One of the first poems I remember learning at my father's knee was "How Gilbert Died".
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This is Banjo Paterson's ballad about the betrayal and death at the hands of the police of "Flash" Johnny Gilbert at Stockman's Ford on the Billabong Creek near Binalong on May 13, 1865.
Gilbert, who had ridden with both Ben Hall and Frank Gardiner, was the scourge of a territory stretching from Lambing Flat (now Young) in the west and to Blayney in the east. He was one of the most remarkable bushrangers ever to do business in our part of the world.
Known for his daring holdups and escapes, and some remarkable rescues of his mates from the clutches of the law, Gilbert was only brought down after being betrayed by his own kith and kin.
The dramatic tale of his demise 150 years ago is to be re-enacted at Binalong, a picturesque gold rush era village just north of Yass, on Saturday.
Paterson, who definitely takes the outlaw's part, set the scene well:
"They (Gilbert and his mate Dunn) had taken their toll of the country round,
"And the troopers came close behind
"With a black that tracked like a human hound
"In the scrub and the ranges blind...
"But they wheeled their tracks with a wild beast's skill,
"And they made for the range again.
"Then away to the hut where their grandsire dwelt,
"They rode with a loosened rein."
Given the price on Gilbert's head had reached £1000, this faith in family was not just optimistic, it would also prove fatal.
"He had sold them both to the black police
"For the sake of the big reward."
Their host doused their muzzle loading rifles with water and signalled the police the prey were in the trap. Gilbert, on realising they had been betrayed, responded in character.
"We are sold,' he said to Dunn, `We are dead men both,
"But there may be a chance for one;
"I'll stop and I'll fight with the pistol here,
"You take to your heels and run."
The outcome was inevitable.
"Gilbert walked from the open door
"In a confident style and rash...
"He laughed as he lifted his pistol hand,
"And he fired at the rifle flash...
"With the rifle flashes the darkness flamed,
"He staggered and spun around,
"And they riddled his body with rifle balls as it lay on the blood soaked ground."
The sign, erected to mark the grave site by Edgar Penzig, notes Gilbert, who had been a criminal for 12 of his 25 years, was considered the most reckless of all the members of the Hall and Gardiner gangs.
"On the credit side it can be said he was a splendid horseman, a deadly shot, game with fists or gun, always polite to women and of irrepressible good humour and witty speech," Penzig wrote.
The reason my family has always taken such a keen interest in Gilbert and his fate is an apocryphal story, dating back to the 1870s, that my great great grandfather, Stephen Strong, was chased by the bushranger over Mount Macquarie between Neville and Carcoar late one night.
Strong, who was particularly well mounted, got away. When the pair encountered each other in Neville some days later, so the story goes, Gilbert complimented him on the quality of his mount.
A good horse was the Subaru WRX of the day. The mare had been the object of the pursuit.
Romantic though the yarn is, I have my doubts about its veracity. While Gilbert was shot in 1865 I can find no reference to Stephen Strong in Australia before 1868.
What I do take from the tale, whether it be true or false, is the intense, and mostly sympathetic, public interest in the bushrangers who usually targeted big miners and the landed gentry. Battlers were mostly left alone; unless they had a good horse that is.
