australian deaths – Page 2 – Way to go Australia

Great flood takes eight lives during fruitless rescue

1894 – Albert Cummins and the Buchanan family refused to leave their houses when the waters rose. They changed their minds when rescuers came, only to drown before reaching safety. The highest floods yet recorded at Ingham in Far North Queensland came early on a Sunday in April. The town had already had 111 inchesContinue reading “Great flood takes eight lives during fruitless rescue”

Fell from his horse and drowned

1886 – “No-one was better known or more respected in Gladstone than James Hawthorne”, a newspaper declared when he suddenly met his end. While death notices described the 42-year-old as a saddler, a James Hawthorne was mayor of the town some years earlier and it can be assumed it was the same person. James wasContinue reading “Fell from his horse and drowned”

Shooting game leads to tragedy

1929 – Two little boys playing with guns, both thinking they weren’t loaded. One was wrong. Alfred Fenton, nine, had an air-gun and his friend and neighbour William Brown a 22-calibre pea rifle. It was a few days after Christmas – perhaps one or the other was a gift. Fenton pointed his air-gun at Brown and fired, butContinue reading “Shooting game leads to tragedy”

Great flood takes eight lives during fruitless rescue

Drain dies in bath

1907 – There is a sad irony in a man named Drain breaking his neck in a swimming bath. Thirty- year-old Charles Drain was visiting Central Queensland’s Gladstone from the nearby copper mining region of Nanandu, now known as Many Peaks. The copper from the mine was used as a flux in the Mount MorganContinue reading “Drain dies in bath”

Step into open hold was John’s last

1874 – John Clerke died when he fell into the hold of the ship under his command, during the dark of night. He was the chief officer of the steamer Lady Bowen, which had just arrived from Rockhampton to Gladstone, a settlement which was only about 20 years old. It was a long slow trip,Continue reading “Step into open hold was John’s last”

Accidental shot kills policeman

1890 – Police sergeant Richard Troy, 33, may have shot himself during a raid on an Aboriginal camp in remote north-western Australia. It was June 16, 100 miles east of the Kimberley town of Wyndham, when Troy and fellow policemen charged the camp. They were trying to catch men thought to have been cutting telegraphContinue reading “Accidental shot kills policeman”

Cyclone kills grandma, while child survives

“I am afraid I am going. Good-bye.” Marion Currie, 84 years old, and her young grandson, age unknown, were pinned under a piece of timber in the midst of the worst cyclone Townsville had known. It was March 9, 1903 and as Cyclone Leonta intensified, Marion had made two attempts to reach her daughter’s homeContinue reading “Cyclone kills grandma, while child survives”

One turn of the windmill

Hughenden, 1928 – Fifty-year-old Charles John Burdekin Abbott had made sure the windmill was turned off before he climbed up to do some repairs. According to newspaper reports, he and a workboy were at his neighbour’s property Wyoming. His neighbour was in hospital, so he was doing him a favour. But a gust of windContinue reading “One turn of the windmill”

Fence the dams, the town cried

Charters Towers, 1885 – The drowning death of Nell Richards led for calls for the town’s dams to be fenced before any more children were lost. Elizabeth Ellen, known as Nell, was watching her younger sister bathe with several other children at Mr Mill’s dam at the top end of Mosman Street. Nell was onContinue reading “Fence the dams, the town cried”

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