Bushranger Hotel|Collector|NSW

BUSHRANGER HOTEL COLLECTOR - GHOST STORIES

Bushranger Hotel Collector N.SW - About 22km from Goulburn on the road to Canberra is the sleepy village of Collector. The Bushranger Hotel is the sole survivor of the 5 original inns of Collector. Built in 1865, this historic hotel has loads of Bushranger History. The Bushranger Hotel has appeared on the ABC program, The Collectors, wherein the owner notes the haunting’s are mostly audible, in the form of voices and knocks.

Paranormal Investigators in association with KANOVA Productions on C31/TVS, recently investigated the location (in early 2009) and found the hotel was:

• Haunted by a policeman, Constable Samuel Nelson, who was shot on January 26 1865 by the Hall-Gilbert bushranger gang.
• Haunted by the son of a former publican.

On 26 January 1865, bushrangers Ben Hall, John Gilbert and the teenager John Dunn bailed up Kimberley’s Inn at Collector, now the Bushranger Hotel.

They were challenged by the courageous Constable Samuel Nelson, who before he set off to confront his destiny, told his fearful wife, six months pregnant, ‘…. I’m just going to do my best’. For his bravery Nelson received a bullet in his chest from Dunn and another in his head, dying on the street. As he lay on the road the bushrangers stole his carbine and belt. Eight children were left fatherless by his murder, including a son, Henry, who had been captured by the bushrangers and watched as his father was so cruelly gunned down. Another son, Frederick also witnessed the killing.

Nelson’s grave is in the Anglican cemetery in Burke Street (down the street and around the corner from the Hotel). The grave is located towards the rear of the cemetery near a fence separating the graveyard from the police station. A cross tilting forward on a concrete slab has the words ‘Constable Samuel Nelson 1965’ while a plaque records the details of his murder. Oddly enough, Thomas Kimberley, mine host of the held-up inn, and his wife Emma are buried next to him.

Dunn’s short life lasted just over another year – he dangled on the end of a rope in Darlinghurst Gaol on 19 March 1866 after being captured on Boxing Day, 1965. At his trial the presiding judge Sir Alfred Stephen commented that ‘it would be a prostitution of the word to talk of mercy in a case of this kind’. Like many others who have pillaged and murdered, this young hoodlum became fervently religious before he went to the scaffold.

Next to the Hotel is an official memorial to Constable Nelson ‘shot dead on this spot whilst in the execution of his duty’. A fence encloses this memorial column.

Some of the activity reported includes glasses on the bar being rearranged, reports of a ghostly cat who likes to walk across people's pillows; the owner states that he sees shadows moving and has heard a lot of audible sounds which can't be explained.

	Bar. Restaurant. Beer garden. Accommodation.

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BUSHRANGER HOTEL COLLECTOR - GHOST STORIES Bushranger Hotel Collector N.SW - About 22km from Goulburn on the road to Canberra is the sleepy village of Collector. The Bushranger Hotel is the sole survivor of the 5 original inns of Collector. Built in 1865, this historic hotel has loads of Bushranger History. The Bushranger Hotel has appeared on the ABC program, The Collectors, wherein the owner notes the haunting’s are mostly audible, in the form of voices and knocks. Paranormal Investigators in association with KANOVA Productions on C31/TVS, recently investigated the location (in early 2009) and found the hotel was: • Haunted by a policeman, Constable Samuel Nelson, who was shot on January 26 1865 by the Hall-Gilbert bushranger gang. • Haunted by the son of a former publican. On 26 January 1865, bushrangers Ben Hall, John Gilbert and the teenager John Dunn bailed up Kimberley’s Inn at Collector, now the Bushranger Hotel. They were challenged by the courageous Constable Samuel Nelson, who before he set off to confront his destiny, told his fearful wife, six months pregnant, ‘…. I’m just going to do my best’. For his bravery Nelson received a bullet in his chest from Dunn and another in his head, dying on the street. As he lay on the road the bushrangers stole his carbine and belt. Eight children were left fatherless by his murder, including a son, Henry, who had been captured by the bushrangers and watched as his father was so cruelly gunned down. Another son, Frederick also witnessed the killing. Nelson’s grave is in the Anglican cemetery in Burke Street (down the street and around the corner from the Hotel). The grave is located towards the rear of the cemetery near a fence separating the graveyard from the police station. A cross tilting forward on a concrete slab has the words ‘Constable Samuel Nelson 1965’ while a plaque records the details of his murder. Oddly enough, Thomas Kimberley, mine host of the held-up inn, and his wife Emma are buried next to him. Dunn’s short life lasted just over another year – he dangled on the end of a rope in Darlinghurst Gaol on 19 March 1866 after being captured on Boxing Day, 1965. At his trial the presiding judge Sir Alfred Stephen commented that ‘it would be a prostitution of the word to talk of mercy in a case of this kind’. Like many others who have pillaged and murdered, this young hoodlum became fervently religious before he went to the scaffold. Next to the Hotel is an official memorial to Constable Nelson ‘shot dead on this spot whilst in the execution of his duty’. A fence encloses this memorial column. Some of the activity reported includes glasses on the bar being rearranged, reports of a ghostly cat who likes to walk across people's pillows; the owner states that he sees shadows moving and has heard a lot of audible sounds which can't be explained.