Charles Thomas Beasley
Grandfather of Veronica Myrtle Ailsa Beasley
Born:
24 Jun 1865 Castlereagh, New South Wales, Australia
Married:
17 Jan 1892 All Saints, Charleville, Queensland, Australia to Emily Stewart McManus
9 May 1898 Court House Tambo, Queensland, Australia (bigamous) to Elizabeth Legg
Died:
15 Jul 1952 Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. Age 87
Cause of death:
Cerebral haemorrhage, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and peripheral neuritis
Buried:
16 Jul 1952 North Rockhampton Cemetery, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia
Timeline
Jun 1865
1868
1869-1876
1879
Abt. 1887
Jan 1892
1894
1895
May 1898
Dec 1898
1899
1902-1903
Dec 1903
1906-1907
Mar 1907
Apr 1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912-1913
1914
Jul 1914-1915
Aug 1915
Sep 1915
Jul 1916
Sep 1916
1917
1920
Jul 1920
Jul 1920
Aug 1920
1921
1922-1925
1924
1925-1928
1928-1932
1939-1949
1949-1952
Jul 1952
Born at Castlereagh, New South Wales [1]
Lived at Penrith, New South Wales with family [2]
Lived at Havannah St, Bathurst, New South Wales with family [6]
In Queensland by this point [7]
Lived at Charleville, Queensland and married Emily Stewart McManus at All Saints Church, Charleville. Worked as a carrier [8] [9]
Lived at Hergott, South Australia and worked as a carrier [10]
Lived at Killidgewarry, Birdsville, Queensland and worked as a carrier [11]
Lived at Tambo, Queensland and married Elizabeth Legg at the Court House, Tambo. Worked as a labourer [12]
Convicted of bigamy, received suspended sentence of 8 months imprisonment [13]
Lived at Lansdowne, Queensland and worked as a scalper [14]
Lived at Jericho, Queensland and worked as baker [17]
Petitioned court to be declared insolvent [19]
Declared insolvent - debts of £155/12/3 [19]
Lived at Capella St, Clermont, Queensland and worked as a labourer [20]
Lived at Drummond Creek, Queensland and worked as a labourer [21]
Lived at Sandy Creek, Queensland and worked as a benchman [22]
Lived at Drummond Creek, Queensland and worked as a labourer [23]
Lived at Blair Athol, Queensland and worked as a carpenter [26]
Lived at camp by Oaky Creek, Mount Stuart via Blackwater, Queensland and worked pumping water for Lakes Creek Company. Wife Elizabeth dies and is buried by Charles [29] [30]
Travelled on steam ship Bingera from Rockhampton, Queensland to Mackay, Queensland and reported death of wife to police. Lived at Ashburton and worked as a carpenter [29] [31] [32]
Worked as foreman at railway sawmill [33]
Appeared in Petty Debts Court in Mackay, Queensland being pursued for goods valued £11/5/3 [34]
Lived at Guthalungra, Queensland and worked as a labourer [35]
Lived at Main Camp, Ingham-Cardwell Railway, Queensland and worked as a bridge carpenter [36]
Petitioned court to be declared insolvent [36]
Declared insolvent - debts of £333/2/4. Only asset was brown retriever dog valued at £5 [36]
Court instructed Charles to sell dog for £3 and forward money to Court Office, however dog was shot due to 'old age and being diseased and a menace' [36]
Lived at Macknade, Queensland [37]
Lived at Euri Creek and worked as proprietor of wood depot on Bowen-Collinsville line (while also a tenant farmer) [39]
Biography
Early years
Emu Plains showing the Nepean River in the background
Charles Thomas Beasley was born on the 24th of June 1865 in the New South Wales town of Castlereagh, the tenth child of Charles Beasley and his wife Sarah [1] [49].
Castlereagh was an old Australian settlement west of Sydney, situated on the eastern banks of the Nepean River. This was a period of time that was still connected to Australia's convict history, with which the Beasley family had a personal connection. Charles' mother Sarah was the daughter of a convict and his father Charles was the grandson of a convict.
Whilst his earliest days were in Penrith, just south of Castlereagh, by the time Charles was four years old, his family had moved to the opposite side of the Nepean River in an area called Emu Plains [2] [3].
The Beasleys' arrival coincided closely with the arrival of the Main Western Railway Line in the area, which opened in Emu Plains in 1867. At the time the Beasley family arrived in 1869, there were only about 110 people living in the area [50].
The Beasley family lived in a cottage on a two-acre farm, which Charles' father worked as a tenant farmer [51].
Advertisement in Sydney Morning Herald, 1869, describing the land held by the Beasley family as tenants
This was a time of bushrangers and gold rushes. Since early colonial times, Emu Plains was an important thoroughfare for travellers, as it provided the only road crossing across the Blue Mountains to the Bathurst Plains beyond. However, when the discovery of gold was announced by a prospector at Bathurst Hotel in 1851, the road through Emu Plains became heavy with hopeful diggers [50] [52].
