QLD - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1866: The Wild Scotchman Handed a Harsh 25 Years for Mail Robbery

Bushranger James Macpherson, known as the Wild Scotchman, was found guilty at Maryborough of robbing the local mails and sentenced to two concurrent 25-year terms. The presiding judge made clear the sentence was deliberately severe, intended as a warning to deter other would-be bushrangers from following his example.

The punishment stood out for its length even by the standards of colonial Queensland justice, reflecting how seriously authorities viewed the ongoing threat of mail robbery to the colony’s roads and communications.

Portrait of bushranger James MacPherson 1866: The Wild Scotchman

⬅ See all events from 13 September

Australia Bushranger Maryborough QLD Robbery Trial

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1870: William Brown Hanged at Toowoomba Gaol for Robbery Under Arms

William Brown, also known as Bertram, was hanged at Toowoomba Gaol on 29 August 1870 for robbery under arms at Mangalore. A German-born drifter who claimed to have left home at the age of twelve and reached Australia as a cabin boy, Brown was linked to a string of robberies in New South Wales and was reported to have spent several years with Gardiner’s gang in the Barrier Ranges. His identity was confirmed by the loss of his left eye, an injury sustained during an earlier term of imprisonment.

Throughout his final days, he refused to reveal his true name or identify his associates, remarking that his friends would probably never learn what had become of him. Brown was only twenty-one when he was executed.

Toowoomba Garden City welcome sign for Carnival of Flowers

⬅ See all events from 29 August

Australia Bushranging Execution Organised Crime QLD Robbery Toowoomba

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1895: The Wild Scotchman: Death of Queensland Bushranger James Macpherson

James Alpin Macpherson, known as the Wild Scotchman, was one of Queensland’s most notorious bushrangers before his capture and imprisonment. Released from prison in 1874, he lived out the remainder of his days quietly, working as a stockman and station overseer far from his outlaw past.

Macpherson died on 23 August 1895 at Burketown, Queensland, aged 53, after falling from a horse. The man who had once terrorised the bush met his end not in a blaze of gunfire, but in an ordinary accident on the land he had spent his later years working.

Portrait of bushranger James MacPherson 1866: The Wild Scotchman

⬅ See all events from 23 August

Accident Australia Burketown Bushranger Death QLD

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

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

⬅ See all events from 22 August

Australia Brisbane Burnett District Execution Murder QLD Trial

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Subscribe to Dark Stories