G'day Allan,

I think preferences can't be argued. I suspect that Trevor Lucas did his version well ... in his style and genre - but I have never followed that end of the music and never heard the track. I wasn't all that rapt in the Redgum version at the time I reviewed it ... 23 years ago ... but it was the track that I most commented on.

I can see (and hear) why it was taken up by the "rocky" end of bush bands ... and my present comments are mainly related to accuracy and provenance, which is the area in which Redgum improved it.

Re the Quinn connection: My ancestress was probably Ned's aunt - but she is murder to trace ... a bit prone not to tell the authorities much and there are gaping holes in the records. She married a Dutch sailor on the goldfields (same church, same year, as Ben Hall & Bridget ... but not the same day!) and ended up running a tavern/boarding house for merchant seamen officers in The Rocks area of Sydneys dockland.

Regards,

Bob Bolton