Haunted Bushranger Hotel

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The heritage-listed Bushranger Hotel (formerly Kimberley’s Commercial Hotel or Kimberley’s Inn) was once a favoured stopping place for fortune hunters on their way to the Kiandra goldfields. The hotel is located at 24 Church St, Collector, NSW. Inside you will find many guns and swords that were used by bushrangers back in the day. Some of these artifacts have been found under floorboards by previous publicans and landlords.

The Bushranger Hotel is said to be haunted by a former publican, who continues to go about his work. Glasses are seen moving seemingly of their own accord, and sometimes staff members will leave the room and return to find glasses have been stacked on the empty bar. Glasses have also been seen to shatter while still sitting on the shelf. Saucepans and lids have been thrown around the empty kitchen area.



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There have even been guests who have paid for accommodation, but refused to stay the night. There are stories of shadows being seen in mirrors, phantom taps on the shoulder. White whispy figures disappearing around corners accompanied by the steps of heavy boots and sudden unexplained drops in temperature.

Who was this mystery spook that haunted the hotel?



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Digging further revealed that around 1851, Thomas Kimberley, a leather-worker, opened a boot shop in the town, and his Wellington boots became well known across the State. Ten years later (1860–61) Kimberley built Kimberley Commercial Hotel (Bushranger Hotel). Kimberley incorporated his boot shop into the hotel building.

Mr Kimberley was born in England and came to this state many years ago. He was a saddler by trade and for some time he carried on this business in conjunction with the hotel. He was an excellent tradesman and often made riding boots for neighboring squatters. He married Miss Emma Hincksman who survives him.

Mr Kimberley died at the residence on the 3rd July, 1902, aged 82. The cause of death being general break-up of the system.

One thing’s for sure, Thomas Kimberley is a very strong candidate of the alleged hauntings.



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Other paranormal activities are of a mysterious lady dressed in red that has been seen in the hallways and walking through walls.

Some people have reported seeing the figure of a young woman whilst on a ghost tour of the hotel.

Other eerie phenomena include hysterical laughter coming from empty rooms and mysterious whispers in your ear. If you are a woman and are staying in the hotel, you may be fortunate enough to have the sensation of your hair been stroked and run through with invisible fingers.

Could it be Mr Kimberley’s wife, who also passed away at the hotel?



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The sad death of Mrs Emma Kimberley occurred at Kimberley’s Commercial Hotel, Collector, on Thursday morning, 23rd September 1909, aged 85. Deceased's late husband or herself had kept the hotel since its creation, her residence at Collector covering a period of 60 years.

Is Mrs Kimberley the alleged ghost dressed in red haunting the historic hotel?

Mr and Mrs Kimberley were said to have no family; however, I found there is an adopted daughter, who for the past few years, had relieved Mr and Mrs Kimberley of a grant portion of their work, no other information was available.

Perhaps the figure of the young woman seen on a ghost tour was the adopted daughter?

One has to ponder if the Kimberley family have resided back to their beloved hotel?



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With the death of Mrs Kimberley, the district has lost one of the few remaining links which connected it with the bushranging period. The hotel was several times visited by the Gilbert-Ben Hall gang. On one occasion Mrs Kimberley was compelled at the point of a revolver to produce the cashbox.

On another occasion the gang had many men bailed up in a bar of the hotel. Gilbert told Mrs Kimberley she had nothing to be afraid of, that she would not be hurt. Hall, however, put a pistol to her head and demanded the money in her house. Mrs Kimberley had the money in the pocket of her apron, and drawing it out threw it on the counter. Hall rejected notes and cheques, stating they were of no use to him.

Mrs Kimberley displayed great presence of mind in a situation which would have terrified most women, seized the paper money, declaring if it was no good to a bushranger, it was to her. Hall was so struck with her promptitude that he exclaimed, "You're a plucky old woman."

It was on this occasion that a monument was erected at Collector years ago, the tragedy taking place within a few yards of the hotel.

Could this unfortunate soul also be residing at the hotel?



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At the beginning of 1865, Ben Hall, John Gilbert and John Dunn were the most wanted men in Australia. Their success on the roads was problematic and they were nigh on untouchable. However, after a failed coach robbery in Black Springs resulting in John Gilbert killing Sergeant Edmund Parry, the gang now had to tread carefully.

