Charles White was fascinated by Ben Hall and the other bushrangers who roamed the region around Bathurst and district. He was the eldest son of John Charles White and Myrah. His father had purchased the Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal almost exactly four years before Ben Hall and his gang raided Bathurst on Saturday evening, October 3, 1863.

Charles’ father and mother were English born and spent some years in Colchester. His father was orphaned at a young age before becoming a baker’s apprentice. He educated himself and later joined the Wesleyan Methodist Church. He met Myrah Oakey around this time and the couple decided to sail to South Australia in 1836. The White family then set out for Bathurst, arriving here in 1842. Their first son, Charles, was born three years later.

Charles’ father read widely, taking the opportunity to use the private libraries of Bathurst Methodists. He began to write articles which proved popular with readers. Being by now what may be considered ‘well educated’ for the time, he got a teacher’s job in 1849 at the school at Kelso.

The Bathurst Advocate began in 1848 and John White soon contributed articles. After it was sold and became the Bathurst Free Press, the owner, William Farrand, also a teacher by profession, had White as one of his journalists. By 1859, White took over the newspaper, calling it the Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal. When John Charles White retired from his newspaper in 1880, he was happy to hand over to his two sons.

Young Charles White was keen to learn all about the enterprise and even learnt shorthand to improve himself. As an apprentice, he took a keen interest in Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner, John Gilbert and John Vane, local bushrangers in the 1860s who were terrifying many of the locals. He certainly had good access, being the police reporter for the Bathurst Free Press, and became quite obsessed with history as a young man.

On taking over his father’s newspaper, Charles took on the editorship. He initially changed little, though over time he added some of his own ideas. His younger brother Gloster managed the business side of the newspaper, looking after newsprint purchases, collecting advertising and looking after accounts.   

For some years, Charles made lots of meticulous notes, especially when talking to Bathurst’s older residents about their memories. He collected all he could about the Australian bushrangers, keeping newspaper cuttings and interviews with individuals. In Bathurst, Charles supervised and printed his own books as he finished a history on the newspaper’s recess printing machinery, especially in the early 1890s.

He was a keen supporter of free trade and used his newspaper business to push the cause. Mr Webb of Webb’s Emporium was another supporter of this policy and was often quoted in the columns of the newspaper as Bathurst moved towards Federation.

Charles still wrote various articles about history and the early days. In 1909, the Windsor and Richmond Gazette began publishing a series on the early bushrangers and other articles. Often working under the pseudonym of “The Chatterer”, Charles wrote long manuscripts.

Over the years, he wrote various and involved histories on the early Aboriginals, the convicts, outlaws and bushrangers, as well as the colony’s governors who had been dispatched from England, along with stories on the settlers and farmers.

In later life, he lost all his research notes in a fire at his home. He died at his home on December 22, 1922.