The Murderous Maynes: Patrick surely did...or maybe didn't...hmmm...

Kangaroo Point, 1860's - from the John Oxley Library Collection.

The Murderous Maynes...Part II - following last week's article, surrounding the murder of Robert Cox. To briefly recap, there is no doubt that an horrendous murder took place on the banks of the Brisbane River all those years ago.  However, we'll travel through a little more actual history to give some more grounding on the event, an undertaking that has been fairly lacking in other published sources to date, before we jump back to examine the fiction that's been peddled recently in Brisbane...

The evidence on which William Fyfe was convicted was considered so circumstantial by all official parties involved, that all passed comment during the Criminal Trial in Sydney - from reports at the time, the Solicitor-General (prosecuting), opened that, "The evidence which he should present in their [the jurors'] notice to bring the charge home to the prisoner was entirely circumstantial," afterwards concluding the list of evidence by stating, "That a clear case must be made out for the prosecution before the Jury could convict on circumstantial evidence; and if the facts which he should prove raised a doubt in their minds, the prisoner would be entitled to an acquittal."  Similarly, Fyfe's legal defendant, Mr Holroyd, also stated, "The case before the Court was one deserving their most serious attention inasmuch as the whole case depended, as opened by the learned Solicitor-General, on circumstantial evidence.  No one of the facts stated by the numerous witnesses who had been called on the part of the Crown would be sufficient to convict the prisoner of murder; and before they could find him guilty upon the information upon which he had been arraigned they must find, not only that every fact that had been proved was sufficient to fix the prisoner with guilt, but that they must arrive at the irresistible conclusion that those facts were inconsistent with the guilt of any other party."  Furthermore, Holroyd concluded, "by urging the jury not to be led away by one or two trifling circumstances, but to consider well all the facts proved; and if those facts were reconcilable with fixing the guilt on any other party, it would be their duty to acquit the prisoner.  In this case there was no middle course; the offence was either murder or nothing - they could not reduce it to the crime of manslaughter."

Amazingly, the Judge presiding over the trial took a similar stance, almost attempting to coerce the Jury into acquitting Fyfe - "His Honor the Chief Justice then summed up with great minuteness.   He said, this was a case of the very greatest importance: for, as had been observed by the learned counsel for the prisoner, the jury must either find the prisoner guilty of murder or acquit him altogether; and if they did find the prisoner guilty of murder, he would most undoubtedly be executed.  The evidence was very remarkable - it was purely circumstantial; but were those circumstances sufficient to lead them to the irresistible conclusion that the prisoner, and no one else, could have been the murderer?"  Additionally, the Judge heavily reprimanded the Queensland Constabulary for essentially compromising the case - evidence had apparently been "overlooked," being discovered days later, the crime scene had not been locked down, and potential suspects and witnesses had not been arrested or questioned.  Sadly, the Jury adjourned for 30 short minutes before returning a unanimous guilty verdict, dooming Fyfe to the Hangman's noose.

Stories persist that a 4-page statement Fyfe had hoped to read on the scaffold had been confiscated by the authorities, and he had been refused access to broadcast his final message - in truth, William Ritchie, who had attended Fyfe on a spiritual basis at Darlinghurst Gaol, wrote a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald after the execution in the hope of its being published - in the letter, he stated that whilst the document had been confiscated from Fyfe, it had been done so surreptitiously through no less than common pick-pocketing between the cell and gallows, a dastardly act authorised by no less than Cornelius Prout, the presiding Under Sheriff...Fyfe had not realised his last statement to this world was missing until he mounted the scaffold and reached into his pocket...finding nothing.  Upon asking if he could still address the gathered crowd, the cap was immediately pulled over his head and the lever pulled - however in the haste, the quick despatch went horribly wrong...Fyfe struck the side of the scaffold floor heavily in the fall, severely grazing his hand and thigh, and shattering three ribs.  Over the next horrifying nine minutes it took Fyfe to expire, a steady stream of blood trickled from the legs of his trousers to the ground, a sight "which sickened even those most habituated to such scenes."  Fyfe was finally dead...having likely paid the ultimate price for another man's crime.

So...how's Patrick Mayne tied up in all this, I hear you ask??  Well, according to The Ghosts of Toowong Cemetery: Brisbane's Necropolis, "One night, at a local pub, Mayne overheard a conversation that would change his life.  A drunken man mentioned that he had a large sum of money in his possession."  This statement, similar to those in Part I of this article published last week, is simply not true.  At approximately 12:30am, after the Inn had been closed for the night at 11:00pm, and Fyfe (and presumably Cox) had gone to bed - according to the Publican William Sutton - John Connell (a servant at the Bush Inn) and 3 butchers arrived on the doorstep looking to drink...the butchers were George Platt, William Lynch and Patrick Mayne.  Not one of these men (Sutton, Connell, Platt, Lynch or Mayne) claim to have seen either Fyfe or Cox whilst drinking that night...furthermore, Fyfe provided testimony that Cox had already left the establishment prior to the butchers' arrival.

Before we examine Patrick's "deathbed confession" any further, let's first jump forward 160 years to present-day Brisbane, in order to pull apart the two unfounded ghost stories attached to the Mayne family. 

The first involves the Mayne Monument located on 12th Avenue in Toowong Cemetery.  The Ghosts of Toowong Cemetery: Brisbane's Necropolis refers to the structure as the "family vault" - similarly, Haunted Brisbane: Ghosts of the River City refers to the structure as the "family crypt."  The associated story, which can now be found blindly regurgitated on numerous pages across the Internet, is to the effect that, "At the bottom of the Mayne family crypt are air vents, which allow liquids and gases from decomposition to escape the vault. At various times, thick red liquid is seen oozing from the vents and down into the gutter on 12th Avenue…"  According to Ghost Tours' night walking tours through the Cemetery, this "crimson red liquid" is supposedly, "the blood on the hands of the Mayne family pouring from the crypt until it is all washed away..."  What Ghost Tours don't tell you, is that the story is completely fabricated, and very poorly at that - the structure is not a vault, it is not a crypt, & the vents in its base are not there to allow the gas created by decomposition to escape...after all, could you imagine the horrendous stench wafting down 12th Avenue if the products of decomposition were allowed to freely vent out into the roadway??

In truth, the Mayne Monument is just that - a monument.  Mary Mayne, Patrick's wife, was the first to be buried on the site after passing away on the 4th of September 1889.  3 weeks later at the family's request, on the 24th of September, the remains of Patrick Mayne, Evelina Selina Mayne (Patrick & Mary's infant daughter), & Mary McIntosh Kelly (Mary Mayne's mother) were exhumed from their original plots in Paddington Cemetery, and were reinterred in the family plot at Toowong - all 4 were buried, below natural ground level, likely with headstones to mark their graves.  However, in the early weeks of 1891, 18 months after the above burials, stonemasons John Petrie & Son arrived on site to erect what would become known as the finest marble monument in the colony.   Carved from the finest Canal Bianco Italian marble by renowned Italian sculptor Primo Fontana, the centrepiece was set atop a raised construction of Breakfast Creek sandstone.  Over the following 50 years, as the remaining six Mayne family members passed away, this monument would have been reopened to allow for the subsequent ground burials to be carried out - well below the overlying monument.  Hence, any insinuation that coffins exist aboveground within the confines of the structure, are simply untrue - and the stories of blood-like liquid running from the vents of the non-existent vault/crypt is complete rot, fabricated solely to create sensationalism on Ghost Tours' overpriced jaunts through Toowong Cemetery.

To examine the second story, we must journey back across town to the CBD - to the site of Brisbane Arcade, to be precise.  Now, the ghost of Brisbane Arcade is a well-known entity, and has been for the past few decades - I was told of the apparition that walks the mezzanine level of the Arcade back in the mid-1990's...and the story had been doing the rounds well before then.  According to folklore, the apparition of a woman dressed in black has been seen on numerous occasions on the upper floor of the Arcade - whilst some of the shopkeepers in the Arcade have caught a glimpse of this woman, she is most commonly seen by the security guards that patrol the building after dark.  According to legend, the ghost is said to be that of a millinery store owner...however two variations of the story exist.  One version claims that the woman regularly worked back into the early hours of the morning in the store's back room, sewing dresses in an attempt to meet her deadlines...late one night, whilst slaving over her sewing machine, the unfortunate soul suffered a heart attack/stroke and passed away alone, only to be discovered the next morning when the Arcade reopened.  The second version, not nearly as explicit, states the woman merely returned after her death elsewhere to look over her store and the Arcade.

