Haunted Sheep Station (1940)

7/29/2019 Haunted Sheep Station (1940)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/haunted-sheep-station-1940 1/3

Sunday Mail (Brisbane) (Qld. : 1926 - 1954), Sunday 7 January 1940, page 2

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98243736

L tilI II II

?

Strange?

Tales Of

Queensland's

Past

AREthere runs of

good-luck and bad

luck ? Can either a

person or a place be sub

ject for a period to a seem

ingly uninterrupted chain

of either good or adverse

circumstances in such fashion

as io pass beyond mere coin

cidence. Lerida Station, in the'

Muttaburra district, hits

known both.

. Neverthelessit is doubtful if

many hundreds of station folk

from all over Queensland as

sociate anything but happiness

with the: name of Lerida, for

they enjoyed the station's

hospitality throughout the many

years when the fashionable

Tower Hi]] Picnic Jockey Club held

its annual carnival there. They are

unaware that a hoodoo lay heavy

upon. Lerida from the '80's almost

throuRh the '80s.

When the Leslie Brothers took

-up Lerida in Ihe 70s it was a

leasehold of 463 square miles sit

uated on the great downs countryof Mitchell and Flinders grasses—

as fine sheep land as there was in

Australia. Many resumptions for

small holdings have reduced Lerida

to less than 50 square miles and to

day the homestead area is a sheepstud.

Situated east of Winton. south of

Hughenden and Richmond, and

north of Longreach. Barcaldine and

Aramac, this old station thus layin the centre of a vast pastoralarea. Fifty miles to the east is the

town of Mutiaburra which in the

'80s and '90s was one of the most

hectic towns in the west.

For those were the days, as Henry

For those were the days, as HenryLnwxon has it. when Cobb and Co.

was king. Muttaburra was a stage

stop lor the Cobb coaches which ran

from Biackall up to Barcaldine and

Aramac, and thence through

'

the

town on the Landsborough River to

HuEhenden. Richmond and over the

horizon's rim.

?

j^ CROSS the Landsborough atMuttaburra stood Fahcy's Hotel,

now gone, leaving in these days of

motor transport— not a wrack be

hind. There the oldest of old hands

declare you might have seen as

many as 16 Cobb and Co. coaches

drawn up at one lime, and inside

the rambling one-story hotel 100

passengers. In the season when the

wool was coining off. hundreds of

shearers, wool-pressers and rouse

abouts rilled the bar and sat alongthe veranda— a laughing, .singing.

and shouting crowd, toasting the

famous daughter of the landlady.The hoodoo on Lerida started

with the spearing of a stockman

when first the station was

taken up. In ]8S0 a man named

Huskisson, while swaggingit —

humping Matilda — across Lerida

on his way to the new station

on Ayrshire Downs, wandered

miles away into desert country

and died of thirst.

In 1885 W. G. Gordon and Walter

Eunning making their way with a

mob of sheep across Lerida to Darr

River Downs quarrelled, though

what they quarrelled about is lost

in the inisls of the past. The quarrel

on Lerida may have been merely

the working out of the hoodoo, but

BunniiiRwas not murdered until

Darr River Downs was reached.

Gordon wa-s hanged in Brisbane for

the minder of Bunning. Then the

hoodoo was suspended for a decade,

only to break again onLorid.-i in

its most intense and final phase.

?

1 ATE in October, 1896. about 90

shearers, wool-pressers. and

rouseaboula had their final .iolh

fication at Fahey's Hotel by the

river in Muttaburra, and said good

bye to their iellows and the drivers

of Cobb and Co's coaches on whiih

of them had travelled to

of Cobb and Co's coaches on whiih

many of them had travelled to

Muttaburra. They left on horseback

for Lerida where .shearing was due

to start.

One of their number. Michael

Callaghan a wool-pi e.sscr, had sei-n

the old hotel for the last time, and

he was unaware that he was walk

ing rislu into the lioodoo tliat lay

upon Lerida.

That night the shearing cavalcade

camped at Tablederry, the strange

table-topped hills that rise 15 miles

from Muttaburra. During the night,

while the remains of considerableliquor purchased at the hotel was

being consumed. Cullaghan quar

relled with a rouscabout, named

John Bohun.

On the following morning- before

the large party .started for Lerida

wool-shed. Callagluin offered to

make friends, but the rousrnbotit

rejected his advances and threat

ened that he would settle Callagluintin; first chance he got.

By six o'clock that evening all

the mm liad reached Lerida and

camped on the banks of the creek

three miles from the bead station

with the intention of going to tlie

wool sheds about seven miles away

in time for the beginning- of shearing next day.

As evidence that Bohun had mut

tered no idle threat, he sot up at

daylight on October 23, secured an

empty whisky bottle and went

searching among the sleeping men

for Callaghan. He experienced dif

licully in locating' him as the men

all slept wiih their heads under the

v..

;?'? -

blankets because the flies were

troublesome.Bohun lifted the blankets of

about half a dozen men and at

last found Callagban. In view

of a watching shearer, named

Barney Hughes, he lifted the

whisky bottle and then struck

Callaghan five times on the side

of the head with it.

