Charters Towers, a beautiful outback town South West of Townsville was once a thriving
Gold Rush town it became the second largest city outside of Brisbane. As the gold dried up, mining became
uneconomic, Charters Towers population slowly declined, but the stunning old buildings and ghosts remained.
On the outskirts of Charters Towers sits what the locals call "the old cemetery", the Lynd Highway
Cemetery was established in 1895. This bleak, barren and dead flat cemetery is bordered by a well maintained
cast iron perimeter fence and charming front gate. It is the resting place for a number of interesting
local characters including Jupiter Mossman who, as the local lore has it, was one of the party that discovered
gold in Charters Towers; Doctor Leonard Redmond who discovered Australian Dengue Fever; Frederick Pfeiffer,
owner of the rich Day Dawn PC Mine and James Kenniff who was the last bushranger in Queensland.
James and his older brother Patrick were expert horsemen who made a living by horse stealing a very
serious crime.
They were wanted in connection to the theft of a horse. A police constable,
Aboriginal tracker and station master pursued the brothers for several days through hard, mountainous
country in Western Queensland. Surprising Patrick and his brother James they managed to overpower and
arrest them both. As the tracker was sent to get handcuffs from the constable's packhorse, gunshots rang
out and the tracker ran for his life.
A later search found the constable's horse wandering
through the scrub and the burnt remains of the constable and station master. The brothers were tracked
down again and following a shootout, both were captured and tried for murder.
Throughout the
trial Patrick maintained his innocence and was denied the right to appeal to the Privy Council in London,
by the judge Samuel Griffith. Though there was public shock and outcry, the Queensland Government seemed
to be determined to see him hang.
Patrick was sent to the Gallows of Boggo Road Gaol, protesting
his innocence to the very last. His final chilling words were saved for one man, the Chief Justice, now
Sir Samuel Griffith: "I am as innocent as the judge who sentenced me."
James's life was spared,
but he was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour. Being released in 1914, he refused visitors
and lived out his life alone. Some say he was the one who pulled the trigger. He took the secret to his
grave in Charters Towers.
Hear about this amazing story on Australia's longest running
true crime show "True Crimes" presented by Jack Sim on 4BC Nights with Walter Williams. Thursday evenings
9.35pm on Radio 4BC.
Visit the grave of Patrick Kenniff on a South Brisbane Cemetery Ghost
Tour
