| Historical notes: | Between July and November 1990 the Governor brothers, using their exceptional bush skills, and evidently the assistance of the Aboriginal population of the region (Somerville 1994:116), led police on a frantic chase back and forth across the region between July and November 1900. Jimmy Governor was born in 1875 on the Talbragar River. He was the ‘son of Sam (later Thomas) Governor (or Grosvenor), a bullock driver, and his wife Annie, nee Fitzgerald’. Educated at a mission school at Gulgong, Jimmy was described as ‘short, good looking and part-Aboriginal with reddish hair’. He worked for a time at Wollar before becoming a police tracker at Cassilis from 15 July 1896 to 18 December 1897. He returned to Wollar and, after woodcutting at Gulgong and wool-rolling at Digilbar, married on 10 December 1898 Ethel Mary Jane Page, a 16-year-old white woman, at the Church of England rectory, Gulgong. (Governor, Jimmy 1875-1901)
In April 1900 the couple moved to Breelong where Jimmy had been engaged by John Mawbey to cut and split fence posts. He was joined by his brother Joe, nephew Peter Governor and two Aboriginal men named Jacky Underwood and Jackie Porter. (Governor, Jimmy 1875-1901)
According to E. G. Ellis, a delivery cart driver who befriended the Governors, Mawbey supplied the group with rations, cooking utensils and tools and they made a camp three miles from Mawbey’s house. John Mawbey’s two sons became very friendly with the Governors and ‘played cricket with them on Sundays.' (Ellis undated:48) Ethel Governor would collect provisions from the Mawbey house.
Mrs Mawbey and the family kept her in her place. They were never nice or tolerant to her as she expected of them. The girls would quiz her and, as she thought, made fun of her and sneered at her position. This caused her to become spiteful towards them and gradually embittered the Aboriginals towards the women of the homestead, more especially Helena Kerz, the governess, and Grace Mawbey, the daughter. (Ellis undated:48)
Helena Kerz and Grace Mawbey apparently taunted Ethel Governor about marrying an Aboriginal and made fun of her baby. Injury was added to insult when Thomas Mawbey rejected a large number of the fence posts and refused to pay for them. Regardless of this Mawbey used the condemned posts ‘in his fence without compensation’. (Ellis undated:49-51) Feeling quite aggrieved the Governors began to talk about becoming bushrangers (Governor, Jimmy 1875-1901).
The situation came to a head on the night of 20 July 1900. Jimmy Governor decided to confront the women at the homestead that night when John Mawbey was away. He sent his wife Ethel and the baby to Dubbo. She called in at McDonald’s New Breelong property near the Castlereagh River and told them that her husband was planning to murder the Mawbeys that night. ‘Mrs McDonald thought she was queer and did not treat her seriously’. At 10:00pm Jimmy Governor and Jacky Underwood went to the homestead and confronted the women.
Jimmy Governor stated in evidence that Helen Kerz said: 'Pooh, you black rubbish, you want shooting for marrying a white woman'. Jimmy Governor and his companions went into a rage with nulla nullas (or boondees) and a tomahawk. They bashed Mrs Sarah Mawbey in her bed and also bashed her niece Elsie Clark. Mrs Mawbey lived for two days and Elsie Clark was seriously injured but survived. Jimmy and Jacky were searching for young Bertie Mawbey when they saw Helen Kerz (aged 21) and young Grace Mawbey (aged 16) fleeing from the house. They chased the young women down and killed them. Percy Mawbey (aged 14) and his sister Hilda (aged 11) ran towards the creek and were caught when Hilda tripped and fell beneath a large tree. (Ellis undated:52)
Bertie Mawbey, who had hidden under a bed, raised the alarm. Percy McDonald from New Breelong also rode to Breelong in the morning to check on the property. He found groups of men on horseback and in vehicles heading to the Mawbey homestead. A.F. Garling, storekeeper of Gilgandra, took charge of the situation and organised a patrol of the area until the police arrived. (Ellis undated:52)
Citizens of Gilgandra, including the Gilgandra Rifle Club, took part in the initial manhunt for the Governor brothers and Jacky Underwood. Five hundred people attended the funeral of Hilda, Grace and Percy Mawbey in Gilgandra. Children from the public school marched in the funeral procession to the cemetery. (Bartley undated:28-29) Newspaper articles from the time reported that business in Gilgandra was at a standstill ‘and every man who can leave his womenfolk in safety is joining the pursuit. Everyone is armed’. Many women left farms and sought the safety of the town. (Bartley undated:31)
Underwood was quickly caught but Jimmy and Joe Governor, calling themselves 'bushrangers', went on a fourteen-week, 2000-mile (3219 km) rampage, terrorizing a wide area of north-central New South Wales. Seeking revenge on persons who had wronged them, they killed Alexander McKay near Ulan on 23 July, Elizabeth O'Brien and her baby son at Poggie, near Merriwa, on 24 July, and Keiran Fitzpatrick near Wollar, on 26 July. After committing numerous robberies as far north as Narrabri, and in the Quirindi district, they moved into the rugged headwater country of the Manning and Hastings rivers, pursued by Queensland black trackers, bloodhounds and hundreds of police and civilians. Exulting in outwitting their pursuers, the Governors blatantly broadcast their whereabouts and wrote derisive notes to the police. On 8 October the government offered a reward of £1000 each for their capture. (Governor, Jimmy 1875-1901)
After his capture Jacky Underwood was taken to Gilgandra where he was ‘charged with the murders at Breelong at Police Court’ on 22 August 1900 (Bartley Undated:2). ‘A large crowd of people witnessed his arrival’ in Gilgandra and the courtroom was crowded for the court hearing (Bartley Undated:11). He was tried and hanged at Dubbo. Jimmy Governor was captured at Bobin near Wingham on 27 October 1900 and was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol on 18 January 1901. Joe was shot dead by John Wilkinson north of Singleton on 31 October 1900. (Governor, Jimmy 1875-1901)
In 1999 the Gilgandra Rotary Club erected a monument to the Mawbey murders on the roadside near the site of the former Bushmans Arms Inn. A plaque in memory of Sarah, Grace, Hilda and Percy Mawbey and Helena Kerz was placed on the monument by the Mawbey Family Reunion on 24 April 2000. |