So, how do the Maynes fit in??  Well, the construction of Brisbane Arcade was funded by James O'Neil Mayne and his sister Mary Emelia Mayne - built in proximity to the original site of Patrick Mayne's butcher's shop and residence fronting Queen Street (in the days when Queen Street was still a thoroughfare, and not a Mall as it exists today).  That is where the Mayne association ends...although not if you've spoken to "Jack" Sim or taken one of his CBD ghost tours in the past 5 years.  Prior to about 2007, Ghost Tours' CBD walking tours took in Brisbane Arcade and told the story of the millinery store owner's ghost...however this ghost has mysteriously changed identities in more recent years, courtesy of "Jack" Sim.  In September 2008, a segment was run on the local TV program The Great South East, interviewing the "dark historian" about the ghost of Brisbane Arcade.  In the segment, it was stated by "Jack" that, "Some say she is Patrick Mayne’s wife [Mary], who will forever walk the building as eternal punishment for her family’s sins."  By 2009, we see the same published in the Courier Mail on the 29th of March 2009 as if it were gospel truth, reinforcing the damage to Brisbane's true heritage that Ghost Tours perpetuate - "some" don't say the ghost is possibly that of Mary Mayne...only Ghost Tours' guides do...

Ironically, this is not the first time Ghost Tours have purposefully modified the identity of a ghost to suit their tours, & history in general - I encourage you all to read the article, "The Woman in Black: Solving the mystery of a vanishing ghost," a very poignant investigation of Ghost Tours' penchant for modifying ghost stories & history to boost ticket sales and add sensationalism.

So, taking all of the above into account, where do we sit at the conclusion??  Was Patrick really guilty of the crime??  Did he indeed admit to slaughtering Cox, 17 years previously, when prostrate on his deathbed??  Not really.  The entire story is no more than crafty guesswork.  What we do know from history comes from two memoirs, written in the years prior to 1900.  The first comes from Henry Stuart Russell's The Genesis of Queensland (1888), in which he stated about Cox's murder, "Some years afterwards another, in the horror of a death-bed upbraiding, confessed that he had been the guilty one, and had looked on at the execution of his innocent locum tenens! Let his name perish!"  This claim was again published in John James Knight's work, In the Early Days (1895), yet neither primary or secondary account saw fit to print the perpetrator's name.  Similarly, if the "deathbed confession" of Patrick Mayne is to be believed at all, it was to the effect that he had killed a man for which another had been sent to the gallows - Patrick did not divulge the name of his apparent victim in his confession.  Whilst we can all speculate as to who murdered Robert Cox, the depth of Patrick's involvement will always remain speculative.

For those of you have have made it this far, I congratulate you - you are now far more knowledgeable than most on the story of Patrick Mayne and his connection with the murder that led to his family's apparent "bad reputation".  However, in closing, a very recent sensational claim must be critically questioned, in light of what you've already read.  In Bloody Brisbane: Crime & Murder in the River City, Vol. 1, "Jack" Sim states categorically, "Today, sadly, it is only Patrick Mayne who gets the bad rap.  The crime is now called the "Mayne Murder" and people proudly boast of reading about how a founding father of our town was a vicious murderer as though it was fact.  In my opinion Patrick Mayne did not kill Robert Cox."  Seriously, "Jack" - the public proudly boast of reading about the "Murderous Maynes" in your two trashy books, Haunted Brisbane: Ghosts of the River City and The Ghosts of Toowong Cemetery: Brisbane's Necropolis, which pegs you as nothing more than a massive hypocrite.

In parting, you, "Jack" Sim, appeared on Brisbane morning radio (on Channel 4BC) in 2009 [scroll down to the "Patrick Mayne" photo to listen], to discuss your "major historic breakthrough" in absolving Patrick Mayne of any wrongdoing in the murder of Robert Cox.  You state that Patrick's "deathbed confession" is hearsay, you claim again that Cox was "dispersed all over the place," you claim that Patrick was questioned on the night of the murder (which he was not)...and then boast that you are in possession of a written confession, penned 20 years after Robert Cox's murder, and 3 years after Patrick Mayne's death??  Apparently, according to the interview, this amazing fact was due to hard research and diligence...two terms I would never use to describe your "historian" status.  So...two questions, "Jack" - if you truly have this written confession, why have you never published this in the past three years, especially since you promised in the interview that it would be published in the 2010 reprint of Bloody Brisbane: Crime & Murder in the River City?  Secondly, if you're so sure that Patrick Mayne was innocent of the crime, why do you continue to tarnish his family's name with your fabricated ghost stories and your "Murderous Maynes" slogan?


