"Streets of Forbes" is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n folksong about the death of bushranger

Bushranger

Bushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities...

 Ben Hall. The song is one of the best-known elements of the Australian folk repertoire. It has been recorded by many folk and popular artists and groups including The Bushwhackers

The Bushwhackers

The Bushwhackers were a professional wrestling tag team that also competed as The Sheepherders during their long career. They wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation and Jim Crockett Promotions as well as a nearly 40 year run on the independent wrestling circuit...

, Gary Shearston

Gary Shearston

Gary Shearston is an Australian singer and songwriter who was a leading figure of the folk music revival of the 1960s. He is notable as a performer of Australian traditional folk songs in an authentic style...

, Niamh Parsons

Niamh Parsons

Niamh Parsons is a singer of contemporary and traditional Irish music.Early in her career Parsons sang with folk musician Jon Hicks on his album Chasing the Bear. Joining her husband Dee with his band the Loose Connections in 1990, Parsons released two CDs with this band...

 and Weddings Parties Anything

Weddings Parties Anything

Weddings Parties Anything were an Australian folk rock band formed in 1984 in Melbourne and continuing until 1998. Their name came from The Clash song and musicologist Billy Pinnell described their first album as the best Australian rock debut since Skyhooks' Living in the '70s.-Formation and...

. Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly (musician)

Paul Maurice Kelly is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player. He has performed solo, and has led numerous groups, including the Dots, the Coloured Girls, and the Messengers. He has worked with other artists and groups, including associated projects Professor...

 made his public debut singing the Australian folk song 'Streets Of Forbes' to a Hobart audience in 1974. The Streets of Forbes is usually listed as traditional or anonymous, but Gary Shearston writes that "there are reasons for thinking John McGuire, (Ben Hall's brother in law), may well have been the original author".

Lyrics

Come all you Lachlan

Lachlan River

- Course :The river rises in the central highland of New South Wales, part of the Great Dividing Range, 13 km east of Gunning. Its major headwaters, the Carcoar River, the Belubula River and the Abercrombie River converge near the town of Cowra. Minor tributaries include the Morongla Creek...

 men and a sorrowful tale I'll tell,

The story of a decent man who through misfortune fell,

His name it was Ben Hall, a man of high renown,

Who was hunted from his station, and like a dog shot down.

Three years he roamed the roads, and he showed the traps some fun,

One thousand pounds was on his head, with Gilbert

John Gilbert (bushranger)

Johnny Gilbert was an Australian bushranger shot dead by the police at the age of 23 near Binalong, New South Wales on 13 May 1865.John Gilbert was the only Australian bushranger never to go to prison...

 and John Dunn.

Ben parted from his comrades, the outlaws did agree,

To give away bushranging and to cross the briny sea.

Ben went to Goobang Creek

Goobang Creek

Goobang Creek is a tributary of the Lachlan River in New South Wales, Australia. It joins the Lachlan River at the town of Condobolin. Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Wiradjuri people. Major Thomas Mitchell and John Oxley were early explorers in the area. The town of...

, and that was his downfall

For riddled like a sieve was the valiant Ben Hall,

'Twas early in the morning upon the fifth of May

That the seven police surrounded him as fast asleep they lay.

Bill Dargin he was chosen to shoot the outlaw dead,

The troopers then fired madly and they filled him full of lead,

They rolled him in his blanket and strapped him to his prad,

And they led him through the streets of Forbes

Forbes, New South Wales

-Notable residents:*Carolyn Simpson - Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales; Member of the first all-female bench to sit in an Australian court*NSW Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt was born and raised in Forbes....

, to show the prize they had.