Brisbane - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1824: Queensland's First Convict Colony Founded, Then Abandoned for Brisbane Within a Year

On this day, Lieutenant Henry Miller led a party of convicts and soldiers ashore at Redcliffe on Moreton Bay to establish the first European settlement in the region that would later become Queensland. The site had been recommended by explorer John Oxley as a suitable location for a new penal outpost, but the choice quickly proved a poor one.

The choice proved a poor one. Fresh water was scarce, the anchorage was exposed and unsafe for shipping, and within a year the entire settlement was abandoned. The colony was relocated south along the river to a site that would grow into the city of Brisbane, which soon eclipsed Redcliffe as the region's principal convict station.

Flogging a Convict at Moreton Bay by William Ross: illustration from The Fell Tyrant

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Australia Brisbane Colonisation Convict Colony History QLD Redcliffe

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1854: Hanged at Brisbane Gaol for the Killing of a Station Manager

In March 1852, Adolphus Henry Trevethan, a station manager at Rawbell in the Burnett District, was killed during a tense confrontation with a large group of armed men on his property. He had gone out to negotiate and was returning with tobacco and pipes when he came running back, hand pressed to his chest, crying 'I'm a dead man' before dying of multiple stab wounds within hours.

The accused was tried at the Brisbane Circuit Court, where witness James Carney testified against the accused. Found guilty and sentenced to death, the condemned man walked to the scaffold on 22 August 1854, ascending it without resistance and dying without a struggle.

Noose at historic Tombstone courthouse courtyard, Arizona

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Australia Brisbane Burnett District Execution Murder QLD Trial

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1878: Sam Ah Poo Hanged at Toowoomba Gaol for the Axe Murder of a Drover

On the evening of 24 April 1878, drover J. Fisher McMichael was washing himself at a camp near Bundaberg when Sam Ah Poo, the cook on his droving run, struck him from behind with an axe. The blow opened a gash four inches long beside the backbone. As McMichael fell, Ah Poo swung twice more, shouting 'I killoo you now, you no killeemo.' McMichael survived only four hours. One of the drovers wrestled Ah Poo to the ground; when bound, Ah Poo appeared entirely calm, described by a witness as like one who had got a load off his mind.

Tried at the Toowoomba Winter Assizes on 22 July 1878 before Justice Lilley, Ah Poo's defence argued insanity and delusion. The jury disagreed, returning a guilty verdict after thirty minutes. On the morning of 19 August 1878, Ah Poo walked to the scaffold at Toowoomba Gaol with firm steps, requiring little support from the warders. The bolt was drawn at eight o'clock and death followed almost instantaneously.

Stockman on horseback droving cattle along dusty dirt road

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Australia Brisbane Bundaberg Execution Murder QLD Toowoomba Trial

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1984: The Fine Cotton Ring-In That Shook Australian Racing

On 18 August 1984, a carefully orchestrated betting scam unfolded at Eagle Farm Racecourse in Brisbane. A syndicate headed by former bloodstock agent John Gillespie entered a horse under the name Fine Cotton, a poor performer racing at 33-1, then sent out Bold Personality, an open-class horse several grades above, crudely disguised with Clairol hair dye and white paint to mimic the brown gelding's markings. The plunge was unmistakable: Fine Cotton's odds crashed to 7-2 as money flooded in at tracks and TABs across the country.

Stewards grew suspicious at the dramatic form reversal and disqualified the horse. The botched disguise, paint flaking, colouring mismatched, made the fraud obvious. Trainer Hayden Haitana was disqualified and prominent Sydney bookmaker Robbie Waterhouse lost his licence for 17 years. The Fine Cotton scandal remains one of the most shambolic and notorious frauds in the history of Australian thoroughbred racing.

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Australia Brisbane Eagle Farm Fraud Organised Crime QLD Scandal

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