Two men were executed at Brisbane Gaol on 12 November 1888. They were both foreign-born men trying to make a living in far north Queensland at the time of the northern gold rush. Both had become killers. Edmund Duhamel, a Frenchman working in the gold mine at Croydon, killed his young de facto wife andContinue reading “The Story of Sedin – murder and riots in the far North.”
Category Archives: Newspaper stories
Constance and Emily
DEATH. MALLALIEU. —On the 21st June, at Adelaide-street, Constance Mallalieu, aged 10 years, eldest daughter of Alfred and Henrietta Mallalieu. [Manchester papers please copy.] On 19 June 1873, a group of young girls played with a skipping rope after school, on a hillside at the corner of Edward and Adelaide Streets. Two girls held theContinue reading “Constance and Emily”
The brief but colourful criminal career of Jemima Smith.
In 1862, Queensland had been a separate Colony for two years. The streets of Brisbane were not paved, bullock-teams rested in the streets and ladies negotiated the subtropical climate and noisome streets wearing the unwieldy hoop skirts of the period. Some substantial buildings adjoined tin shacks and stores. Entertainment for those unable to affordContinue reading “The brief but colourful criminal career of Jemima Smith.”
Snippets: The Rise of Larrikinism.
CITY POLICE COURT. SATURDAY, JUNE 7, BEFORE the assistant police magistrate VAGRANCY. – Thomas Clarke, a man about 23 years of age, was charged with having no lawful means of support. Sergeant Burke prosecuted. From the evidence of constable Jessop, who arrested Clarke, and also that of Senior detective Anderson, it appears that the prisonerContinue reading “Snippets: The Rise of Larrikinism.”
Snippets: “You can hang me if you like.”
Snippets of news from the 19th century.
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 onContinue reading “Highway Robbery – Podgy and Blake.”
The Northern Murderers – Gleeson and Moncaro.
George Gleeson and William Leonardo Moncado were executed together at the Brisbane Gaol on Monday, October 24, 1892. They had both been convicted and sentenced to death at the Supreme Court’s Cooktown sittings in north Queensland a mere month before. George Gleeson George Gleeson (pictured) was a cook at a pearling station on Prince of Wales Island, which was offContinue reading “The Northern Murderers – Gleeson and Moncaro.”
The Convict Pirates of Moreton Bay – on the run in the South Pacific.
When the Caledonia sailed out of Moreton Bay into open water, Captain George Browning remained under the close watch of the leader of the Caledonia pirates, William Evans, and his deputies Hugh Hastings and William Smith. They were determined to head to the island of Rotumah to hopefully get aboard a whaler or trading ship. CaptainContinue reading “The Convict Pirates of Moreton Bay – on the run in the South Pacific.”
The Forlorn Women Haunting Our Streets — Bridget Byrne
Bridget Byrne was born in Ireland about 1853, and found herself in Brisbane in the 1870s. Circumstances drove her, like so many other young women at the time, to the streets. It was a time when there was no social security and the only work a woman could do was as a domestic, a shopContinue reading “The Forlorn Women Haunting Our Streets — Bridget Byrne”
The Forlorn Women Haunting Our Streets – the death of Bridget Lynch
Bridget Lynch was found lying unconscious and near death in an old shed in Mrs Tyrell’s house off Margaret Street, Brisbane on the 26th February 1884. She’d been living there for several weeks with John Agnew, a man who treated her poorly. Once upon a time she’d been a servant of Mrs Tyrell. Bridget wasContinue reading “The Forlorn Women Haunting Our Streets – the death of Bridget Lynch”
Moreton Bay and More 