According to the statement given by Benjamin's son, George Farrow Blunderfield, at the inquest into the Trawool Tragedy, he stated that he had gone to S Africa with his parents when he was 11 and that they lived there for 3 years. This means that they must have left England around 1882 and arrived in Australia around 1885. They initially lived in Plympton, SA.

Whilst his wife and children were living in Beccles at the time of the 1881 census, there is no trace of Benjamin anywhere in England. It is possible that he had already gone out to South Africa.