Augustus Dancey was hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 1 August 1848 for the murder of Matthew Lucke, a young boy, at Stony Creek. The case drew considerable public attention, and Dancey spent his final hours receiving the sacrament, joining the prison chaplain in hymns, and eating a hearty breakfast of beefsteak before calmly submitting to the pinioning of the executioner.
Despite repeated entreaties from the Reverend Mr. Thompson to confess his guilt, Dancey maintained his innocence to the last. Waking at midnight in his cell the night before his execution, he declared he was ‘as innocent as the child unborn’ of the crime for which he was to hang.
