Born in Newport, Monmouthshire, England in 1830 he was trained as a compositor and acted as a reporter for his local paper before he was 17 years old. He was engaged in press work for several years, but later studied for the Methodist ministry. He arrived in Sydney in 1854 and eventually went to Yass to serve as a probationer Methodist Minister, and spent three years working for the Church in that district.

He became tutor for the family of Mr. Steele Caldwell, of Moonbucca Station, in the Bland district, and remained at Moonbucca for several years. Travelling across country to Goulburn in a bullock dray with his wife and two children, about 1858, he camped at Lambing Flat, which is now the centre of Young. The only moving thing he saw was kangaroos, 7 ft. high, which came up fearlessly to examine the invader of their sanctuary. 

In January 1924 Mr. Gale published a series of articles in the Young “Daily Witness” under the heading “Then and Now”.

He commenced the article by describing how he became tutor to the Caldwell family of Moonbucca and then went on to describe the surrounding area.

“At that time the few pastoralists occupying the country between Wallendbeen and Lake Cowal might be counted on the fingers of one’s hands. They comprised mainly, Grogan, Moonbucca, Morangorell, Curraburrama, Bland Plains, Billabong Creek, Lake Cowal and Humbug creek. The only townships after leaving Yass were Bowning, Binalong, Wagga Wagga and Albury on the direct road to Melbourne, and Burrowa, Marengo more westerly.

The population was sparse, that from Wallendbeen to Lake Cowal not amounting to 200 souls. The aboriginal tribes were however somewhat more numerous.

There were no sheep pastured further west than James White’s Burrangong holding. Cattle were chiefly depastured on the holdings named, which were many miles in extent and not separated by boundary fences. Mustering time was the great event of the year. The stockmen from the whole country around took each station in turn, mustered all the stock they could find, drafting from the assembled mob the animals bearing their respective station brands and sending them back to their own pastures. These days were high days to the stockmen, who year in and year out otherwise seldom saw each other.

I have alluded to the Aborigines of these parts being more numerous than the white population. On one occasion, when war was declared between the south and south-western tribes against the comparatively wild Bowan blackfellow on the ground that he was “too saucy”, I counted upwards of 300 of these Aborigines, all in their war paint and fully equipped with war weapons, marching over the Bland plains to meet their common foe.