At Sandy Creek, near Tarnagulla, the body of Joseph Watson was discovered at the bottom of a deep mine shaft in August 1861. He had been beaten to death, his skull crushed by repeated blows. Two large bloodied stones were found nearby. Nathaniel Ruby, a former mate of the deceased, had already confessed to a woman named Mary Ann Annersley, telling her he would kill Watson after learning she had been with him. Hours later he returned and told her plainly: ‘I have killed Joe, he is for the grave and I’m for the gallows.’
Ruby was arrested on the strength of Annersley’s account and the physical evidence recovered from the shaft. He was tried, convicted, and hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 5 August 1861. Watson had recently found a gold nugget worth around 150 pounds; how much remained on him at the time of his death was never established.
Ruby’s own words to Annersley on the night of the killing served as the most damning evidence against him: ‘I have killed Joe, he is for the grave and I’m for the gallows.’
