On 31 August 1868, a man named – in the doubtful 19th century translation of Chinese names – Ah King Gun Woo, was returning to Bowen from the Cape River Goldfields with about 360 pounds in gold and notes and two silver watches. He was accosted by three armed bushrangers, who had blackened their faces as a form of disguise. Needless to say, Ah King was immediately relieved of his worldly goods, but mercifully unharmed.
Ah King had been prospecting and trading in the Cape River diggings, a hazardous undertaking for a Chinese man. “Celestials,” as Chinese people were referred to in contemporary newspapers, were viewed as a menace on the goldfields. According to the (white) prospectors, Chinese diggers would appear in their hundreds, industriously search for gold and then bugger off back to Peking with the spoils. White miners, they argued, supported local businesses and kept the wealth in Australia. They certainly kept the saloons in business.
“The Cape in 1868 was a decidedly rough locality, there being fully two thousand men, representing many nationalities, and among them the scum of the Southern Gold Fields… Gold was easily obtained and much more easily spent. Dreadful stuff called whisky, rum and brandy, was sold in shilling drinks, and there was no need to wonder that many of the poor fellows, after the usual spree, became raving maniacs. Picture in your imagination a mob of two or three hundred half drunk, semi-mad men running amok with each other in the brutal fights which were a daily occurrence!”
Ah King had avoided all that European messiness and had dug and traded his way to a decent sum. Now he was alone in a wilderness with no worldly possessions. Nothing if not resilient, he walked 47 miles to the nearest Police Station to report the robbery.
Happily for Ah King, the Police – under Sergeant Francis – went about their investigations without racial prejudice. They rode to the scene of the robbery, and skilfully tracked the robbers to a bush camp. Ah King recognized his assailants, and also the specially-marked five-pound note on the person of one of the bushrangers. A fair portion of the stolen property was recovered.
It is not known if the men targeted Ah King specifically, or whether they were just three criminal opportunists who came near the road to a goldfield in the hope of catching a traveler with heavy bags.
The bushrangers were James Elliott, James Howard and George Hughes. They were arrested less than a week after “sticking up” Ah King, and six weeks later, they were sentenced to 12 years’ penal servitude at the Rockhampton Assizes.
As the Maryborough chronicle remarked, “Really, bushranging does not appear to be a paying game in Queensland.”
Maryborough Chronicle, Brisbane Couier
HILL, WRO: “Forty-five years’ experience in North Queensland 1865-1905; with a few incidents in England 1844-1861.” H. Pole, Brisbane, 1907.
Moreton Bay and More 