The new recruit John Dunn was working out splendidly, taking to his role with a natural gift that saw him very quickly gain equal notoriety to his colleagues. Things were about to become far more serious as the gang descended upon Thomas Kimberly’s Inn in Collector on the outskirts of their usual beat on January 26, 1865.

Hall and company had held up some drays earlier that day and had been helping themselves to the grog when John Dunn spotted young Harry Nelson on his way back home from Taradale. Dunn stuck up the hapless boy and took him to join the other victims once he had been searched. The gang were informed that Harry was the son of Constable Nelson and then proceeded towards Collector gathering more prisoners as they went.



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In the early afternoon, Hall, Gilbert and Dunn arrived at Kimberley’s Inn on horseback and forced Harry Nelson to hold their horses. Harry was told in no uncertain terms that he was to hold the horses or have his brains blown out, likely by Gilbert whose taste for the dramatic was well known by this point.

When Thomas Kimberley was roused he went to the door and was greeted by the not-so-cheery sight of a pepperbox revolver aimed at his chest. The gang proceeded to round up the occupants of the building and add them to the existing number of victims.

Hall and Gilbert went inside to ransack the rooms while Dunn emptied the pockets and purses of the captives outside and kept watch. Inside the inn Hall searched the rooms upstairs with a servant named Eliza Mensey who was equipped with the keys while Gilbert raided the stores. The bushranger and the servant girl conversed for a time and Hall procured Kimberley’s gun stash and between himself and Gilbert took £26 worth of items consisting mostly of men’s and boy’s clothes and boots.



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Unfortunately for the bushrangers word slipped out about what was happening at the hotel and worked its way into town where it reached thirty eight year old Constable Samuel Nelson, the lock-up keeper and solitary officer in town formerly of Moreton Bay. Nelson had been repeatedly frustrated in his duties by the refusal of the police force to provide him with reinforcements in an attempt to nail the Hall gang, thus had avowed to do his best to fulfill the duty of capturing the bandits alone.

Nelson had served in the New South Wales police force for just over seven years after arriving from England in 1855. His dedication to his civic duty was never more conspicuous as it was on this day. With his colleagues out of town searching for the bandits, Nelson took it upon himself to sort out the happenings at the inn. Fetching up his carbine with bayonet attached, he marched to the inn telling his wife Elizabeth “Now, I’m just going to do my best”.



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Meanwhile at Kimberly’s Inn, John Dunn was acting as a sentry. He had already scared off Mr. Edwards the clerk of Petty Sessions with a few parting shots and was feeling on edge. He hollered for his companions to come downstairs as police were coming but when Ben Hall appeared, armed with two revolvers, he dismissed Dunn’s worries and said “You can manage it,” before returning to his business upstairs.

Much younger than his colleagues in crime, Dunn was slight and spry, qualities that had served him well as a jockey and bush telegraph for Gilbert previously. Unfortunately on this day he was also unusually agitated and his nervousness showed in his erratic behaviour. He mounted his horse and roamed the perimeter before returning to Harry Nelson and ordering him to hold the horses. Dismounting, Dunn crouched behind the fence with a shotgun and revolver.

On the way to the inn Constable Nelson crossed paths with his eighteen year old son Frederick who followed a short distance behind. Just before dusk Nelson arrived at the inn and upon sighting Dunn presented his rifle. Dunn ordered Nelson to stand or be shot. Nelson was not about to be cowed by bushrangers on this day and continued on, (you radiate sunshine and light)ing the rifle.



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As he aimed at Dunn, the bushranger fired at him with a shotgun, twenty odd pieces of hot lead hitting Nelson in the chest lacerating the heart and perforating the liver and causing a hideous wound down to his stomach, which was visible through the hole. The constable staggered onto the road dropping his carbine with an exclamation of “Oh!” whereupon Dunn fired again with his pistol and the bullet hit Nelson in the left side of the face killing him instantly.

Spotting Frederick Nelson near the fence Dunn hollered for him to stand but the boy, still in shock, bolted. Dunn reeled off a shot at the retreating lad but missed.