While growing up on the farm at Emu Plains, it would have been a common sight for Charles to see a steady stream of prospectors, both local men or newly arrived from abroad, of Chinese immigrants carrying bamboo poles across their shoulders, and Cobb and Co coaches carrying people between Bathurst and Sydney, or operating as a gold escort for successful diggers [50] [52].
Settlement on Emu Plains, New South Wales
Between 1876-1879, when Charles was in his mid-teens, he and his family followed the path of the diggers and moved to Bathurst themselves. Again, their arrival seems to have coincided with railway, which arrived in Bathurst in 1876 and provided families like the Beasleys with an easier means of travel [53].
Bathurst was a much larger and busier town than what they would have experienced in Emu Plains, having benefitted from infrastructure investment thanks to the gold rush. Although the gold rush was on the wane by the time the Beasleys arrived, Bathurst still provided work opportunities.
Bathurst, New South Wales in the 1870s
The family lived on Havannah Street, which ran parallel to the train line and they likely lived in one of the single-storey cottages with corrugated iron roofing that had lined the street at the time [6] [54].
Charles' father picked up work around the corner on Durham Street, working as a labourer for the produce merchant, Jordan Knight. As was typical of the day, Charles' father was the sole income provider for the family, and they were completely reliant on him to bring money in. Although some of Charles' eldest siblings had married and started their own lives, most still lived at home with him and his parents: Rachel, John, Keziah and his younger siblings Alfred, Minnie and Ernest. His parents were also raising a daughter of Charles' older sister, Elizabeth, who had left the family home to take up domestic work, had her daughter out of wedlock and then subsequently gotten into trouble with the law for theft [6] [55] [56] [57].
In September 1880, Charles' father got into a horrific work accident, losing his arm to a steam-powered chaff cutter [58].
Chaff cutters were a very common piece of equipment at the time, used to cut straw or haw into smaller pieces, to be used as food for horses and cattle. While Charles was feeding the lucerne hay into the machine, the iron spikes on the rollers caught his hand, mangling his arm to such a degree that it had to be amputated [58] [59].
The accident left Charles' father unable to continue supporting his family and it is some time after this point that Charles left home [58]. He possibly stayed in Bathurst until 1883, when his mother Sarah died, but by 1887 he had made his way north to Queensland [60].
Life in Queensland
Main street in Charleville, c1889
In 1892, Charles - now 27 - was living in the western Queensland town of Charleville and working as a carrier [8].
Carriers were the truck drivers of their day, using teams of horses and bullock drays to transport commodities such as timber, sheep skins, wool bales, hides and horns, galvanised iron tanks and rabbit-proof fencing. Large pastoral stations relied on carriers to transport their wool and hides to towns and railway stations, and commissioning them to return with essential provisions and luxuries such as flour, tea and sugar [61] [62]
Charles was one of about 50 carriers operating in Charleville at the time [63]. Charleville was a thriving and busy town, built on a large carrying trade thanks to its location at the terminus of the Western Railway. Carriers would come in from all four corners to Charleville to load and unload at the station [61].
It was physically demanding work - large wagons were often drawn by 28 horses yoked four abreast. Distances of travel were long, and conditions were highly sensitive to the weather. In wet weather, teams of horses often had to be doubled or tripled to pull heavy loads out of boggy country. In droughts, carriers often could not work at all, as there was insufficient provision of feed and, more importantly, water for their teams along travel routes [64] [61].
This was a huge issue for farmers, who relied on carriers to bring back provisions made on the sale of their wool and could get dangerously close to starvation when weather stopped travel on the routes. The frequency of droughts and the impact this had on horses and the carrying trade was one of the main factors that led to the establishment of the camel trade in western Queensland. Camels had an advantage in dry weather as they only needed to be fed twice a week. This resulted in a lot of tension between the Afghans handling the camels, and white carriers who continued to use traditional, and more expensive, horse and bullock teams and could not compete [61] [62].
On the 17th of January 1882, Charles married a 16-year old domestic servant named Emily Stewart McManus at Charleville's All Saints Church [8]. Later that year, they welcomed their first child, Chester Thomas Beasley, on the 1st of October 1892 [9].
All Saints, Charleville in 1933
It seems apparent that Charles worker the carrier route between western Queensland and South Australia, as their next child - a girl named Blanche Ednal - was born in the tiny settlement of Hergott Springs (later Marree), in South Australia on the 25th of February 1894 [10].
The township was located at the terminus of the Central Australian Railway (known today as The Ghan railway), and was the launching place for the carrier route north to Birdsville on the South Australian/Queensland border, and the north-western route to Innamincka and then into Queensland [61] [62].
At the time the Beasleys lived there, the township had only been established for about 20 years. It was located near a natural spring, which gave the settlement its name, and the town was divided into two, with Europeans on one side and Afghanis and Aboriginals on the other [65].
Most of the Afghanis in town were involved with the camel trade, driving large numbers of camels - upwards of 1,000 - between Hergott Springs and Queensland as carriers [61] [62]. However, there was also a large camp of about 50-60 unemployed Afghanis, who had been recruited under false pretences into South Australia. They had been approached in their home countries by agents of an Afghani man who had established himself in Australia. Induced to give their money to the agents for the purchase of camels and a promise of work in Australia, they had arrived only to be instantly dismissed and told there was a lack of work. Penniless and speaking no English, they had resorted to going from camp to camp, begging for food [61] [62] [66].
