Jack Bushman’s Tale – Part 4

The final part of Jack Bushman’s story is about his life as a “free” man, and includes a shooting at Brisbane’s indigenous people known as the “York’s Hollow Shooting”, which occurred in December 1846. The murders of Mary Shannon and Andrew Gregor in October that year had made white settlers fearful of the local aborigines, and keenContinue reading “Jack Bushman’s Tale – Part 4”

Jack Bushman’s Tale Part 3

RETAKEN. -THE PUNISHMENT-OTHER ADVENTURES-LIBERTY. GUIDED by the sound I went to the old hut, and asked, – ” are you there, Charley?” “Oh dear!  I shall die,” was the response. The gleam from the fire gave me light. I saw Charley was care-worn and beaten. His breathing was short and difficult. I stripped, the coveringContinue reading “Jack Bushman’s Tale Part 3”

Convict Runaways – Fagan and Bulbridge pay the ultimate price.

The Moreton Bay penal settlement was designed to be a place of punishment, but not execution. There was no Supreme Court at Brisbane until the 1850s, no scaffold and no executioner. The prisoners who committed capital offences at Brisbane were taken by sea to Sydney, where they were tried, and if found guilty, executed. TheContinue reading “Convict Runaways – Fagan and Bulbridge pay the ultimate price.”

Murder at Mount Lindesay – the trial of Merridio and Nengavil.

On June 15 1840 Dr Ballow gave his report on oath to Commandant Gorman, and a week later, having reviewed the evidence thus far, Gorman issued an order to apprehend the men believed to be responsible for the deaths of Stapylton and Tuck, and the attempted murder of Dunlop. Colony of New South Wales, toContinue reading “Murder at Mount Lindesay – the trial of Merridio and Nengavil.”