Ernest Austin was the last person ever executed in Queensland. The 23-year-old farm labourer was hanged in Brisbane in September 1913 for a murder committed at Samford three months earlier. Reporters noted that the brilliance of the spring morning made it hard to grasp what was happening a few yards away. A chaplain led the procession to the scaffold, reciting the burial service. The condemned man looked in remarkably good health; his appetite had stayed “voracious to the very last”, and he had gained 28 pounds in gaol. Asked if he had anything to say, he spoke in low, clear tones, waving his right hand for emphasis: “I say straight out that I quite deserve this punishment.” As the white cap was drawn over his face he added: “Send a wire to my mother.”
