Wonnangatta Murders - The Discovery of The Murder of Barclay

The Discovery of The Murder of Barclay

On 22 January 1918, Harry Smith arrived at the station to deliver mail. He found Barclay and Bamford absent, although the words ‘Home tonight’ were chalked across the kitchen door. Smith stayed two nights, but no one came home, so he returned to Eaglevale on 24 January 1918.

Harry Smith returned to the Wonnangatta homestead late in the afternoon on 14 February 1918. The homestead was still deserted and the mail still sitting where he had previously left it on the kitchen table. Smith was shocked to find Barclay’s favourite dog “Baron,” starving and neglected. He briefly searched the area again, stayed the night at the homestead and left for Dargo the next day to raise the alarm. There he telegraphed the owners, Arthur Phillips and Geoffrey Ritchie of Mansfield.

On 23 February 1918, Arthur Phillips and stockman Jack Jebb arrived at Eaglevale from Mansfield. With Harry Smith they returned to Wonnangatta. After a prolonged search they discovered a badly decomposed body near the Conglomerate Creek, about “420 paces” south east of the homestead. From the remaining pieces of clothing, a belt and a tobacco pouch, Smith identified it as Barclay. The body had been buried in a shallow grave, but dingos and foxes had apparently uncovered it. Newspaper reports that the skull was detached from the body at the time were incorrect, The skull was attached but protuding from the sand. The body was reburied. Phillips returned to Mansfield and contacted police. Shortly after, Detective Alex McKerral was dispatched from Melbourne, together with Constable Ryan, a native of the Mansfield district.

Several days later, the police party set out from Mansfield on the 80-mile (130 km) ride across the Great Dividing Range to Wonnangatta, to collect Barclay’s remains and return them for a post-mortem at Mansfield hospital. Wallace Mortimer recounts the famous tale of the Police party finding strychnine in the pepper container when they prepared a meal in the homestead on the night of their arrival.

Police found a shotgun in Barclay’s room that had recently been discharged although there were no bloodstains in the room. His bed was in “a state of disorder.” Bamford’s room was also in some disorder, and his horse, saddle and some belongings were missing.

On the return journey, on the Howitt high plains, the police party came across the horse that John Bamford had ridden to Talbotville for the vote, running wild without a saddle or bridle.