Roused by the gunfire, Hall and Gilbert emerged from the inn and saw Nelson’s body on the path in a pool of blood and gore. Dunn darted back to the inn, greatly agitated and told Hall and Gilbert “I’ve shot one of the bloody traps, the other has bolted.”

Hall and Gilbert went over to investigate the fallen officer. The bushrangers searched Nelson, Gilbert stripping him of his belt stating “It’s just what I wanted, I’ve burst mine”. Dunn took up Nelson’s carbine leaving the body on the road.

Once the bandits had left, Constable Samuel Nelson’s body was laid on a couch in the Kimberley Hotel. The bloodstained couch reportedly remained there until at least 1934. While on the run the bushrangers discarded two of the shotguns stolen from the inn under a tree where they were soon retrieved.



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Nelson died during the height of summer and with no morgue within cooee of Collector, research indicates that he was hastily buried without the aid of a minister in the grounds of the police station [still operational] over the grave they struck a willow stave which grew, and, in the course of time, only the willow wept there.

“Although there is currently no marked grave in the grounds of the police station, some old-timers did recall a willow growing there mid last century," reports life-long local Gary Poile.

However, the precise location of the willow may be a moot point for those who wish to pay their respects to the slain police officer, for it appears that Nelson was unlawfully exhumed about 50 years later.



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Just after World War 1, someone decided to remove Nelson's remains from the Police Station without an exhumation order or permission from the family. Not knowing exactly where Nelson lay, they sank several 'duffers' till they struck paydust in the shape of the constable's bones. These they reverently gathered and crawling through a hole in the dividing fence put them in a grave alongside the Kimberleys in the neighbouring cemetery.

The cemetery is next door of the Police Station, which is 350 metres from the hotel.

With the public becoming more history conscious, some years later a cross was placed on the unmarked grave in the cemetery and inscribed "Constable Nelson 1865".

Could Constable Nelson also still be there as well, maintaining his watchful eye over the town?

What happened to the Gilbert-Ben Hall gang?



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BEN HALL

The authorities had issued a 1000-pound reward for the capture of each member of the gang. One of the other gang members, “Coobang Mick”, informed the police of Hall’s whereabouts and claimed the reward.

On the morning of 5 May, Sub-Inspector James Henry Davidson, with five other policemen and two Aboriginal trackers surrounded the bushranger at a billabong north of the town of Forbes.

POLICE REPORT OF INSPECTOR JAMES HENRY DAVIDSON, FORBES.

"We came upon two horses hobbled in the scrub, about twelve miles from Forbes, near Billibong Creek. We watched the horses for about half-an hour, when we saw a man approach who caught the horses. He passed close by where we were standing. He caught the horses and led them away about 100 yards. This was about 10 o'clock in the evening. We did not recognise the man. He took the horses about 100 yards, and hobbled them again.”

“Shortly after, a tracker, Billy Dargan, informed me that he heard the man he saw lead away the horses making a noise among the dead leaves, as though he was preparing a bed for himself. I then placed five of the men in my charge where we were standing, and went with sergeant Condell and Billy Dargan on the other side of the man, with the intention of attacking him in his camp should we discover, that he was Ben Hall. We could not get within 100 yards of the man, in consequence of his horse snorting at our approach. I then determined to wait until daybreak."



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"I ran after him a considerable distance, calling on him to stand, several times, gradually gaining on him, and when within about forty yards, fired. The shot taking effect in the left shoulder, he looked around. I thought with the intention of firing at me, I put up the gun again to fire but did not. Condell and Dargin then fired two shots each which seemed to have a slight effect. The four men and Charley now showed up.”

“Hall, seeing them, turned to the right and made for a small clump of saplings on the plain. He still had the revolver in his hand. He caught a sapling with his left hand with the intention of trying to shoot round it. At this time I noticed Hipkiss firing with a revolving rifle, the bullet from which struck Hall on the belt and cut it, his revolver falling to the ground. Hall then seemed to be badly hit and appeared to me to be about to fall. At this time the whole of the remaining shots were fired; he fell back saying “I am wounded, I am dying, shoot me dead” and after a few convulsive shudders he moved no more."



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