Blind Freddy Bushranger Tours in Canowindra, New South Wales | Arts and entertainment

Blind Freddy Bushranger Tours

Locality: Canowindra, New South Wales

Phone: +61 2 6344 8166

Address: 52 Gaskill Street 2804 Canowindra, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.blindfreddytours.com/

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25.01.2022 158 years ago today

25.01.2022 Bald Hill, a favoured haunt of the Gilbert Gang back in 1863, looking pretty this morning.

24.01.2022 If anyone would like to join a 2 hour walking tour of Canowindra today at 1.30pm you'd be most welcome. Meet us at Blind Freddy HQ at 52 Gaskill Street.

22.01.2022 On this day 158 years ago (Saturday 04.07.1863) Two reports in Sydney’s Empire Newspaper showed Johnny Gilbert was still causing considerable consternation on the Lambing Flat goldfields. The first report told how a man called D’Arcy, who had been frogmarched by Detective Lyons all the way from New Zealand back to Young, was discharged from custody due to a lack of new evidence that he was Johnny Gilbert. Such was the fervour of the search for the Eugowra robbers that the d...ragnet had spread across the Tasman. There is a fairly persistent claim that Gilbert absconded to the Land of the Long White Cloud after the Eugowra Robbery but, as with Mr D’Arcy’s case, the evidence is not yet fothcoming although it was likely Johnny Gilbert’s brother, Charles who Lyons returned to Sydney. Indeed, the second report in the Empire that day 150 years ago, had Johnny Gilbert teamed up with the notorious bushranger, Lowry, and murdering a man called McBride 13 days earlier at Duffers Gully. The Lambing Flat goldfields were as wild as Deadwood and Duffers Gully a notorious part thereof. The coronial inquest at Young Hospital heard that two men had arrived at Widow Sinnet’s Shanty at Duffers Gully on Sunday Morning, 8am. They called for gin and rum before partaking of tea. As one of the pair undid his coat, Mrs Sinnet saw his belt was ringed with revolvers. She deduced they were bushrangers and kept an eye on them as they headed further up the gully to Mrs Beck’s at 10am. Shortly after she saw smoke and heard the report of weapons, five or six shots fired as the two men rode back and forth across the road outside the Beck place. They then rode off. A doctor attended and found McBride had a gunshot wound to his leg. The doctor gave him water and Brandy but did not feel McBride needed to visit the already overcrowded hospital. In fact, the doctor declared him very well. McBride’s friends argued the case and demanded he at least be taken to an inn to recuperate to which the doctor reluctantly assented. McBride was loaded onto a spring cart for the journey and promptly passed away. The descriptions of the two assailants given at the inquest, a fair-headed man with no whiskers wearing a cabbage-tree hat and the other, a dark man with whiskers and a moustache, are not inconsistent with Gilbert and Lowry, but are hardly conclusive. The earlier murder of Mr Cirkell on the same goldfields was still fresh in the minds of Burrangong Miners. 400 attended Mr McBride’s funeral and Lambing Flat was again bubbling with vigilante murmurings.

20.01.2022 Walking tour of Canowindra this Saturday at 10am, meet at Blind Freddy HQ, 52 Gaskill Street. $40 for adults, $20 for kids. Find out what really went on during the gang's four visits to the town.

20.01.2022 We've room to spare on a walking tour of Canowindra, tomorrow, Sunday 23.05.21, at 11.30am. The cost is $40 for adults and $20 for kids and we meet at Blind Freddy HQ, 52 Gaskill Street, next door to the Post Office. The tour takes about 2.5 hours and details the four occasions the bushrangers came to Canowindra in 1863 and 1864. It's fun and informative with many astonishing tales.

18.01.2022 Canowindra locals and those visiting the Central West! We've got a walking tour of Canowindra happening this Sunday 06.09.20 at 11am if anyone would like to come along. It's a 2-hour tour and covers the four times the bushrangers raided Canowindra. Meet us at Blind Freddy HQ at 52 Gaskill Street, Canowindra. Cost is $40 for adults and $20 for kids.

18.01.2022 Did you know that Canowindra's old Travellers Rest Hotel still stands? Sorta? The mud from the old pub was recycled in the 20th Century to form part of a house just around the corner in Cowra Street.

18.01.2022 35 minutes in your host at Blind Freddy's goes up against the Chasers.

17.01.2022 Hey we have two walking tours of Canowindra happening Tomorrow Thursday 8.10.20 and Friday 9.10.20 at 10am. If you are visiting Canowindra, or have visitors in town, you'd be welcome to join us. The cost is $40 for adults and $20 for kids. It's an easy walk, the stories are well researched and it's an entertaining couple of hours. Give us a call on 02 63448166 to book.

16.01.2022 Blackguards Gully, Lambing Flat. Spooky, raw, degraded, deserted, BMX track. Must have been terrifying hearing the roaring mob making its way up from Golden Point led by a band playing martial favourites like "Rule Britannia" and "Garryowen".