I await your reply, as do the residents of Brisbane...

Some bushrangers, a double execution & a modern-day restaurant: Cleveland's addition to the haunted register

In late 1899, The Queenslander published a number of articles penned by Thomas Archer, underneath the collective title, "Recollections of a Rambling Life - Pioneering in Queensland."  Thomas, one of seven brothers collectively known as the Archer Brothers, played an amazing role in the early history of Queensland, as did his siblings.

Of the brothers, Charles escorted Ludwig Leichhardt to the family property at Durundur (current-day Woodford) in 1843, where the famous explorer resided for a number of months & became a lifetime family friend; William, along with brother Charles, were the first Europeans to discover the Fitzroy River (through Rockhampton), which they named after the New South Wales Governor Charles Augustus Fitzroy; David accompanied Charles Darwin on a kangaroo hunt, unsuccessfully, outside Wallerawang in the Blue Mountains in 1836 as part of Darwin's legendary world voyage;  Archibald became a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, & acted as Colonial Treasurer & Minister for Education; Colin went on to become a shipbuilder, constructing the vessel Fram in which Fridtjof Nansen undertook his famous Arctic expedition.  In amongst these achievements, this band of brothers were responsible for exploring & opening up vast areas of Queensland for grazing from the Darling Downs all the way to the Fitzroy - the brothers eventually settled in the Fitzroy region & established Gracemere Station in league with my great great grand uncle Robert Pacey, whose family went on to further their own amazing cattle empire in the region...part of this vast property is now the site of the current Queensland city of Rockhampton, & also gave name to the township of Gracemere beyond the city's limits.

In one of Thomas's articles in The Queenslander, he documents a fascinating story of early Australia, regarding a young man named Francis Edward Bigge whom he'd met whilst exploring the Stanthorpe area for viable grazing land.  In mid-1842, Francis & company had taken delivery of horses in the vicinity of Penrith in New South Wales, for delivery to Moreton Bay.  After suffering through 400km of harsh country & weather, the group of men successfully navigated their way to the vicinity of Tamworth on the 18th of August...however, their journey was about to take a colourful detour - suddenly, 3 men galloped into view, guns drawn, & demanded the party immediately dismount & disrobe.  Not one to be insulted in such a way, Francis emphatically refused & drew 2 pistols from his belt.  Outraged at Bigge's act of defiance, the bushrangers opened fire at close range, Francis returning fire in kind.  Miraculously, the bushrangers having expended their ammunition, Bigge managed to chase them off, taking possession of their abandoned horses & equipment.  However, the altercation came at a cost - during the melee, Bigge was shot through the shoulder which led to a 5 day stint in bed, & his clothing exhibited numerous bullet holes where he'd come within millimetres of further injury.

Ultimately, 2 of the 3 highwaymen, George Wilson & Thomas "Long Tom" Forrester, were arrested shortly after, Bigge having personally assisted in the manhunt - Wilson had arrived in the colony aboard the Moffatt on the 17th of August 1835, after having been sentenced to life at the Old Bailey in London.  However, on the 9th of February 1841, he had escaped from a chain gang & had joined up with Thomas Forrester - the two had taken to bushranging in northern New South Wales, & by the time of the altercation with Bigge had already had a £20 bounty placed on each of their heads by the Government.   At the Maitland Assizes on the 18th of March 1843, both prisoners registered a guilty plea, despite the Judge's repeated attempts to sway their decision, as a charge of "wounding with intent to murder" carried the death penalty.  After Bigge's deposition had been read, & both prisoners insisted they were guilty of the crime, the Judge had no other option but to sentence the pair to be hanged.  On the 25th of April 1843, both George & Thomas went to the gallows - it is said George stated that Mr. Bigge was surely the pluckiest man in the country & he did not mind swinging for such a man - as the newspaper of the day so poignantly reported, "The drop fell, and both were launched into eternity, for which they declared themselves prepared."

