ON a lonely back road in the Upper Hunter, near Blandford, one of our most impressive monuments stands forlorn.
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The large weather-worn obelisk, in the middle of nowhere, is known as the Peter Clark Memorial. It has stood here amid now deserted Hunter hills for 156 years.
Repaired once in the 1920s, it's not as well known today as it deserves to be. Maybe that's because the portion of the Old North Road it sits beside has long been bypassed.
The tapering shaft of stone commemorates a man who was killed by a bushranger very close by in colonial times.
The now isolated memorial was erected by public subscription soon after a bushranger called Wilson shot and killed a much loved local drover, Peter Clark, in April 1863. Clark was engaged to be married at the time.
"To my mind, it's the biggest civilian monument in all Australia to a bushranging victim," Greg Powell, bush walker, author and expert on the bushranging era, said.
"And that part of road - now a stock route - is also the northernmost part of the original Old North Road into the Hunter that I know of," he said.
"Brave Peter Clark, the drover, tried to stop the bushranger when he was killed. The bush spot is on a low spur at Blandford (below Murrurundi) in the Upper Hunter, opposite Wingen's burning mountain, really, but you have to cross over the railway line further up to get access.
"The original Old North Road came through valley land first to Wollombi. It didn't later just stop at Maitland or Singleton though."
Bushranging historian Powell knows the area well, having explored it over decades past.
Back in 2016, Powell even published a comprehensive record of our bushranging days, entitled Bushranger Tracks. His book had been 40 years in the making.
Powell's latest foray into the Upper Hunter only came last month when, as part of the Australian Heritage Festival, he led a walk of history buffs down a rough road to the 'forgotten' monument.
"It's said to have once been be a convict road and there's certainly some lovely pick-marked culverts along the way," Powell said.
"Before we went, I had heard the Clark monument had been vandalised, but I was pleased to learn it's not too bad. Its condition is what you'd expect after being exposed to weather over more than 100 years," the historian said.
Now for the story behind the monument. The tales vary slightly, but Clark the drover was on his way to Queensland with three companions to buy cattle when they were attacked.
The group had earlier left Bulga to travel north, camping below Warland's Range on the old road. A young offsider riding out front was bailed up first by a bushranger who was later identified as 'Henry Wilson', probably an alias. He fled as the bushranger fired a warning shot to stop.
At gunpoint, Peter Clark was stopped next and ordered to hand over his valuables. The bushranger, wearing a black crepe mask and false beard as a disguise, was agitated. Clark delayed the request, lunging at the gunman, but was shot in the neck for his bravery.
Clark is supposed to have then held the bushranger in a death grip, allowing his companions enough time to run in and grapple with the distracted gunman. Wilson then fired a second shot, proving fatal to the unlucky young cattleman.
While it's beyond any doubt that Clark refused to give away his money without a struggle, one report has the wounded Clark falling and being shot a second time. This time, with Wilson standing over him, Clark was shot in the heart.
Another report claims the night before the killing, Clark had been playing cards at his grandfather's inn in Blandford with a stranger (Wilson).
Wilson had a bad run of luck and left. Wilson then decided to take revenge to recover his money as soon as possible.
Another later tale told within the Clark family was that young Peter was warned that bushrangers might be waiting in ambush on the road, to which he defiantly replied: "Whoever takes my money, takes my life".
Immediately captured, Wilson was executed six months later.
Ironically, the fatal shooting may have been on Wilson's first day of trying out armed robbery as an occupation. Earlier that day he'd robbed and tied up other travellers.
Today, besides Clark's elaborate obelisk on Blandford's rolling hills, there's a second monument to his short life.
Peter Clark's gravesite at Muswellbrook is very ornate and recalls when a bushranger's bullet ended his life on April 9, 1863, while he was only 25 years and 11 months old.
Clark's death scene monument can be reached today by driving to Blandford, to the junction of White Street and Old North Road, then by following a signposted road about 2.5 kilometres down a 4WD track.
Bushranger historian Greg Powell said Clark had indeed been very unlucky when confronted by the mysterious bushranger.
Powell said had Wilson been armed with a single-action revolver, which required cocking the pistol with his thumb, Clark may have grabbed the thief before a second and fatal shot was fired.
Unfortunately, however, Wilson was armed with a superior weapon, an early five-chamber Tranter cap and ball revolver, with an odd dual trigger mechanism.
"There were two shots fired. All you have to do is keep pressing the triggers and it keeps loading and firing. All very modern," Powell said.
"Tranter revolvers were once the Rolls-Royce of pistols. You didn't have to cock to load, then fire. The bushrangers had them, but police didn't. The guns were too expensive.
"Ben Hall, the famous bushranger had a Tranter and they were also used in the Zulu War in South Africa.
"Yet, oddly enough, outlaw Ned Kelly at Glenrowan still had an old-fashioned Colt revolver with percussion cap and ball. And this was in 1880. Amazing."
Powell said he didn't think Clark was targeted by Wilson. The bushranger just wanted to steal Clark's watch and fob chain.
"Clark's young offsider who escaped earlier from Wilson then found a trooper, a very, very brave Constable Bruce, who set off alone, to go to Clark's help. By then, Clark's companions had overpowered Wilson and tied him up with stirrup straps," Powell said.
In captivity, Wilson never revealed his real name. Reports said he then tried to kill himself with a rope made of blanket strips, which broke. He then went on a hunger strike and also tried to slit his throat, whether out of remorse or from shaming his family, no one knows.
In death, however, Wilson has a dubious honour. Wilson was among the first to be hanged (in October 1863) on a new private gallows inside old East Maitland Gaol.
Powell says that, unlike Clark, Wilson has no monument. He was hanged at what is now a big, grassy central area and it's very likely he's anonymously buried there.