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. Read more →
1826: The Head Was Never Found: Three Men Hanged at Hobart for Murder
Alexander Simpson, a shopkeeper who lived and slept in two houses near Pittwater not far from Hobart, was last seen walking home at dusk. Read more →
1826: Escaped Convicts Turned Highway Robbers: Two Hanged After Fleeing Macquarie Harbour
John Taylor and George Waters had absconded from the notorious penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour, Van Diemen’s Land’s infamous secondary punishment station for repeat offenders, before turning to highway robbery. Read more →
1826: A Colonial Newspaper Pleaded for Mercy: Two Men Hanged at Hobart for the Murder of a Stock-Keeper
Thomas Colley, a stock-keeper at Oyster Bay in Van Diemen’s Land, was speared to death in 1826. Read more →
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. Read more →
1897: “My Poor Boy, My Charlie”: A Mother’s Anguished Cry Before Her Son Was Hanged for Murder
Charles John Hall murdered his wife Minnie at Eaglehawk, near Bendigo, on 11 February 1897. Read more →
1973: The Real Friday the 13th Killer: David McGreavy and the Murder of Three Children in Worcester
On Friday 13th September 1973, 20-year-old David McGreavy was left babysitting the three Ralph children in Worcester while their parents were out. Read more →
1982: A Dingo Did Take the Baby: The Second Inquest Into Azaria Chamberlain’s Disappearance Begins
Nine week old Azaria Chamberlain vanished from her family’s tent at a campsite near Ayers Rock on the night of 17 August 1980. Read more →