So, where's this week's ghost, you may ask?? Well, let's jump forward 10 years to 1852 & change location to Cleveland, just south of Brisbane, on the shores of Moreton Bay.  By this time, Francis Bigge had become a very wealthy landowner, businessman & elective member of the first New South Wales Legislative Council for the Pastoral Districts of Moreton, Wide Bay, Burnett & Maranoa.  Amongst other properties he owned in Cleveland, Francis purchased land in Paxton Street on which a brick building was constructed in 1853 to house workers for his various business interests nearby.  However, by the mid-1850's, Bigge's business interests at Cleveland were beginning to falter in favour of those in the rapidly expanding centre of Brisbane nearby, & the decision was made to downsize - the Paxton Street residence was rented to the Commissioner of Police for a courthouse & lock-up, & Francis took a sojourn to England in about 1856.  Whilst abroad, he married Elizabeth Ord in 1857, a devoutly religious woman & daughter of the Reverend Thomas Ord, before returning to Cleveland with his new bride in June 1858.  After a further 15 years spent in Cleveland, having accepted membership to the Queensland Legislative Council, Francis & Elizabeth returned again to England, where they saw out their days until both passed away in 1915 & 1914 respectively.

So, to our ghost - the courthouse was purchased as a private residence in 1882, & continued as such until it was converted to tea rooms in the 1960's.  In the late 1970's, a very ambitious project was undertaken by the owner to expand the property for use as a restaurant, for which the site has been utilised until the present day.  Best summed up on the Brisbane History website, "Stories of the Old Cleveland Courthouse Ghost (a middle-aged woman in a white gown, her dark hair gathered in two tight buns over her ears) have circulated for generations. No one knows for sure who she is, but most people believe it is Francis Bigge's wife, Elizabeth. The spectre is normally well behaved, content to amuse herself tapping staff and diners on the shoulder or blowing gently in their ears but she has been know to lose her temper on rare occasions, hurling items about the restaurant, switching lights on and off, fiddling with taps and causing valuable pictures to crash to the floor without, curiously, the glass in the frames ever breaking."  A quick look at The Courthouse Restaurant website provides more information, "Mrs Elizabeth Bigge is said to still wander the premises.  She died of hanging in England, but her spirit has returned to the place where she was the happiest.  There have been many sightings, as she seems to just co-exist peacefully, whilst keeping a watchful eye on the place when we are not here..."

So, what do we make of this??  There is clearly no doubt that the site has a resident ghost, although it is very debatable as to "who" is responsible for the haunting. What's more intriguing is the tale that Elizabeth Bigge "died from hanging" in England - it is highly dubious that a woman of such social status was hanged in 1914, nor is it likely that a devoutly religious daughter of a Reverend would take her own life by hanging (she would likely have been in her 80's at the time)...I would love to hear from anyone who can confirm the validity of this?  Ultimately, why Elizabeth's ghost would return to a building in Cleveland, after living abroad for 45 years, is anyone's guess...

However one very intriguing factor comes into play - for those who believe that spirits attach themselves to objects & places, the old courthouse houses something very special that may very well have given rise to the haunting.  During the 1977-78 renovations, suitable materials had to be sourced for the construction of the building extensions - amazingly, a fireplace fitted to the verandah extension was sourced from the sadly demolished Bellevue Hotel, a magnificent building that stood on the corner of George & Alice Streets & was a social hub for the elite in the Brisbane CBD.  Additionally, the main feature wall of the restaurant was constructed using brick & sandstone salvaged from the old Supreme Court Building in Brisbane after it had been gutted by fire - unfounded claims have been made about the haunted nature of the Supreme Court site recently, for the most ridiculous of reasons, however we'll be sure to examine the site's actual haunted history in a future article. Regardless, The Old Courthouse exhibits all the hallmarks of an ongoing haunting, & has every reason to do so given its colourful history...unfortunately, however, we may never know whose soul wanders amongst the tables during dinner service.

The Archerfield ghost: why compile your own material when you can steal someone elses?

"I was walking across one of the airfields on my way back to a group of friends when I spotted a man dressed in what appeared to be World War II flight gear.  I can remember him vividly, right down to his flight jacket, goggles, and cap. As there were a number of wartime aviation buffs visiting the airfield that day, I thought nothing of it - must have been someone getting into the spirit of things by turning up in costume. We passed each other and the friendly chap acknowledged me with a gesture and a nod, as did I to him, and I continued to walk back to rejoin my friends. When I arrived back, I asked my colleagues who the chap in the World War II flight gear was. It was at that point that one of the more knowledgeable of our group told me that I had just met the ghost of Archerfield!"

