, once a Cobb and Co. stage coach stop, has tunnels situated underneath which were used during the gold rush to convey gold and money to and from the banks to minimise the chance of theft. The Albion Hotel burnt down on February 10, 2009, losing years of history and memorabilia.
One of Australia's most renowned bushrangers, Ben Hall, was shot dead in gun battle about 20 kilometres to the north-west of town on 5 May 1865. Hall and his gang were famous for stealing 77 kilograms (170 lb) of gold and £3,700 from the nearby town of Eugowra in 1862. He is buried in the Forbes Cemetery.
Although the bulk of the gold was soon removed the town did not fade away. It possessed the advantage of being located on the main overland stock route between Victoria and Queensland. Moreover, earlier pastoral activities were resumed and agricultural pursuits, particularly the growing of wheat, began to flourish, in large part due to French settlers J.B. Reymond and Auguste Nicolas who also developed a weir and irrigation system, established the first sawmill (1861) and the first vineyard and winery.
Forbes was declared a municipality in 1870. The first sheepdog trial in Australia, and possibly the world, was held here in 1872. The railway arrived in 1893 and the local economy expanded to include orchards and dairying. Agriculture was further enhanced with the construction of Wyangala Dam in 1935.lived in the town,

View Larger Map