Hughes seized the rouseabout and,

with the assistance of other men.

secured him with straps. They

turned their attention to Call&ghan

and found his .skull smashed in. He

lived only a few- minutes.

A shearer rode swiftly to Mutta

burra and reported the msuter to

Constable P. Duffy 'who relived

six years ago as Sub-inspector

Duffy;. After arranging for a doc

tor to ro to Lerida to conduct a

post -mortem the constable rode to

the scene of the murder io find that

the rouseabout had made his es

cape, and was hiding in the bush

iiljuiii two miles away.

Dulfy organised a search party.

The country was combed and it

whs the conMublc who sighted Die

murderer. Bohun made a dash for

a large watoihole. The constable



a large watoihole. The constable

.?.purred his horse anil rode him

down on the bank of the winci-holc,

bin the rirsprraie man arose and

madr another dash with the ob

vious intention of committings\iicide. Once more he wns, ridden

down smd ull the spirit knocked out

of him. He was then secured,

uiken to tlic camp and shown the

bodv of Callaghan.

'I pot even with him.' he said.

'He won't tellany more lies about

me.'

When Bohun was formally ar

rested and charged with Callaghan'smurder he said : 'Go your hardest.

I Rot him.'

One of the strangest aspects

of the death of Callnghan was

the behaviour of his horse.

Callaghan was buried in a rough

coffin fashioned by his fellows

of the shearers' camp, who then

mustered their 134 horses. A

horse belonging to Callaghan

left the others and trotted

to the newly made grave.He began (o pa«- it with his fore

feet. He was driven away several

timos. but on each occasion he re

turned and pawed the grave once

more.

Their have been many instances

of dogs refusing to leave the

graves of their masters but surely

that is the first time a horse has

been known to act in such a

fashion.

At Rockhampton on December 10,

1896. the murderer, who proved to

have been known also as McMillan

and Gilbert, was sentenced by Mr.

Justice Power to death, a sentence

later commuted to imprisonment

for the term of his natural lite.

Callaghan had scarcely settled

into his grave by the billabong

when the hoodoo settled in an ex

traordinary fashion on Lerida.

About a month later typhoid fever

bipkc out on the station. Two

shearers contracted it and died.

There was tragedy at the home

stead when the manager's daughter.Miss While, died of typhoid and

was buried neur the homestead.

Her lather resigned and went to

New Scn-lh Wales when the shear

ing finished, but noi before he had

seen Leiid.i's hoodoo claim yet

another victim in the person of a

wool-roller named Flannagan who

died in the wool-shed from heart

failure.

?

'pHE hoodoo was to have one more

sacrifice before leaving Lorida.

The new manager must have felt

an oppressive atmosphere after the

sequence of deaths for he died byhis own hand in a manner cieaiiv

demonstrating that he was a victim

of worry and nerves.

He had been on Lerida only a

little while when he yarded 12000

sheep lor a drover who was to

travel them for grass and water

in order to save them from the

to save them from the

drought.

The drover was to have come

from Hughenden and failed to

arrive. For three days the sheep

remained yarded without food

or drink. The manager, over

come with anxiety for the sheep,

stayed up until midnight oi the

third day. and when there was still

no sign of the drover lie killed him

self.

Next day the drover and his men

arrived.

With the death of this unfor

tunate manager the lioodoo Mied,

apparently never to settle ag&'-.

?

\OT long after this sequence of

tragedies Mr. A. C. Hone became

manager of Messrs. F. G.. F. J.. snd

J. C. White and was a host who be

came noted throughout the State.

As president of the Tower Hill

Picnic Jockey Club he made

Lerida famous as the annual scene

of the finest amateur racing, the

gayestballs and tlie most fashion

able gatherings in the west.

Hundreds of members of other

picnic race clubs, invited guests,

visitors Horn the cities and from

overseas discovered at Lerida Aus

tralian bush hospitality at its best,

with guests cami-ed in the shearers

huts, in the overflowing home

stead, in tents; guests who made a

tarpaulin muster of the expensesso that it the improvised bar

nobody was ever allowed to buy a

drink.

Balls were held in (he woolilied

at night throughout the Leriria

carnival, before the Tower Hill

Picnic Jockey Club began to meet

at Beryl Station near Longreach,onned b.v [he Crombies.

Frocks were seen there that came

direct from Paris, or were the

highest priced in the salons of Mel

bourne and Sydney. Sometimes

Atoo's band went over to Lerida

from Longreach: but there were

occasions when hundreds of coupleswaltzed and one-stepped to the

strains of concertinas and liddies

in the old bush style.

The hoodoo left Lerida and not

even the ghost oi one of those oldbushmen who met his end there

could be heard in Die moonlightsinging by the biilabong.

NEXT SUNDAY: To&

Many Shirts in Hie Murder

f

? It'sa grim story this new series telis to-

j

|

day — the story of the queer malevolent in-1

1ftuence that wrote one violent death after

}

| another into the chronicles of one of{

f

Queensland's most prosperous sheep{

I. properties. r

i



He began to paw the

grave with his fore

feet . . .

Documents

Haunted Sheep Station (1940)