A must-see at The Sir George is the adjoining circa-1852 stone cottage at the rear of the pub.

“We call it ‘Ben Hall Cottage’, an homage to the bushranger who terrorised these parts in the 1860s and who was known regularly to borrow horses from the stables only to return them exhausted after his gang’s night raids,” explains Prater’s partner Kim Gamble.

Who was Ben Hall?

On 16 November 1864 Ben Hall’s Gang, comprising Johnny Gilbert, Ben Hall and John Dunn, held up a mail coach between Gundagai and Jugiong and shot and killed the 32 year-old Sergeant Edmund Parry. The site of the shooting is still recalled by a monument  5 km south of Jugiong. Parry’s death was the consequence of Hall and his gang holding up everyone on the road. By the time the mail coach reached their hiding spot they had already held up nearly sixty people. The mail coach was being escorted by Sub-Inspector O’Neill and Sergeant Parry. O’Neill survived only because he ran out of bullets and surrendered. Parry’s gravestone in the North Gundagai cemetery records: “Edmund Parry, Sergeant of the N.S.W. Police, who lost his life in the execution of his duty whilst courageously endeavouring to capture the bushranger Gilbert by whom he was shot dead near Jugiong.”