The murder of William Stepbhens in 1966 at Mooloolah.

The murder of William Stephens in 1866 at Mooloolah

It is useful to set the scene. In February 1866 the Gympie gold rush was two years in the future and the Gympie Road did not exist. There was a settlement at
Mooloolah Heads started by William Pettigrew. It was largely a base for the shipping of timber cut in the hinterland. William Grigor and James Lowe ran a store there where the basic rations could be purchased. Pettigrew ran steamships on the coastal run between Brisbane and Mooloolah Heads, his major vessel at the time being the Gneering. The hinterland was divided into a few large cattle runs, with Edmund Lander and the Westaway brothers being the main
operators in this area. As the following will demonstrate at least two timbercutters, Charles
Kinmond and Robert Keely had huts in the area that is now Glenview. They lived in slab huts and there were no roads as such, only bush tracks with very few travellers. There were no other towns or settlements north of Caboolture. When reading contemporary accounts of the events there are frequent references to ‘Mooloolah’. This can lead to confusion as they refer to the port of Mooloolah Heads (now known as ‘Mooloolaba’) not the present township of Mooloolah which did not exist in 1866.

The local Aborigines, the Kabi Kabi tribe or language group were, in general,peaceful and some worked in the timber industry. There were often a few hanging around the store and the settler’s huts at Mooloolah Heads, doing odd jobs.

One such person was known as Captain Piper and he had apparently worked for Tom Petrie as a foreman in a gang of cutters in the Mooloolah and Maroochy River area. He was a large, strong man and one writer describes him as a Hercules in comparison to other members of his race.

In February 1866 botanist William Stephens was at Mooloolah Heads waiting for the Gneering
to take him back to Brisbane. He was employed by the Queensland Government Botanist Walter
Hill to collect botanical specimens for a display at the forthcoming Melbourne Exhibition.
Included in his collections were seeds of the bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) which grows in the
area north and west of Mooloolah Heads. Stephens discovered that the Gneering would be some time before it arrived in port. Therefore he decided to travel on foot to Brisbane, a distance of about 84 miles, collecting plants along the way.

On challenging them as to their not having left the parcel at the other hut as they came by, they excused themselves on the ground that they were afraid to enter it, as they believed a policeman to be there.

At the later (1879) trial of Piper, Keely stated that Piper claimed a ‘wild blackfellow’ came out of the bush and murdered Stephens. On his arrest not
long after the murder, Piper laid the blame on Skyring who died in May 1866.

Suspicious of Piper’s story, Keely and Campbell along with Piper and Griffin next morning
proceeded to the waterhole and found the body of Stephens floating in the water. Skyring had
disappeared. Campbell then immediately rode to Mooloolah Heads and the following morning a
group rode to the waterhole and removed the body from the water and roughly covered it with
logs to prevent wild dogs from interfering with it. At the ‘Mooloolah Hearing’ in February 1879
a witness (Peter Campbell) stated that on 3 March he saw the body which was so decomposed it was impossible to move it and that it was washed away by a flood not long after.

One story published on 17 March 1866 states that on 12 March Tommy Skyring gave himself
up to timbercutter Richard Jones on the Maroochy River and admitted his part in the crime,
expressing extreme remorse. He told Jones that the murder was planned between himself,
Captain Piper and Johnny Griffin and that Piper struck the first blow to the neck nearly severing
the head. He apparently had several of Stephens’s effects. Jones placed him in a punt and set out to row Skyring to the mouth of the Maroochy River and then take him to Mooloolah Heads, but, thinking Skyring too weak to escape, did not restrain him and he slid off the boat swam ashore and hid in the bush.