Mary Maher might have been unfortunate, might have haunted the streets, but she was far from forlorn. Mary Maher had a decent job as a cook in Brisbane’s hotels in the 1910s. She liked a drink, and found herself increasingly unable to indulge in moderation. Sadly this cost her a number of jobs and residences,Continue reading “Psyche Goes to Gaol”
Category Archives: Characters
The Meaning of a Name
A pensive-looking young man sits for the photographer at Brisbane Gaol. It’s the 28th of October 1890, and the man, listed as W.T. Boyce, born 1867, has been convicted of horse stealing at Charters Towers. He will spend a year at Saint Helena Island. That’s enough to make anyone melancholy. The report of his convictionContinue reading “The Meaning of a Name”
A Good Talking-To.
Judges and Magistrates still have faith in the human spirit. They look at certain defendants, and see something that makes them believe that a kindly intervention early on might just change the defendant’s life. I’ve heard a Magistrate tell a weeping girl, terrified of her parents finding out about an offence, “They might be angryContinue reading “A Good Talking-To.”
Gentlemen with Aliases – Part 2
Meet Victor Hugo, Winston Churchill (the Plain Turkey), Professor toshima et al The 19th century was a time for criminals to adopt aliases that reflected their disruptive outlaw ways – The Wild Scotchman (James McPherson) and Henry Hunter, The Wild Frenchman, rode the backroads in the 1860s, nicking horses and emptying the mails. The SnobContinue reading “Gentlemen with Aliases – Part 2”
The Rake’s Progress
In the Queensland Police Service Watch-house Entry Books, a photograph of a respectable-looking middle-aged man is accompanied by a string of aliases, each more bizarre than the last. He could be the local vicar, but for all of those names. He was imprisoned for bigamy, something that was far more common in those far-off daysContinue reading “The Rake’s Progress”
Mug shots – Julius Goeldner’s Turbulent Life.
The heroically named Julius Caesar Alexander Goeldner loved a drink. He also had a furious temper. An enthusiastic indulgence in the former weakness gave free rein to the latter characteristic, which brought Julius Goeldner to the attention of the Brisbane Police for thirty years. Julius Caesar Alexander Goeldner was born in Brisbane in 1862, oneContinue reading “Mug shots – Julius Goeldner’s Turbulent Life.”
Thomas Ellison Brown, “Jack the Sponger.”
Thomas Ellison Brown was better off when people left him alone. The trouble was, they wouldn’t. People hounded him all his life, and it always went badly when they did. Born in Hull, Yorkshire in 1845 to Samuel and Hannah Brown, Thomas emigrated to Australia in 1862. He wanted to make his way in theContinue reading “Thomas Ellison Brown, “Jack the Sponger.””
The Queen of the Artemisia
1848 was a year of unrest and revolution in Europe. The world seemed to be in uproar. And uproar would find its way to Brisbane Town that year, not in the form of an uprising, but in the form of the Queen of the Artemisia. Before Dr Lang rounded up industrious protestants to populate “Cooksland,”Continue reading “The Queen of the Artemisia”
Mr Higgins and his menagerie.
Charles Higgins had an eventful life in the Colony of Queensland. He kept pet tigers at Toombul, when it was then in the country. He ran a menagerie of exotic wild animals in George Street in the heart of Brisbane Town, suffered a severe mauling at same, donated iguanas to the Museum, and featured in a numberContinue reading “Mr Higgins and his menagerie.”
Oddities from January 1860
Sometimes, research into other subjects sends you down a rabbit hole. My rabbit hole was January 1860 – every newspaper story from that month seemed to be trying to outdo the previous one for sheer absurdity. Good luck finding a sober copper in Ipswich: Tuesday, January 24.Before the Police Magistrate, Messrs Broughton, Lucas, H. Challinor,Continue reading “Oddities from January 1860”
Moreton Bay and More 