Whilst working as a carrier, we don't know if Charles was unionised or worked as a free carrier - both were common, although the industry was predominantly unionised at the time. He may have worked a number of routes but at least one route we know he did work was the one between Hergott and Birdsville, a distance of 350 miles [67] [68].
The route took approximately a week to travel and, because Queensland and South Australia were separate, independent colonies at the time (Federation would not occur until 1901), there was a border customs station at Birdsville for all traffic coming in from South Australia [69].
Carrier with a team of horses at Birdsville, 1906
On the 30th of September 1895, Charles and Emily's third child, Ernest Hedley, was born in Birdsville [11].
For reasons unknown, at some point between 1895 and 1897, Charles abandoned Emily and his three children and headed east to the central Queensland town of Tambo, where he picked up work as a labourer [12].
In January 1898, at the age of 32, he had a daughter, named Dorothy May, with Elizabeth Legg, then 20 years old. She had recently moved back to Tambo after losing a daughter in Rockhampton [70]. Elizabeth already had a son, 4-year old Charles Joseph, living in town with her mother Lena and step-father George Albert Fletcher.
Charles and Elizabeth married on the 9th of May 1898 at the Tambo Court House [12].
Tambo Court House, c1902
It is not known whether, at the time of their marriage, Elizabeth knew that Charles had a wife and three children he had left behind in Birdsville. It's possible he may even have introduced himself to her as Chester Alfred, the fake name he used at their wedding [12].
However, she would have discovered the situation not long after their marriage, when Charles was arrested on charges of bigamy. At the Tambo District Court, he was found guilty and sentenced to 8 months' imprisonment at Brisbane Gaol, however the sentence was wholly suspended under the provision of the "First Offenders' Probation Act." [71].
Newspaper article covering Charles' trial in 1898
On the road
After the bigamy conviction, the couple left Tambo and moved south to the nearby station of Lansdowne, where their second daughter, Penelope Gertrude, was born in 1899 and where Charles worked as a scalper [14]. At the time, money could be made by hunting marsupials such as wallabies and kangaroos, which plagued local pastoral stations. The marsupials were scalped and hunters could hand in their hides for money, as evidence of the kills.
What followed was many years on the road for Charles, Elizabeth and their children as Charles followed work across western Queensland. The family travelled from town-to-town in a covered wagon: first to Alpha, then Jericho and Borilla. Along the way, more children were born: Lena in 1902, Vivian in 1903 and Thomas in 1906 [31] [15] [17] [18].
The towns were small communities and generally poorly serviced. In Jericho, water was so scarce that it had to be brought in by train, and the town witnessed its own brutal crimes, including the murder of a woman by her husband [72] [73].
Borilla was even smaller, boating very little other than a railway station and a sawmill business owned by the Carlsson brothers, for whom Charles worked as a horse driver [19] [75].
Horse teams were used at mills to pull wagons of timber and it is likely Charles was moving timber such an ironbark and spotted gum, cypress pine and hardwoods to the mill. The sawn timbers would then be loaded on trains at the nearby railway station for transport. The Carlsson brothers' mill despatched about 15-20 tons of timber weekly on average [74] [75].
Horse team pulling a wagonload of timber at a Queensland saw mill, c1920
By this time, Charles was supporting a wife and five children but was only earning £2 per week, slightly under the national basic wage of £2 2s per week [76].
Charles fell into debt and, in March 1907, he went to the nearby town of Clermont to petition the courts to be declared insolvent. In his petition, he declared that he was worth less than £5, his only assets being the bedding for himself, his wife and family, clothing and some tools of the trade. His debts, however, totalled over £155. Charles' request was granted and a meeting of his creditors was subsequently held [19].
While the insolvency process progressed, Elizabeth and Charles moved to Clemont, where Charles picked up work as a labourer and Elizabeth gave birth to their sixth child, a boy named Bertie George, in 1908 [20].
Keeping on the move, the following year, the Beasleys moved out of Clermont and headed west to Drummond Creek, near Copperfield Mine, where Charles worked as a labourer [21].
In 1910, the family moved to Sandy Creek, outside of Clermont where Charles worked as a benchman, feeding the timbers into and out of the sawmill to process them into planks. While in Sandy Creek, Charles and Elizabeth had their seventh child, a daughter named Mona Leah [22].
The family remained in Sandy Creek/Drummond Creek area for the next two years, before moving just north of Clermont to Blair Athol, a coal mining township where Charles worked as a labourer and carpenter [23] [24] [25] [26].
Many workers had been brought to the area at the time by the work offered by the coal mine - sleepers were being put in for the main shaft of a coal mine, and colliery carpenters were being offered 1s. 3d. to 1s. 2d. an hour. The town also had a sawmill and a new railway siding going in, providing further opportunities for carpentry and labouring work [77] [78].
The family would have lived in very primitive conditions. A description of Blair Athol at the time stated that the bulk of residences in the township were tents or very temporary buildings. Residents lived in two camps - the "township" and one at the No. 1 mining pit, both over a mile from the railway station. Drainage and sanitary arrangements were adequate, although there were concerns on whether it would be a different story after a rainy season [79].
