The Queensland Police Gazette (QPG) reported highway robbery of the Condamine mailman, on horseback six miles from Roma, on October 21 1865, and named suspect Alphin McPherson, known by many aliases and as ‘The Wild Scotsman’. A further charge of robbery was to be effected on McPherson for holding up the Taroom mail delivery. A £50 reward was announced and McPherson captured.
Architectural drawing of the Bowen Lockup, by J.B.C on February 2, 1885.
Image courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
A successful escape from Bowen Police at Port Mackay, on June 10 1865, preceded a crime spree including stock thefts by McPherson, firstly of a valuable four year old bay gelding branded to Messrs McEwen and Green, and six fine horses owned by P. Caldwell Esquire of Oakey Creek. A silver pocket watch crafted by ‘Goldsmith, London’ was also found to be unlawfully in the possession of the suspect. The gelding was eventually found near Gayndah by Sergeant Denis McCarthy.
The Wild Scotsman was described as about 23 years of age, 5 feet 10 ½ inches high, square shouldered, stout build, long arms, light hair, no whiskers, small downy tuft of hair on chin, Roman nose, blue eyes, face much sunburnt, gunshot wound inside left forearm from wrist to elbow, a native of Scotland and speaks the German language fluently (various QPG’s).
Snippet from the ‘Queensland Times’, supplied by the National Library of Australia via Trove.
Subsequent robberies under arms of Her Majesty’s mail from Orion Downs and Brown River prompted an increase in the reward, announced in the QPG of February 7 1866, to £250 for the apprehension of, or information leading to the capture of McPherson. It was believed he was heading towards the Maranoa district of New South Wales via the Balonne River. The theft of two strong horses from T.M. Bowman and allegedly ridden by McPherson at Galloway Plains on February 23 were located at Milton completely knocked up (QPG 4 April 1866, page 31).
First Queensland Police Commissioner David Seymour named McPherson in his second Annual Report, submitted in 1866 for the previous year, writing, “… it is not difficult for a good bushman, well supplied with information, to continue to ‘stick up’ with impunity for some time the solitary mailman. I am in hopes that the active measures now taken, will shortly put a stop to this description of crime. I am sorry to say that the opinion so confidently expressed some time back, that bushrangers would meet with no sympathy in this Colony, turns out to be incorrect. The criminal can obtain plenty of assistance and information, the police but little.”
St Helena Island Penal Establishment ruins, 2015.
Image courtesy of Georgia Grier, Museum Assistant.
Police were now clued up to the bushranger’s modus operandi, his equine knowledge and riding prowess, and using the local mailman at Gin Gin as a decoy, successfully flushed McPherson out of hiding. It didn’t take long for the fugitive to figure out the sting however, and he decamped at speed on horseback. Fortunately for the police his chosen steed was too tired to gallop too far, enabling McPherson’s capture and arrest. After trial The Wild Scotsman was given a lengthy prison term, to be served on St Helena Island Penal Establishment.
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This article was written by Museum Assistant Georgia Grier from the best resources available within the Queensland Police Museum. The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT – The Decoyed Bushranger” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode