logan's ghost (1941)
TRANSCRIPT
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Sunday Mail (Brisbane) (Qld. : 1926 - 1954), Sunday 12 January 1941, page 2
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98258074
WCAjSftg^e
?
Ghosts Of?
Queensland— No. 2
By BEACHCOMBER
Still striking at the
figure grasping his
stirrup, he saw it
suddenlydissolve.
FROMthe agony
and horror of*
the Moreton BayPenal Settlement, as
it
was administered by Cap1*1111 i airicit.
. ijuya.ii vc
tween the years 1826 and
1830, two curious stories
that blend into one have come
down to us.
They can scarcely be digni
They can scarcely be digni
fied as more than legends,
but their interest lies in that
they provided the only basis in
supernatural tales of a man who
was once haunted and came backto haunt the class from which theoriginal ghost derived.
The story concerns Logan, the
commandant, a paradox if ever
complex human nature producedone. Brave and cold-bloodedlycruel, resourceful yet limited, en
terprising yet pig-headed, his vir
tues and fallings alike were essen
tially human. Yet legend has
ironically wrapped about this man
two superhuman manifestations.
The story of the ghost that
haunted Logan for a couple of miles
haunted Logan for a couple of miles
on one lonely ride appeared in the
old Moreton Bay Free Press a
weekly paper started in Brisbane in
the fifties to espouse the cause of
the sauatters.The story of the occasion when.
Logan came back to haunt the con
victs he had terrorised is equallyfragmentary, the stuff of which,
comes from a newspaper corres
pondent many years after Logan'sBrisbane faded from view. In the
Oxley Library there is a brief re
ference to this second story.
Did we accept the possibility thatthe ghosts of tortured humanitycould return to haunt those who
terrorised its members, tyrants one
Imagines, would find theirnights
rather crowded with apparitions.
Logan would certainly have found
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Logan would certainly have foundit difficult to get any sleep, for he
tortured hundreds.
It would be a mistake to say, as
have so many of his oversenti
mental critics, that Logan was a
monster. It would be equallyerroneous to excuse him. as his
apologists have done, on the score
that the desperate men in his
charge could only have been con
trolled by Logan's methods.Cruel he must have been, and
cold-blooded. But Logan was a
product of his day, and must be
seen against its background. It
was not Logan who was a mon
ster: it was the convict system that
was monstrous. And a cruel ad
ministrator had plenty of scope
without going outside the excessively
wide limits of almost inhuman
severity sanctioned by that system.
For going to the limit Logan had
a genius. In fact his genius was so
unbounded that Governor
Darling, who himself experi
enced trouble through
generosity with the lash, was
impelled by the suicides and
murders under Logan to
limit the number ot lashes a
convict could receive on any
one day to 100! Logan's 300
to
were felt to represent, even
in a Darling administrator, an ex
cess of zeal.
Logan certainly had to deal with
a verv tough element. Moreton Bay
was not a reception depot for new
arrivals from the overcrowded gaolsof Britain. It was a. special hell
established for the purpose of dis
ciplining those who had offended
the penal system in the older
colony of the south. The men and
women rent here had all been con
victed of new offences since their
arrival in Australia.
Few of them became citizens of
the Queensland that was to be.
Those who survived, or did not
starve to death after absconding,
were sent back before the opening
of Brisbane to free settlement early
in the Forties. The rate of sur
vival was not high, particularly
under Logan.Records show that Captain
Logan's charges died sometimes at
the rate of half-a-dozen a month,
and absconded at the rate of some
times 20! As far as the gallant cap
tain was concerned, it reads some
what like the record of a war of
attrition.
We are denied everything but the
most meagre knowledge of a con
vict named Stimson. lor we are
confined to a brief published refer
ence to both Stimson and his ghost.
Whether he was originally a
poacher, or a London thief, a Char
tist or a forger, all we know Is that
he must have offended the system
after he arrived at that little hell
which was Port Macquarie, in New
For he was sent to Brisbane to
be treated to some real discipline
under Captain Patrick Logan. He
certainlv cot it. Nevertheless, the
man had an unconquerable Instinct
for freedom and an incorrigible atti
tude to Captain Logan's adminis
tration. Three times he absconded.
Incredible as it may seem, he was
three times flosged. each flogging
runnine from 300 to 500 lashes— the
penalty for abscondintr under Logan.It appears that he did not survive
(he third floetrine. which is not al
together surprising.
for the curious story
NOWfor the curious story
of his apparition, and
where and how itac
costed Logan, and what it did.
Had Logan not been the curious
mixture that he was. the ghost of
the sorely-tried Mr. Stimson would
doubtless have been denied oppor
tunity to do its haunting.
Locan. as already emphasised, was
a brave, resourceful, and enterpris
ingman. He had a
passionfor
exploration, and early Queensland
owes him in Ihat respect a debt. He
made many journeys of exploration,
discovering in October. 1826. the
river named after him. and known
to modem Queenslanders by reason
of the toll paid to crassit.
In 1827 and again in 1828— (this
time in company with Allan Cun
ningham i— ha explored the south
western ranges of the Brisbane
watershed, and in 1828 climbed Mt.
Lindesay. Not all of his journeyswere ro'iducto'd in company. Loganfrequently rode many miles alone.
and that through extremely lonelycountry.
He was returning one day. saysthe ancient
newspaper paragraph,through rugged country to the west
of the settlement. It was dusk,and Logan had last reached the
rough track which led from Limestone Hill, and about two miles
from Brisbane, when he saw ahead
of him. standing just outside the
line of trees, a man clad in the
yellow garb of the convict.
