Highway Robbery – Podgy and Blake.

At 4 pm on 30 July 1868, four men were on the road to the new gold rush at Yabber (you can’t make these names up). They were Henry Redman, Robert Crothers, John Crothers, and Thomas Gill. The group was about 4 miles from Imbil, inland from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, when two armed men on horseback approached, and one of them said, “Bail up, you bloody bastards, or we will blow your brains out.”

They complied, because the elder of the two men had a double-barrelled gun aimed right at them. He seemed the stouter and tougher of the two. He put on a neck scarf about the lower part of his face, but not before his features were seen by Edwin Redman. The younger one wore a black handkerchief over his face with eye-holes cut out. He was more civil, but equally desperate to separate the travellers from their worldly goods.

The four men were hustled into some bushes at the side of the road, out of sight and hearing of any passers-by. Having robbed the men of about 10 pounds, 30 shillings, the older of the two men, who seemed to be called “Podgy”, was all for disposing of the witnesses. “We will do for the bastards now.” The younger man said, rather formally, “There is no occasion for that.” The travellers were tied to saplings, and threatened again with the loss of their brains if they were caught trying to get away.

Edwin Redman, the Crothers and Gill waited until the two highwaymen would be about ten miles away before trying to escape. One of the men was able to slip his hand free of the rope, and commenced untying the others. They went back to Imbil and reported the crime to a trooper. They were able to describe Podgy, his face, hat, clothes and gun. The brands on the highwaymen’s horses had been noted during the robbery.

Sergeant Dennis McCarthy interviewed local station-owners and checked on the brands of the horses. He had a pretty good idea who Podgy and his mate could be. He located and arrested William Troden, nicknamed Podgy, at the Kilcoy Station a week later. On being told of the crime he was under suspicion of, Troden said “I am as innocent as God and his Angels”. Even so, he had a mare with a particular brand on her near shoulder.

Joseph Blake, the younger highwayman was harder to find, and it was three weeks after the robbery that he was located in a camp near the Dividing Range, in possession of a gun and clothing that matched the descriptions given by the victims. Tracking his horse, which was missing a front shoe, led them to him. Blake took his arrest well, deciding that it was alright if it was only on suspicion.

On Friday 28 August 1868, Troden and Blake were brought up at Gympie Courthouse on charges of having stuck up and robbed Redman and his associates. Most of the town turned up to watch the goings-on. The goldfields had brought some interesting characters to this part of the world, but actual bushrangers, sticking men up on the highway – that was something to see. The two men were committed to the assizes at Maryborough on 26 September 1868.

The same witnesses who had given evidence at the Gympie committal, gave detailed evidence as to identification of the men, their clothing and their horses. The two mares were tied up outside the Courthouse so that witnesses could look at their markings and brands.

The defence that Troden and Blake put up involved trying to prove alibis, and stoutly repeating every time a witness identified them, “I have never seen that gentleman before”. The alibis nearly worked, except that in each case, the alibi witnesses were unavailable, or recalled the men being missing for a day.

Troden had an issue with being identified as the stouter of the two. He pointed out to the witnesses that he was taller than the man identified, and not stout. The witness repeated their identification of him as one of the villains, with the qualifier that the blue serge shirt Troden had worn might have added a few pounds, visually.

The Chief Justice summed up for the jury for three solid hours. Each piece of evidence was discussed at length, “most certainly leaving the jury and everyone else in court without the slightest idea of what his Honour’s opinion on it was,” according to The Queenslander.

The jury took about half an hour to convict, and then sentence was passed. Troden and Blake could consider themselves fortunate – had they injured their victims in any way, the penalty would have been hanging. As it was,

“It was a most cruel act to bind these men, so that they would in all probability be exposed in the bush all night, and, it might be, to most serious injury—if not death. You have bound your victims with rope; I will have you bound in return in fetters of iron. The sentence of the Court is twenty years penal servitude; the first three years in irons.”

William Troden’s eloquence caught the attention of A.W. Manning, the Visiting Justice at Brisbane Gaol, particularly a written statement of over 3000 words, penned in the hope of a reprieve from the Colonial Secretary. The letter was passed along to The Queenslander by Manning, and both parties felt that Troden made a case of reasonable doubt.

The statement caused a small sensation in the press in 1872. The Queenslander’s rival paper, The Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, went to the trouble of locating the evidence and depositions from the trial and came to the conclusion that Podgy had been given a fair trial, with strong evidence, and that there was no cause to reopen the matter.

The picture of Troden was taken at Brisbane Gaol in 1875, as part of the Brisbane Gaol’s program of photographing all prisoners.

SOURCES:

• Nashville Times, Gympie and Mary River Mining Gazette (Qld. : 1868), Saturday 29 August 1868, page 3.
• Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.: 1866 – 1939), Saturday 3 October 1868, page 6.
• Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.: 1866 – 1939), Saturday 23 November 1872, page 3.
• Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser (Qld.: 1861 – 1908), Thursday 28 November 1872, page 5.
• Series ID: 10836, Item ID: 2947, Digital Image ID 18339, Photographic record, description and criminal history of William Troden, 1 December 1875, Queensland State Archives: photographic material.