15.01.2022 Greetings citizens of Canowindra and the Central West! Do you have visitors? are you sick of them? fancy getting them out of your hair for a few hours? Blind Freddy's are running their renowned walking tour of the Mean Streets of Canowindra tomorrow (29.12.2020) at 9am and the following day (30.12.2020) at 3pm. The tour runs for 2 and a bit hours and lays out in fascinating detail the four visits the bushrangers made to our town. If you're a local who hasn't been on a tour, trust me, you don't know the full story, so join on in. It's fun and informative. $40 for adults and $20 for kids. Call us on 02 63448166 to book in!

14.01.2022 Repeated for the ninth time, there's probably someone who hasn't seen it. Surely it's time for another series, Ita? Your host at Blind Freddy's is one of four beards featured on this episode.

13.01.2022 https://www.abc.net.au//progra/nightlife/history/12498468 Frank Gardiner's Darlinghurst matweaving workshop handiwork went up in that blaze.

10.01.2022 On this day 159 years ago (Thursday 19.06.1862) the alliterative and illustrious Senior Sergeant Sanderson and his party of troopers recovered half the gold stolen from the Lachlan Gold Escort at Eugowra. At this stage of investigations, three days after the robbery, Sir Frederick Pottinger was working on his theory that the robbers were Victorian and were headed back to their southern lair. Since the robbery, he had been following tracks south-westward, and he would dogg...edly follow those tracks to where they petered out 11 days later, at Hay in western NSW. Pursuing an altogether more fruitful line of inquiry, Sanderson was investigating the movements of the residents of Wheogo (which included Ben Hall, John McGuire and the notorious Walsh girls) and their possible connection to the Eugowra Robbery. Sanderson and his posse were up and active early in the morning when, at a distance, they saw a rider approaching Ben Hall’s house. On seeing the party of police, the rider turned his horse and bolted back up the hill he had just ridden down, it was not the smartest thing he had ever done. The pursuing police followed him to the top of that hill which, to this day, is marked on trig maps as Gardiner’s camp. In the hastily abandoned camp the police found gin bottles and a set of gold scales. They continued their pursuit of the four suspects, who split up, heading for opposite sides of the nearby Weddin Mountains. Frank Gardiner, being hampered by a weighed-down packhorse, was lagging. The pack-horse was one of the team from the gold escort and had been worked hard in the days since the robbery. Gardiner was reluctant to abandon it as it was carrying the booty, nearly 40 kilos of gold. Twenty miles into the chase, Gardiner had, in a desperate last-ditch attempt to keep the pack-horse moving, been jabbin the horse in the rump with his gun The horse packed it in and refused to go any further. It was discovered by the Tracker who was valiantly in pursuit. He was so close on Gardiner's heels, Frank had abandoned the gold. The tracker got the gold. Sanderson got the promotion and the kudos. Also found on the horse were two Terry breech-loading carbines and a police cloak listed as missing from the Gold Escort. P.S. The foolish rider who ruined the Darkie's day was none other than Ben Hall's mate, Dan Charters, who later gave evidence as the Crown's star witness at the Escort Robbery trial. At that trial Charters claimed the dunderheaded rider was Johnny Gilbert but, John McGuire, (Ben's brother-in-law, the husband of Ellen Walsh, and a defendant at that trial) in his book "Early Colonial Days - The Biography of a Reliable Old Native" specifically rejected that evidence.

07.01.2022 Had good fun showing Evie and Emmie the history of Canowindra

07.01.2022 I'm down the Trove rabbit hole again! this time in search of a travelling goldfields photographer who took this famous photo of Frank Gardiner and Johnny Gilbert. I've been sleuthing pretty hard and I have a strong suspect! a Mrs Reid who had her studio opposite the Great Eastern Hotel in Burrowa Street, Lambing Flat, and then moved on to set up a studio at the Lachlan Diggings. This appears to be a paper photograph, likely taken on the Lambing Flat or Lachan goldfields in 1861 or early 1862. It may well be the same person who did portraits of Ben Hall and Pottinger. Does anyone out there know anything of photography in the 1860s? Does anyone know of the earliest photos of Young that exist (Mrs Read also took pictures of the town)? Any hints on tracking down her or other examples of her work? I have my reasons

07.01.2022 wow! check this out. An 1860s water race still partially standing

06.01.2022 Some of the treasures at the Orange Regional Museum. It's a cracking exhibition and you should all go and check it out. https://www.orange.nsw.gov.au/orange-regional-museum-opens/

01.01.2022 Looking for something to do other than me banging on about Bushrangers whilst in Canowindra? Might I suggest some wine tasting with Antonio D'Onise. I've just been to it and it was superb, the wines are top notch, the cheese platters a real treat and Antonio and Caddie are splendid hosts. Get onto it.

01.01.2022 Just a quick thankyou to all the people who have left such glowing reviews on Tripadvisor for the tours, they are much appreciated and very effective as a way to support small business. 33 reviews and five stars all the way. Check them out here https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g504241-d1