The above is an excerpt from the Australian chapter in the Encyclopedia of Haunted Places: Ghostly Locales From Around The World, compiled & edited in 2005 by no other than Jeff Belanger, the current day guru on ghostly phenomena.  Furthermore, aside from one segment written by Jeff about Monte Cristo Homestead in Junee, N.S.W., I was responsible for writing the Australian chapter for the encyclopaedia - including the section on the ghost of Archerfield Aerodrome.  The excerpt above was taken from an interview I conducted many years ago with an old ex-pilot who claimed to have experienced the ghost of Archerfield first-hand.  So...imagine my surprise when I recently stumbled across an article written by John Simpson in the Southern Star, entitled, "Eerie claims haunt airport."  Imagine my added surprise upon reading that "Sunnybank Hills-based ghost chaser and author of Haunted Brisbane: Ghosts of the River City, Jack Sim," had allegedly submitted the encyclopaedia entry himself!!

The article was clearly a promotional piece drumming up interest for "Jack" Sim's book, which at the time the article was published in the Southern Star in March 2009, was only a few months away from hitting store shelves as a second print edition - the first print edition had only seen 2000 copies produced, & was released in October 2005.  Here, we expose the ridiculousness of the claim in the newspaper article, as the Encyclopedia of Haunted Places was also released in October 2005 - why would a first-time author of a book about Brisbane's ghosts, relying on self-promotion & destined for a severely limited print run, submit highly useable material to another ghost book being compiled by a world-renowned author, destined for a massive print run & ongoing international distribution...with an identical release date?? Needless to say, I was less than impressed!

Additionally, Haunted Brisbane: Ghosts of the River City, is emblazoned with statements on the back cover such as "extensively researched" & "haunted historian" & "haunted heritage."  Given the numerous historical inaccuracies that cheapen every chapter of the book, I not only felt insulted at having my historically accurate material in the encyclopaedia linked with "Jack" Sim's name, but also felt insulted as a graduate professional in historical archaeology & cultural heritage at having my material used to advertise a book written by an unqualified salesman plugging gimmicky tours based on fictionalised "heritage". For the record, I have attempted to locate contact details for the author of the Southern Star article without success, & have contacted both the Chief Editor for Quest Newspapers & the Editor for the Southern Star in order to discern who provided them with the information for the article - to date, I have received no replies.  Ultimately, given that my name accompanies each section & photograph in the Australian chapter of the encyclopaedia, their journalistic capabilities in researching & cross-checking leave much to be desired!

So, poorly sourced journalism aside, let's delve further into the real history of Archerfield & the possible origin of the ghost tale of Beatty Road.  I have spoken to multiple people over the years who claim to have possibly spotted the ghost of Archerfield Aerodrome, however only 3 of these witnesses during this time observed the anomaly for more than a split second & were considered credible on interview.  Of these 3 witnesses, the observations of the "pilot" match: a man, dressed in a leather flight jacket with possible overalls under (waist down), & peaked cap with raised flight goggles sitting just above the peak.  One account took place towards the southern boundary of the airport, & two along Beatty Road also towards the southern boundary in the proximity to Mortimer Road.  Amongst these accounts, observations of a deployed parachute do not exist, as published in the Southern Star article - of the airmen that tragically lost their lives in pursuing their duties at Archerfield around the time of WWII, not one had the luxury of deploying a chute prior to the crash of their craft.

So, where does this ghost fit into history?  It is likely that one incident that occurred at Archerfield gave rise to the apparition - at the time, the event was deemed the worst air disaster in Australia's history.  Even now, after almost 70 years, the accident still ranks as the 10th worst aviation disaster in Australia.

On the 26 March 1943, a C-47 Douglas Dakota touched down at Archerfield Aerodrome, after having taken off from Townsville earlier in the day loaded with essential radar equipment destined for Sydney.  Upon landing, both the pilot & flight engineer advised the ground crew that the plane merely required refueling, which was carried out & the aircraft hangared.  At 5am the next morning, under cover of darkness with a chill in the air, the crew of four took charge of the machine & carried out a very brief pre-flight check in anticipation of completing their final run to Sydney.  The C-47 hastily taxied out towards the runway, stopping briefly to take on board 19 passengers who waited patiently in the brisk predawn air - 2 U.S. Army personnel (including a Major), an Australian Army Lieutenant, 13 R.A.A.F. personnel (mostly Signals Unit staff from Townsville) & 3 unauthorised W.A.A.F. personnel who had convinced the pilot to grant them a passage to Sydney.  Whilst the passengers embarked, a Lockheed took advantage of the available runway & accelerated down the flare path, only to abort the take-off & return the the hangars - a thick fog bank had developed at the southern extremity of the aerodrome runway due to the prevailing conditions.