It was noted that most of the camp was comprised of miners, not known for being a docile bunch, and yet there was no constable stationed in town. There was a state school that the elder Beasley children likely attended, but it was too far away from the settlement to be convenient. Asides from miners and their associated families, there were some representatives for the major church branches of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Methodist faith present, although no churches had yet been built. The Salvation Army had done slightly better, having a small shed. In fact, the only substantive buildings were the one for the station master and the sole licensed hotel, located half-a-mile out of the township [79].
Despite the unsavoury and difficult conditions, the family stayed in Blair Athol for two years and had two more children, John in 1912 and Percy in 1914 [24] [25].
Blair Athol Coal and Timber No 1 mine, 1910
Blair Athol railway station and residence, c1910
In 1914, the family moved 200km south to the mining town of Blackwater, where coal mining operations had recently restarted [27] [28] [80].
They were only in the area for several months before Charles took on work pumping water for the Lake Creek Company, a cattle and meat export business. Charles, Elizabeth and their children moved to a remote camp north on Mt Stuart. The family of 11 lived in a tent about half a mile from where Charles worked, along with some tents of other workers [29].
At the end of winter, in late August 1915, Elizabeth was heavily pregnant with their tenth child and almost due to give birth. When Charles returned back to their tent on the afternoon of the 25th of August, Elizabeth said that she felt unwell and complained of a lump of wind in her chest. Her condition did not improve overnight and, the next morning, Elizabeth and Charles set out in a horse and buggy soon after dawn, to make for the town of Capella, 100 km away. However, they had only gone a mile when Elizabeth told Charles that she could travel no further [29] [30].
Charles decided to return Elizabeth to their camp and make her comfortable, in the hope that her condition would improve. However, she sadly died not long after their return [29] [30].
Along with several men at the camp, Charles built a coffin for Elizabeth and they buried her on the bank of the nearby Oakey Creek [29].
After Elizabeth's burial, it seems that Charles and his children immediately left the camp and went to Capella, where they reported the matter to the police [29].
With his nine children, Charles headed east to Rockhampton, where they took the steam ship Bingera up the coast to Mackay [29] [31] [32].
Steam ship Bingera
Debt and trouble with the law
Within two weeks of Elizabeth's death, the family were living at Ashburton, near Mackay, and Charles was working as a carpenter. Charles, along with one his daughters, testified at a Police Magistrate hearing regarding her death but the matter was not taken any further [29].
Charles' eldest daughter, Dorothy - then 17 - began working in nearby Farleigh, while Lena and Vivian were enrolled at Farleigh State School [31] [32] [81].
Despite the initial steps towards settling, Charles did not stay in the area long, returning to his regular routine of moving from town to town. While Dorothy remained behind to start her life in Farleigh, the rest of the children travelled with Charles [31] [32].
In July 1916, he worked as a foreman at the Paget Junction railway sawmill in Mackay, before they moved to Bootooloo near Bowen, where his daughter Lena, only 14, gave birth to a girl named Vera Jean in September 1916 [33] [82].
Shortly after Vera's birth, the family moved again, this time 250km north up the coast to Guthalungra, where Charles worked as a labourer and, by 1920, he was working as a bridge carpenter on the Ingham-Cardwell Railway while he and the family lived at Ingham [35] [36].
The conditions the family lived in were extremely poor, a combination of Charles' low income jobs and the debts that followed him. When he left Mackay in 1916, it was with debts of £11 5s.3d. (worth $1350 Australian dollars in 2023) to Marsh and Webster, a local department store [34]. By the time the family were living in Ingham, Charles owed £333 2s. 4d. (an eye-watering $40,100 Australian dollars in 2023) to a variety of businesses and individuals in Mackay, Bowen, Ingham and Townsville, including £32 ($3800) to his deceased wife Elizabeth's step-father, Albert George Fletcher. Some of the debts were for mundane items such as bread from an Ingham baker, speaking to Charles' inability to pay for even the basics [36].
On the 9th of July 1920, Charles again find himself petitioning the courts to be declared insolvent. In the following reckoning of accounts, the courts assessed that Charles only had one asset worth anything - a brown retriever dog, valued at £5. The courts demanded Charles sell the dog to a family member and forward the proceeds to the Court, however Charles responded that the dog had been shot due to age and disease [36].
Charles and his children moved again, to Macknade and then to Euri Creek, near Bowen, in 1922 [37] [38].
Beezly with Plant, 1919 - family photo from the family of Bertie George Beasley, who identify him as being the Beezly in question (although he would only have been 11 at the time)
Events at the time suggested all was not well with the family. Lena, now 18, gave birth to another child, Blanche Ednal in 1920, however the little girl was suffocated when she was 4 months old. Given the circumstances of the death, the courts investigated but ruled the death accidental [83] [37].
By the time family arrived in Euri Creek, they were destitute and starving. Charles agreed to a 3-year lease on a farm, owned by Martin Tierney, who ran the nearby Merinda Hotel. As the family did not have any money, it was agreed that Charles would give a half share of everything grown to Mr. Tierney [84a and 84b].