AShe came nearer (so ran
the paragraph) Logan
saw something familiar
about the grey, lined face with
the intense feverish eyes, but
he dismissed the thought as he
spurred forward. The man, he knew,must be an absconder, and ab
sconders aroused all the martinet
in Logan.
He commanded the man to walk
ahead of his horse so that he could
ensure his return to the settlement.
To his surprise, the convict, never
taking his eyes off Logan's face,
strode forward and grasped his
stirrup.
Choleric In the face of such in
solence. Logan raised the huntingcrop he was carrying and broughtit down on the convict's head. It
seemed to pass right through the
fellow and struck the horse's riank
a violent blow. The startled ani
mal bolted, and Logan for some
minutes was occupied in a vain
effort to check the headlong gallop.
He gazed down, and saw that the
convict still clung tojhe stirrup, andwas being carried along at a fran
tic pace, but the eyes still bored upinto his own.
Again and again Logan struck
at the man. and with every blowthe horse became more uncontrollable. It was astounding that even
such a superb horseman as the
commandant was not flung from the
saddle. Suddenly round a belt of
stunted scrub there came a view
of the boat, with iLs convict crew,
waiting by previous command of
Logan to fcr.T him across the river.
Still striking at the figure grasp
ing his stirrup, he saw it suddenlydissolve.
We do not know what Logan said
to
We do not know what Logan said
to the boat's crew as his horsedashed up to the bank of the river,
being checked just in time to prevent disaster. Our old-time para
graphist. however, informs us (with
what authority we cannot know)
that much later that evening the
commandant remembered the man
to whom that frightened face be
longed. It was Stimson. dead, after
his third flogging, for more than a
month. And Logan recalled also
that thespot where Stimson's
ghost appeared was approximatelythe spot where he had been recaptured for the third and last time.
Having lived by the lash, Logandied by the nulla-nulla. which
seemed a sound enough functioningof a Eood Mosaic law in an Australian setting. About his death
there still clings an element 'of mystery, which would make an excellenttheme for a writer of thrillers.
IN1830 Logan's regiment was
? due for relief, and he pre
pared to hand over the
commandant's post to his suc
cessor, Clunies, who was alreadyunder orders to depart from Sydney for Moreton
Bay. Logan,how
ever, desired to complete a de
tailed and accurate map of the district which he had administered for
four years.
On October 9 he set out with
one free man servant and a partyof convicts to
.survey an area on
(he upper Brisbane.' When near
the Pine ranges his party 'met un
friendly blacks, but drove them oil.'
His survey was practically com
pleted on October 17. and Loganrode away by himself during the
afternoon, instructing his party to
march to a certain rendezvous to
which he would ride later.
It is here that is encountered thefirst of the baffling features of
?Logan's death. The party was
allegedly surrounded by 'hostile
blacks, yet Logan rode off by himself.
The commandant did not meet
his party as arranged, and the men
decided to go on to Limestone Hill,
as Ipswich was then called. A
search was organised, and at a spotten miles from where ills party said
he had left them the body of
Logan was found, lying face down
wards, in a shallow grave.
Who had killed him? The wounds
strongly suggested that it was the
work of blacks, but it was possible
that he was murdered by some of
his party of convicts to avenge old
scores, and that they made up the
story of Logan riding off alone.
However, there was another as
pect of the mystery. It lies long
forgottenin the
official reportsmade at the time. Logan had ap
parently occupied a native hut on
the night of the seventeenth, whichwould be a strange action for a
man who intended to rejoin his
party on that date.
THEmystery was never
elucidated, and, despite
the report which persisted
for years, that Logan was done
to death by the convicts who
loathed and feared him, or by blacks
at the instigation of convicts, offi
cialdom preferred the simpler ex
planation that his was
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preferred the simpler ex
planation that his was an uninspiredmurder by the aborigines.
The most intriguing point as tohis having, apparently, the
night in the native hut was
not considered material to
this theory. Nevertheless, after
the passage of 110 years it is
still virgin ground for the
mystery writer who cares to
attempt a solution of a problem which the contemporariesof
Logan either did not want
do.
Now for Logan's ghost! As hisbody was found on October 18, andhe was last seen alive (accordingto the story of his party) on Octo
ber 17. he must have met his violentend either on the night of the lat
ter date or fairly early on the dayof the former date.
According to the quaint tale it
would be about midday on October
18 that a number of convicts were
working on the north bank of the
Brisbane River, just above the Gov
ernment Store, when they saw their
commandant ride up to the ferrystage on the south bank.
As he appeared out of the scrub
he signalled imperiously for the
ferry to be rowed across to him. The
convicts hastened to obey. Lack of
haste in carrying out Logan'sorders could easily earn 100 lashes.
When the men rowed the heavyferry to the southern approach theycould see no sign of their com
mandant and, although they waited
a long time he did not reappear.Were this old story true it would
'
certainly require explanation as to
how Logan could appear at the ferry
while his lifeless body was lyingmanv miles to the north of Lime
stone Hill.
LikeI
he other story. It isvery
scrappily based, has never been
tested, and to those who reject the
theory that aanaritions come from
the grave to haunt their fellows,
would seem highly improbable.Did Logan's ghost at th» ferry
encounter the ehost of Stimson?Both appeared in the same locality,if,
indeed, they appeared at all.
NEXT WEEK : A Stronger
Ghost- Than Fisher's.