Anxious to get in the air, the C-47 threw caution to the wind & accelerated down the runway following the flare trail at 5:11am, radioing through to the control tower as they left the ground with the simple message of "departed now" before disappearing into the fog bank...at 5:15am, the aircraft careened into the bush just south of the aerodrome & slammed into the ground in a ball of fire, in complete ignorance of personnel who had just watched the aircraft take off.  Given the prevailing darkness & fog obscuring the southern boundary, further minutes passed before aerodrome controllers were notified that an explosion had been heard south of the runway.  Shortly after, upon investigation, the very worst was revealed - the C-47 had gone down with the loss of all on board.  It became apparent that after crossing the southern boundary of the aerodrome, the plane had banked steeply to the left.  In doing so, the left wingtip had come in contact with the top of a tree, sheering through the wing & dragging the plane over into a nose-down position - gravity & engines under full throttle had done the rest, plowing the aircraft into the undergrowth.

Sergeant James Nicol, of the Moorooka Police Station, attended the scene of the crash at 6:45am to begin civilian investigations - wreckage was strewn over a large area & the bodies of the unfortunate passengers were located nearby the front of the aircraft once the fires had been extinguished - all 23 passengers had been so badly burnt in the resulting fuel fire, that only one had been identifiable.  An immediate Inquiry was launched by the Air Minister into what had become the worst air disaster in Australia's history.  On the 31st of March, the issue was raised in the House of Representatives by Air Minister Arthur Drakeford, with Prime Minister John Curtin adding that, "To the extent it was possible for the Government to make accidents less probable, the House could be assured nothing would be spared."  As a result, the civilian Inquest was begun alongside the R.A.A.F. investigation.

The battle lines were drawn throughout the Inquest period - the Police Force accused the R.A.A.F. of withholding information critical to the investigation, & the R.A.A.F. accused the Police Force of excluding them from the Coroner's Inquest.  After some wrangling,  the R.A.A.F. applied for a successful ajournment in order to complete their investigation, the evidence from which was tendered to the Coroner's Inquest.  Ultimately, the R.A.A.F. found the pilot at fault - it was postulated that by flying into the fog bank, the pilot was forced to switch immediately from visual to instrument navigation, during which he was distracted by the reflection of the craft's headlights on the fog.  An unexplainable non-regulation turn made at low altitude then caused the left wingtip to hit trees.  The resulting collision stripped away a section of the left wing & dragged the body of the plane downwards into the scrub, resulting in complete loss of life.  The R.A.A.F. denied that the crew had failed to maintain the aircraft & carry out a full pre-flight check prior to the takeoff in Brisbane, even though doubts had been raised by American engineers based at Archerfield.

The Coroner held the final say - the maintenance schedule of the C-47 was immediately called into question.  With testimony produced by American Airforce personnel stationed at Archerfield, the necessity for continual maintenance & full -pre-flight checks were reinforced - two factors seemingly lacking prior to takeoff of the fated flight.  Unfortunately, evidence to prove both procedures had been undertaken (or not) were destroyed in the crash when the logbooks burnt & the flight engineer was killed.  Furthermore, the Coroner called into question the reasons behind the steep bank of the aircraft after takeoff - it had been argued that this steep turn resulted from the pilot's attempt to turn the craft around after suffering mechanical failure, as some witnesses claimed to have heard engine backfires just prior to the crash.  American engineers testified that under chilly conditions, condensation could form in the fuel tanks causing engine failure, which could have been avoided had a full pre-flight check been undertaken by the crew - again, little could be proven given the condition of the wreckage.  As a final note, the Coroner stated that overall, given the prevailing foggy conditions on the morning, the plane should never have been allowed to take off.  With that, the Inquest closed, with a number of recommendations for the R.A.A.F., & the death of 23 fine servicemen & women.

So, next time you find yourself driving along the outskirts of Archerfield Aerodrome & around the corner into Bowhill Road, spare a thought for the 23 servicemen & women who tragically lost their lives that foggy morning back in 1943...& if you're lucky, you may even catch a glimpse of the fabled airman who is rumoured to have been a passenger on that fateful flight.