On the 14th of March 1923, Charles made a selection for 170 acres of land at Mt Buckley, close to Merinda and not far from their farm at Euri Creek. The land was mostly undeveloped, covered with ironbark and poplar gums, with a 70ft well sunk by the previous owner [85].
Land selection granted land to members of the public (known as "selectors") who were British subjects, as all Australian-born persons were at the time. When the British colonisation of Australia began, indigenous ownership of the land was not acknowledged. Under the principle of "terra nullius" (empty land), all land was considered vacant and was seized by the United Kingdom as Crown land. The Australian government then sold or leased land according to the need of colonists. In return, selectors made improvements to the land and paid the Australian government annual rent until the value of the land was paid off. Rent from land leases was the government's largest revenue earner [86].
Although Charles was still being pursued by creditors while his insolvency case was ongoing, he paid the sum of £3 18s. 4d. (worth $375 in 2023) to cover the first year's rent and survey fee for the land. Charles also agreed to pay £10 for the well, promising to make a £5 instalment in July and a final £5 payment in August 1923 [85].
After Charles made the land selection, he gave notice to his landlord Martin Tierney that he would be leaving the farm. When Tierney came out to the farm in response, the situation between Charles and Tierney became unexpectedly tense, with Tierney alleging that Charles had threatened him not to stop by again [84a and 84b].
A couple of months later, in May 1923, the acrimony between Charles and Tierney further escalated. Despite Charles' previous warning, Tierney visited the farm again to cut the hay. He arrived with a mate, with the intention to stay there overnight. When Charles came home around 8pm, he rushed up the back stairs saying "where is he?". He came into the front room, where Tierney had been lying down, reading. Tierney alleged that Charles slammed the table with his fist, and threatened to murder Tierney if he stayed there that night. Tierney and his mate left, but reported the matter to the police, who visited Charles the following day. Another time, it was alleged that Charles grabbed a swingle bar, saying to Tierney "you bastard, I'll knock your brains out with this". Charles' daughter, probably Lena - as the eldest - took the swingle bar from Charles, with Charles saying "by Christ, I would have killed him too." [84a and 84b].
Advertisement in the Daily Mercury, July 1923, for Fletcher & Beasley Bros firewood business
While the situation at home was escalating, Charles and his sons were experiencing issues in other areas of their lives.
Near the land at Mt Buckley was a timber mill operated by Charles' son-in-law Robert Salsbury, who had married Charles' eldest daughter Penny the previous year in 1922 [84a and 84b] [87] [88].
Charles' boys, Vivian and Tom, set up a business selling firewood, using the timber mill to process the wood. Going in with them was their half-brother Charles Fletcher, Charles' step-son [84a and 84b] [89].
The two businesses worked closely together and it was a family affair. Robert managed the timber mill, with Charles overseeing the saws, while the boys sold the wood, operating from a siding at the 7 mile mark on the Coalfields line that ran close to the Beasley's farm at Euri Creek [84a and 84b] [89]. Alfred Thomas, a carter who would later marry their sister, also received orders on the Beasley's behalf [89].
Salsbury's business, which leased the timber mill from Queensland Machine Company, fell behind on payments, leading to visits from the bailiff. The bailiff also had business with the Beasley sons, who had a number of debt judgements against them. The bailiff, who was often met and spoken with by Charles, never successfully recovered money from any of them, mostly because Charles was prepared in showing him that they owned no assets from which to recover. Charles also continued to dodge his own debts, failing to make the promised £5 instalments for the well on the Mt Buckley land [84a and 84b]. Despite an order for the land not to be occupied until the well money had been paid, Charles and his sons became camping on the site, using the well to water their small herd of horses [85].
This fact, combined with Charles' failure to make the £10 payment for the well on the land, and the continued presence of creditors, led to the Land Department's decision to revoke Charles' selection on the land. In February 1924, his claim was formally forfeited [85].
A few months later, in September 1924, Charles took over management of the timber mill from his son-in-law Salsbury, although this arrangement was kept off-book, as an agreement between family members. While under his management, Charles claimed that the mill business did well, cutting and supplying 10-12 tons of wood per day, for which he charged customers 18/ per ton [84a and 84b].
Although his work situation improved, things were still tense with Tierney, who tried to get some kind of resolution with Charles over the farm matter. The loss of the selected land at Mt Buckley would go some way to explain why Charles resisted Tierney's efforts. Eventually, things came to a head [84a and 84b].
On the evening of the 23rd of September 1924, Charles left his home about 9.30pm and went to Merinda Railway station to catch a train to Ayr. He arrived at Merinda about an hour later and sat in the waiting shed for the next train. At the station was a man called Kelly, who had just finished a shift at the nearby Merinda meat works. Charles asked Kelly to get him a bottle of beer and a pack of cigarettes from the nearby hotel (pub), operated by Tierney [84a and 84b].
