On 18 October 1846, a settler named Andrew Gregor and his servant Mary Shannon were murdered by a group of indigenous men at Pine River. If the mass poisoning by the whites at Kilcoy in 1842 was the defining white outrage in the eyes of indigenous people, the Gregor-Shannon murders were the turning point for white settlers. The case would trouble the colony for nearly a decade, as the suspects disappeared, died, were exonerated or executed.
The inquest was held immediately at the site of the deaths, and through evidence of witnesses, the following indigenous men were named as suspects: Millbong Jemmy, Dick Ben, Moggy Moggy, Jackey Jackey and Jemmy.
Millbong Jemmy (seen as a ringleader) survived less than a month after the Pine River killings. He ventured into Brisbane Town on November 6 1846, and was recognised when seeking rations from a sawyer’s hut. A fight ensued, and the sawyers shot him to death.
At the same time, Moggy Moggy and Dick Ben were the subject of a series of classified advertisements, offering “£10 per Black” for the apprehension of the two. Presumably alive rather than dead, although the notice doesn’t specify.
Moggy Moggy (at times called Micheloi or Make-i-light) became the subject of a long series of court cases in the early 1850s, he was examined at length, in a series of hearings. He claimed not to be Moggy Moggy. At these hearings, James Duramboi Davis was imprisoned overnight for contempt when he refused to interpret without expenses. To be fair to Davis, he’d been called out from his blacksmith shop on George Street and expected to interpret with no notice. The Crown eventually dropped the charges against Micheloi because they could not prove that the indigenous man they had in the cells at Brisbane was the same man who committed the murders.
Another indigenous man, whose name does not even appear in the initial reports of the killings or the inquest, was Dundalli. He was captured and tried after the release of Micheloi or Make-i-Light, and tried for a robbery at a German’s settlement, the deaths of Mr Gregor and Mrs Shannon and the deaths of William Waller and William Boller a year afterwards. Dundalli was found guilty and hanged in January 1855.
Dick Ben escaped the retributive justice of the Europeans, and instead died on February 8 1849, in a fight with another indigenous man. The Moreton Bay Courier rejoiced:
DEATH OF “DICK BEN.” – Intelligence has reached town of retribution having at length overtaken “Dick Ben,” one of the murderers of the late Mr. Gregor and Mary Shannon. This horrible ruffian, who had for so long, a period eluded justice, was killed by another native, known as ” Cranky Jemmy,” in a fight at the Pine river, a few days since. It appears from, the accounts given by the natives, that “Dick Ben” was speared in the breast, and wounded in the kidneys with a knife, by his antagonist, and that he almost immediately expired.”
Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1846 – 1861), Saturday 24 October 1846, page 2
Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 26 October 1846, page 2
Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1846 – 1861), Saturday 11 September 1847, page 2
Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1846 – 1861), Saturday 10 February 1849, page 2
Moreton Bay and More 