These pages will be regularly updated with stories from our new book ‘BEN HALL COUNTRY’, DUE IN EARLY 2012

Wowringragong races, Forbes.

5^th January 1865

The Lachlan Valley Races attracted a large field of horses and big crowds had gathered at Forbes during the first week of January.   The meeting would provide a welcome diversion for the gang and allow them to catch up with old friends. 

Early that morning the bushrangers made their first appearance at the Wowringragong track when Hall and Dunn appeared at the camp of the trainers Watson and Moreton, who were in the process of exercising their horses.  The visit was peaceful and after an hour or two they invited all hands to one of the booths on the far side of the course for an early drink. 

The bushrangers’ behaviour here was quite brazen but at no time they were troubled by the police, who were either still asleep or had perhaps deemed it prudent to keep their distance.  But surely Inspector Pottinger would have been keen to hear what was going on?

Sir Frederick certainly was.  

When given the news later that morning, Pottinger was galvanised into action. He immediately despatched his men in plain clothes to watch the course, and later announced to all that he would ride his own thoroughbred racer, the ironically named Bushranger, in the last race of the day.  This was to be a match race against the equally well-credentialled Scrammy Jack.  On the run down the back straight, Pottinger deliberately held Bushranger back in the hope that Hall and Dunn would appear and attempt to cut him off.  The plan was that the hidden troopers would themselves emerge to trap the fugitives.

In the event Hall and Dunn stayed out of sight, no doubt having been kept well-informed of the police activity and Pottinger’s intentions.  It was an ill-considered action on Pottinger’s part.   The bushrangers were never likely to venture into the open when they knew the area was infested with police, however inept and inefficient they may have been. 

So Pottinger’s ride was to no avail, but there would soon be far-reaching consequences.  Riding his own horse at the races was a direct contravention of police standing orders; it would lead to his immediate suspension and shortly afterwards that fateful coach trip to Sydney.

Meanwhile, during all the time that the gang was in the Forbes district, there was no reported sighting of Johnny Gilbert. 

There is a suspicion  that the flash cove could have been relaxing in the back room of some little hole-in-the-wall bar down one of the side streets of Forbes.  With cash in his pocket, he may well have been spending time with one of his old flames.  It would not have been the first time that the bushrangers had spent a night in town, visiting either singly or in pairs, so as not to attract attention.[1]

Fall of Pottinger

The whole episode was immediately reported in the Sydney press, and Pottinger’s racing came to the attention of Inspector-General McLerie, who immediately reported the matter to the Principal Under-Secretary.

For Pottinger it was a serious development.  He wrote a detailed explanation for his actions – some fourteen pages in length![2]  McLerie was unimpressed, noting that the reasons offered by Pottinger were “… quite inadequate to justify the disobedience of an order”.  The implications of such a comment would seem to indicate that McLerie was more concerned with a literal interpretation of departmental regulations rather than recognising the difficulties faced by front-line police in the continuing hunt for the bushrangers. 

But perhaps the real reason was simply that the police hierarchy had been waiting for just such an opportunity to be rid of the troublesome Inspector after a long series of indiscretions and the attendant negative press.

It was not an opinion held by the residents of the western districts.  Several petitions were sent to Sydney, signed by hundreds of people.  One petition from the residents of the Lachlan region stated that  “… the untiring energy and increasing zeal ever displayed by him in the performance of his duties as an Officer of the Police…”  and warned that “… the services of this highly efficient officer could ill be spared when there is such a deplorable prevalence of crime”.

Newspapers too showed their support.  In a stinging editorial, The Empire noted that:

  “Unlucky he has been, but what officer has not?  He has distinguished himself … for courage (if not discretion), a desideratum the want of which has been marvellously apparent in Captain McLerie’s regiment on several memorable occasions.  We will back up the petition with all our heart, believing that the dismissal of Sir Frederick Pottinger at any time would not be justified by results, and that at the present it would be most disastrous”.

 1864 had been a relatively quiet year in the Forbes area and it should be remembered that one reason the bushrangers favoured alternative territory to exercise their talents was due to Pottinger’s energetic pursuit of them whenever they reappeared in his district. Furthermore, it is surely no coincidence that after Pottinger left in early March the gang wasted no time in returning to Forbes and resuming their activities – they were at Jones store in Rankin Street just three weeks later.  

Enroute to Sydney, on 5^th March 1865, the coach stopped at Wascoe’s Inn at Blaxland, between Hartley and Emu Plains.  Pottinger had gone into an orchard next to the inn into pick some apples for the trip when the coach started without him.  As he swung himself up onto the step, a revolver in his pocket discharged and wounded him in the stomach. 

The wound was serious, particularly as the path of the bullet could not be traced.  As long as it remained inside the risk of infection was very great. 

At first Pottinger, now transported to Sydney, seemed to be recovering.  But in early April he suffered a relapse and was confined to bed, unable to walk.  Leeches were applied, to no avail, and by the weekend all hope had gone.  On Sunday 9^th April he lapsed into unconsciousness and died during the afternoon.

His passing was regarded by many with dismay. 

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Pottinger had been born in India on 27 April 1831, the second son of Sir Henry Pottinger, a prominent English soldier and diplomat.  Sir Henry distinguished himself in the British subjugation of Afghanistan, he was the first governor of Hong Kong and later governor of Madras and Cape Province. 

With such a background Frederick’s early life was predictable – Eton followed by a commission in the Grenadier Guards. 

His contemporaries included Lords Court and Neave as well as Rossborough, son of Lord Milltown and a distant cousin.  Here Pottinger developed a taste for gambling, a pastime at which he was spectacularly unsuccessful.

After the death of his father in 1854 Frederick inherited the title and the bulk of the family fortune. Within a few years most of the money had gone, including his mother’s jewellery, so Pottinger chose to exile himself to save the family further embarrassment.  He decided on that isolated outpost of British colonial times – Australia.[4] 

 He arrived in Melbourne in the ship British Trident under the name of “FW Parker” in June 1859.[5]  His activities in Victoria are not known but in March 1860 he travelled to Sydney under his own name on the City of Sydney. 

 Soon afterwards he enlisted as a trooper in the NSW Mounted Police without revealing his title.  Apparently his true identity became known after a letter addressed to “Sir Frederick William Pottinger” landed on the desk of Capt. McLerie, the Inspector-General of Police.  Obviously such a man could not be kept on as a trooper and in November 1860 he was appointed Clerk of Petty Sessions at Dubbo,[6] a very long way from Eton and Belgrave Square.  In November 1861 he transferred to the Mounted Police and became a magistrate at Lambing Flat with the rank of Inspector.[7]

The rest of his story has been well documented, as for the next three years he was the subject of many lines in the press, mostly critical.

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