Kelly walked to Tierney's hotel but found it had already closed for the night. Tierney, who had been on verandah at the time and knew Kelly as a regular, volunteered walked him back to the station. When they got back to the waiting shed at the station, Charles was sitting down on one the benches, resting. Kelly told Beasley that Tierney wouldn't give him the beer or cigarettes to which Charles replied, "no, I know that mongrel bastard would not give it." [84a and 84b].
Tierney, hearing Charles' reply, said, "what did you say that for?". In response, Charles said, "yes, you're a mongrel bastard and a man ought to murder you." He then jumped up and swung at Tierney. The two got into a scuffle, trading blows. After the fight, Charles picked himself up and walked back to his farm, getting home about 1am. When he arrived, his children raised the alarm with a neighbouring farmer, who came to the house and put a split on Charles' wrist while one of Charles' daughters bathed and dressed his face [84a and 84b].
The following morning, Charles went to Bowen Hospital for treatment, having to visit several more times over the course of the next fortnight [84a and 84b].
Charles immediately took legal action against Tierney, appearing before the Summons Court in Bowen on the 30th of October and the 17th of November. He claimed £100 of damages for pain and suffering from the assault, as well as hospital bills and lost wages [84a and 84b].
In his case, Charles claimed that Tierney's attack had been entirely unprovoked, denying that he had asked Kelly to get him booze and cigarettes, and denying he'd called Tierney a mongrel bastard. In his retelling of the story, he had been quietly waiting in the shed when Tierney all of a sudden appeared and launched a sudden attack. Charles also claimed that his injuries were such that he had been forced to shut down the mill for a fortnight [84a and 84b].
The court, however, did not give credence to most of Charles' claims. Charles could not offer any witness to corroborate his version of events, whereas Tierney had a number of witnesses confirming his side of the story. Moreover, Tierney had witnesses who testified as to Charles' previous threats against him. In a final blow to Charles' credibility, the court heard testimony to a neighbour at Mt Buckley that the mill had not shut down at all and was heard by him operating as normal [84a and 84b].
In the end, the court accepted that Charles had received injuries and that he had instigated the fight by insulting Tierney, however it decreed that Tierney had used disproportionate force. Charles was awarded £15 and £4/16/- costs [84a and 84b].
Final years
Despite the altercation between Charles and Tierney, the family still seems to have remained in the Mt Buckley area. The youngest son of Lena, Edward, then aged 2 years old and described in the local paper as the son of Charles, was reported as having an accident at Mt Buckley, receiving cuts to his face and neck in October 1924 [90].
By the following year of 1925, however, the family had moved further west to Collinsville, where Charles found work as a carpenter [41]. The family lived on some kind of acreage and kept 30 pigs, for which Charles received permission to move from Collinsville to Brandon [91].
Over the next few years, most of Charles' children began to marry and move away - Vivian married Frances Buckby in 1924 and, after the family moved to Carmila, near Mackay, in 1928, Lena married Alfred Thomas, the long-time associate of her brothers [44] [92] [93]. John, known as Dick by all, left home by the time he was 18, and moved to Farleigh where he married Myrtle Giles in 1930 [94]. Mona moved to Bundaberg where she worked as a waitress and married local farmer Jack Flori in 1931 [95]. This left only Tom, Bertie and Percy, known as Derby, in Carmila with Charles.
Charles remained in Carmila until 1932 and then he moved to Marian [45] [46]. He was in the habit of visiting his children unexpectedly, usually in need of money. On one particular visit to his daughter Mona, she caught him trying to leave with sheets, glassware and cutlery stuffed in his travelling bag, stolen from her [96].
Exhausted by his antics, she arranged for him to reside at the Eventide home in Rockhampton, where he lived until his death in 1952, when a heart attack claimed him [48] [49].
Charles is a challenging ancestor for the Beasley family - he was not a good person and, after Elizabeth died, his children suffered from his neglect and abuse in many different ways. However, his life was lived through many interesting periods of Australian history, during a time of extreme hardship and, thanks to his various run-ins with the courts, he is an ancestor we happen to have quite a lot of information on.
Source information
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Charles Thomas Beasley, New South Wales Birth Certificate, 24 Jun 1865, Record no: 13795/1865, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au]
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Alfred William Beasley, New South Wales Birth Certificate, 30 Apr 1868, Record no: 1868/015066, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au]. Address for mother Sarah, informant on the certificate, was Penrith
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Family notices, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 Apr 1870, page 1, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]. Marriage notification for Mary Jane Beasley, sibling of Charles Thomas Beasley. Confirms her father's location [and therefore the location for the family] as Emu Plains
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Minnie Evillion Beasley, New South Wales Birth Certificate, 21 May 1871, Record no: 16092/3837, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au]. Address for mother Sarah, informant on the certificate, was Penrith
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John Critchlow and Charlotte Matilda Marian Beasley, New South Wales Marriage Certificate, 25 Mar 1876, Record no: 3943/1876, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au]. Married in the house of Sarah Beasley, which would be Charlotte's mother, in Emu Plains, confirming location of family
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Blanche Ednil Beasley, New South Wales Birth Certificate, 31 Mar 1879, Record no: Record no: 9227/1879, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au]. Birth certificate gives address for Charles Beasley as Havannah St, Bathurst. Although Charles and Sarah are listed as Blanche's parents, Sarah was 51 years old, which is biologically improbable, if not impossible. The only witness to the birth was their daughter Elizabeth, so it is likely Blanche was Elizabeth's daughter and raised by Charles and Sarah
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Advertisement, 10 Dec 1887, page 44, Australian Town and Country Journal, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au].
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Charles Beasley and Emily McManus, Queensland Marriage Certificate, 17 Jan 1892, Record no: 1892/C/368, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]. Emily died in 1932.
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Christie Thomas Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 1 Oct 1892, Record no: 1892/C/2382, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]. Used the name Chester Thomas Beasley throughout the rest of his life.
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Blanche Ednel Beasley, South Australia Birth Certificate, 25 Feb 1894, Page no: 267, Vol no: 537, Registered in Frome, GenealogySA [www.genealogysa.org.au]
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Killidgewarry Charles Ernest Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 30 Sep 1895, Record no: 1896/C/3226, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]. Used the name Ernest Hedley Beasley in his earlier years and Ernest Henry Beasley in his latter years.
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Chester Alfred Beasley and Elizabeth Legg, Queensland Marriage Certificate, 9 May 1898, Record no: 1898/C/1978, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Tambo District Court, The Western Champion, 13 Dec 1898, page 9, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au].
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Gertrude Penelope Legg, Queensland Birth Certificate, 27 Dec 1899, Record no: 1900/C/10826, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Lena Adeline Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 2 Feb 1902, Record no: 1902/C/1780, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Charles Chester Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1908-1980, Division of Capricornia, Polling Place of Alpha, 1903, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Vivian Hansen Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 20 Dec 1903, Record no: 1904/C/193, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Thomas Hedley Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 19 Jul 1906, Record no: 1906/C/10224, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Insolvency file, 1907, Supreme Court Central District (Rockhampton), ITM3414262, Queensland State Archives [archivessearch.qld.gov.au]
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Bertie George Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 31 Jan 1908, Record no: 1908/C/2170, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]. This is the only birth certificate of Charles and Elizabeth's children that includes Charles' children from his previous marriage, Chester Thomas Beasley, Blanche Ednel Beasley and Ernest Hedley Beasley.
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Maranoa, Subdivision of Clermont, 1909, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Mona Leah Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 12 Mar 1910, Record no: 1910/C/2471, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Queensland Electoral Roll, Electoral District of Leichhardt, Division of Clermont, 1911, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
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John Albert Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 28 Feb 1912, Record no: 1912/C/2518, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Charles Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1908-1980, Division of Maranoa, Subdivision of Clermont, 1913, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Percy Clemard Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 22 Feb 1914, Record no: 1914/C/2714, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Queensland Electoral Roll, Electoral District of Normanby, Division of Rockhampton, 1914, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Queensland Electoral Roll, Electoral District of Normanby, Division of Rockhampton, 1915, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
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Pathetic bush incident, Daily Mercury, 15 Sep 1915, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Elizabeth Legge known as Elizabeth Beasley, Queensland Death Certificate, 26 Aug 1915, Record no: 1915/C/2732, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Celebrations held to mark 90th birthday, Newspaper article - unknown paper (probably Daily Mercury), 1988. This is a newspaper clipping kept by the Fletcher family. It recalls childhood memories of Dorothy May Beasley (sister of Charles Thomas Beasley).
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Recalling early days, Daily Mercury, 24 Feb 1981, page 30. This is a newspaper clipping kept by the Fletcher family. It recalls childhood memories of Dorothy May Beasley (sister of Charles Thomas Beasley)
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Personal, Daily Mercury, 31 Jul 1916, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]. Article gives information on where the Beasley family were living at the time. Article relates to a Mr. Beasley leaving work as a foreman of railway sawmill at Paget Junction, heading for Bowen. The researcher has identified "Mr Beasley" as Charles Thomas Beasley, as he was a carpenter with experience in sawmills, he was in the Mackay area at the time (Ashburton/Farleigh) and other records confirm he was in the Bowen area after this.
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Petty Debts Court, Daily Mercury, 8 Sep 1916, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Bowen, 1917, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk].
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Insolvency file, Supreme Court, Northern District, Townsville, ID: ITM3477298, 1920, QLD State Archives [archivessearch.qld.gov.au]
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Blanche Ednal Beasley, Queensland Death Certificate, 15 Mar 1921, Record no: 1921/C/225, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]. Charles is the informant on the certificate and provides his address as Macknade.
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Roll, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Bowen, 1922, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
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Summons Court, Bowen Independent, 1 Nov 1924, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Bowen, 1925, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Bowen, 1925, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Edward James Beasley, QLD Death Certificate, 7 Nov 1925, Record no: 1925/C/4128, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Bowen, 1928, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Capricornia, Subdivision of St Lawrence, 1928, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Capricornia, Subdivision of St Lawrence, 1932, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Roll, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Mirani, 1939, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Dawson, Subdistrict of Mirani, 1949, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Lilley, Subdistrict of Sandgate, 1949, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Queensland Death Certificate, 15 Jul 1952, Record no: 1952/C/3786, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Emu Plains, NSW: Full of Hidden Historical Treasures, Historical Australian Towns [historicalaustraliantowns.blogspot.com]
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Emu, The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Oct 1869, page 7, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Bathurst, NSW: Australia's First Inland Settlement, Historical Australian Towns [historicalaustraliantowns.blogspot.com]
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Bathurst, New South Wales, Last edited 6 Sep 2024, Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org]
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Lower Havannah Street, Heritage Conservation Review, Bathurst Regional Council, 2018
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Bathurst, The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 2 Oct 1880, page 644, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Bathurst - Elizabeth Beasley, New South Wales Australia Police Gazettes, 1854-1930, 18 Feb 1880, page 59, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Vanity of servantgalism, Evening News, 26 May 1880, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Terrible accident, The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 8 Oct 1880, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Chaff Cutter, Last edited 19 Jul 2024, Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org]
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Advertisement, Australian Town and Country Journal, 10 Dec 1887, page 44, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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The advent of the camel, The Brisbane Courier, 23 Mar 1894, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Afghans and camels, The Advertiser, 24 Mar 1893, page 5, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Charleville news, The Northern Mining Register, 16 May 1891, page 11, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Teamsters and carriers, Barcaldine [barcaldine-peopleplacesthings.org]
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Marree, South Australia, Last edited 26 Jul 2024, Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org]
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Starving Afghans at Hergott, Adelaide Observer, 24 Jul 1897, page 11, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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The Hergott and Birdsville mail, 1 Oct 1896, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Queensland news, Darling Downs Gazette, 25 Apr 1894, page 3, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Birdsville, The Week, South Australian Register, 6 Nov 1896, page 24, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Dorothy May Legg, Queensland Birth Certificate, 16 Jan 1898, Record no: 1898/C/10336, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]. Dorothy's father is not listed on her birth certificate. However, the likelihood is that Charles was her father because 1) Charles lists her as his daughter on the birth certificates of his subsequent children Lena, John and Percy, 2) he raised her / allowed her to live with the family - he did not allow Elizabeth's other child, Charles Joseph, to live with them as (according to family story) he did not want to raise another man's child, and 3) Dorothy identified him as her father on her marriage certificate.
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Tambo District Court, The Western Champion, 13 Dec 1898, page 9, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Well done! Jericho, The Western Champion and General Advertiser for the Central-Western Districts, 19 Oct 1902, page 9, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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The Jericho murder, The Brisbane Courier, 16 Jun 1903, page 4, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Advertisement, The Western Champion, 16 Dec 1906, page 11, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]. Advertisement for Carlsson Bros Mills confirms the type of timber they milled
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Withersfield, Morning Bulletin, 4 Aug 1911, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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History of wages in Australia, DailyCare [www.dailycare.com.au]
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Coal mining industry, The Brisbane Courier, 10 Jun 1911, page 5, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Railway construction, The Week, 12 Apr 1912, page 39, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Blair Athol township, Morning Bulletin, 14 Nov 1911, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Blackwater, The Capricornian, 27 Mar 1915, page 44, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Farleigh School, Daily Mercury, 20 Dec 1915, page 7, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Vera Jean Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 25 Sep 1916, Record no: 1916/C/11770, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]. The siblings of Lena believed she was abused by Charles, who was the father of Vera.
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Blanche Ednal Beasley, Queensland Birth Certificate, 20 Nov 1920, Record no: 1920/C/11717, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Summons Court and Summons Court continued page, Bowen Independent, 22 Nov 1924, page 6 and continued page 3, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Charles Thomas Beasley, Dead farm file, Department of Public Lands, 1924, Queensland State Archives [archivessearch.qld.gov.au]
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Land selection in Queensland, Last edited 12 Jun 2024, Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org]
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Merinda notes, Bowen Independent, 3 Feb 1923, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Robert James Salisbury and Peneope Gertrude Beasley, Queensland Marriage Certificate, 16 Jan 1922, Record no: 1922/C/850, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Firewood, Bowen Independent, 1 May 1923, page 4, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Local and general, Bowen Independent, 7 Oct 1924, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]. Although Edward is not listed by name, the article refers to a 2-year-old of Mr Beazley at Mt Buckley. The Beasley family were the only Beasleys in the area at the time. Lena was still living with the family at the time (as evidenced by her electoral roll registers) and her son Edward was 2 years old in 1924. He would sadly die the following year from pneumonia.
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Stock movements, Bowen Independent, 9 Jun 1928, page 4, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Vivian Hansen Beasley and Frances May Buckby, Queensland Marriage Certificate, 22 Dec 1924, Record no: 1924/C/2844, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Alfred Thomas and Lena Adelaide Beasley, Queensland Marriage Certificate, 4 Nov 1929, Record no: 1929/C/3268, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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John Albert Beasley and Rose Myrtle Giles, Queensland Marriage Certificate, 28 Jan 1930, Record no: 1930/C/481, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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John Edward Flori and Mona Leah Beasley, Queensland Marriage Certificate, 25 Jul 1931, Record no: 1931/C/1906, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Conversation with Veronica Beasley, granddaughter of Charles Thomas Beasley
Personal map
Map of places from Charles' life
