top of page
bowen-dark.jpg
Charles Thomas Beasley - large pic.jpeg

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 Emu Plains, New South Wales with family [51] [3] [4] [5]

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 Shakespeare St, Alpha, Queensland and worked as a labourer [15] [16]

Lived at Jericho, Queensland and worked as baker [17]

Lived at Borilla and worked as a horse driver for Messrs Carlsson Bros, saw millers [18] [19]

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 labourer [24] [25]

Lived at Blair Athol, Queensland and worked as a carpenter [26]

Lived at Blackwater Colliery, Queensland and worked as a carpenter [27] [28]

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, Queensland and worked as tenant farmer [38] [39] [40]

Lived at Euri Creek and worked as proprietor of wood depot on Bowen-Collinsville line (while also a tenant farmer) [39]

Lived at Collinsville, Queensland and worked as a carpenter [41] [42] [43]

Lived at Carmila, Queensland and worked as a labourer [44] [45]

Lived at Marian, Queensland [46] [47]

Lived at "Eventide" Home, Rockhampton, Queensland [48] [49]

Died at "Eventide" Home, Rockhampton, Queensland and buried at North Rockhampton Cemetery [49]

Biography

Early years

Emu Plains showing the Nepean River 1880.jpg

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].​​​

News article - 1869 - Beasley family at Emu Plains - The Sydney Morning Herald 19 Oct 1869

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 NSW.jpg

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 NSW 1870s.jpg

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

statelibqld-1-160582-commercial-bank-in-charleville-ca-1889-626523.jpg

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 1933.jpg

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]. ​

statelibqld-2-121368-wylies-team-of-horses-at-birdsville-1906-46b618.jpg

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, he had a daughter, named Dorothy May, with Elizabeth Legg, who had also recently moved back to Tambo after a stint 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 9 May 1898 at the Tambo Court House. It is not known whether Elizabeth knew that Charles had a wife and three children he had left behind in Birdsville - he may even have introduced himself to her as Chester, the fake name he used at their wedding.

  • 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." [21]

On the road

x

x

World War 2 service and death

x

x

x

Source information

  1. 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]

  2. 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 

  3. 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

  4. 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 

  5. 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 

  6. 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

  7. Advertisement, 10 Dec 1887, page 44, Australian Town and Country Journal, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]. 

  8. 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.

  9. 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. 

  10. Blanche Ednel Beasley, South Australia Birth Certificate, 25 Feb 1894, Page no: 267, Vol no: 537, Registered in Frome, GenealogySA [www.genealogysa.org.au]

  11. 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. 

  12. 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]

  13. Tambo District Court, The Western Champion, 13 Dec 1898, page 9, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]. 

  14. 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]

  15. 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]

  16. Charles Chester Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1908-1980, Division of Capricornia, Polling Place of Alpha, 1903, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk] 

  17. 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]

  18. 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]

  19. Charles Thomas Beasley, Insolvency file, 1907, Supreme Court Central District (Rockhampton), ITM3414262, Queensland State Archives [archivessearch.qld.gov.au]

  20. 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. 

  21. Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Maranoa, Subdivision of Clermont, 1909, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk] 

  22. 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] 

  23. Charles Thomas Beasley, Queensland Electoral Roll, Electoral District of Leichhardt, Division of Clermont, 1911, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]​

  24. 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] 

  25. ​Charles Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1908-1980, Division of Maranoa, Subdivision of Clermont, 1913, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]

  26. 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] 

  27. Charles Thomas Beasley, Queensland Electoral Roll, Electoral District of Normanby, Division of Rockhampton, 1914, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]​

  28. Charles Thomas Beasley, Queensland Electoral Roll, Electoral District of Normanby, Division of Rockhampton, 1915, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]​

  29. Pathetic bush incident, Daily Mercury, 15 Sep 1915, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  30. 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]

  31. 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).

  32. 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)

  33. 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. 

  34. Petty Debts Court, Daily Mercury, 8 Sep 1916, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  35. ​Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Bowen, 1917, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk].

  36. Charles Thomas Beasley, Insolvency file, Supreme Court, Northern District, Townsville, ID: ITM3477298, 1920, QLD State Archives [archivessearch.qld.gov.au]

  37. 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.

  38. Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Roll, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Bowen, 1922, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]

  39. Summons Court, Bowen Independent, 1 Nov 1924, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  40. Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Bowen, 1925, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]

  41. Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Bowen, 1925, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]

  42. 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]

  43. Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Bowen, 1928, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]

  44. Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Capricornia, Subdivision of St Lawrence, 1928, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]

  45. Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Capricornia, Subdivision of St Lawrence, 1932, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]

  46. Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Roll, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Mirani, 1939, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]​

  47. Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Dawson, Subdistrict of Mirani, 1949, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]

  48. Charles Thomas Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Lilley, Subdistrict of Sandgate, 1949, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]

  49. 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]

  50. Emu Plains, NSW: Full of Hidden Historical Treasures, Historical Australian Towns [historicalaustraliantowns.blogspot.com]

  51. Emu, The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Oct 1869, page 7, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  52. Bathurst, NSW: Australia's First Inland Settlement, Historical Australian Towns [historicalaustraliantowns.blogspot.com]

  53. Bathurst, New South Wales, Last edited 6 Sep 2024, Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org]

  54. Lower Havannah Street, Heritage Conservation Review, Bathurst Regional Council, 2018

  55. Bathurst, The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 2 Oct 1880, page 644, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  56. Bathurst - Elizabeth Beasley, New South Wales Australia Police Gazettes, 1854-1930, 18 Feb 1880, page 59, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]

  57. Vanity of servantgalism, Evening News, 26 May 1880, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  58. Terrible accident, The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 8 Oct 1880, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  59. Chaff Cutter, Last edited 19 Jul 2024, Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org]

  60. Advertisement, Australian Town and Country Journal, 10 Dec 1887, page 44, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  61. The advent of the camel, The Brisbane Courier, 23 Mar 1894, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  62. Afghans and camels, The Advertiser, 24 Mar 1893, page 5, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  63. Charleville news, The Northern Mining Register, 16 May 1891, page 11, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  64. Teamsters and carriers, Barcaldine [barcaldine-peopleplacesthings.org]

  65. Marree, South Australia, Last edited 26 Jul 2024, Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org]

  66. Starving Afghans at Hergott, Adelaide Observer, 24 Jul 1897, page 11, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  67. The Hergott and Birdsville mail, 1 Oct 1896, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  68. Queensland news, Darling Downs Gazette, 25 Apr 1894, page 3, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  69. Birdsville, The Week, South Australian Register, 6 Nov 1896, page 24, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  70. 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. 

  71. ​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]

  72. The Jericho murder, The Brisbane Courier, 16 Jun 1903, page 4, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  73. History of wages in Australia, DailyCare [www.dailycare.com.au]

  74. Coal mining industry, The Brisbane Courier, 10 Jun 1911, page 5, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  75. Railway construction, The Week, 12 Apr 1912, page 39, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  76. Blair Athol township, Morning Bulletin, 14 Nov 1911, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]

  77. Blackwater, The Capricornian, 27 Mar 1915, page 44, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au​]

Personal map

Map of places from Charlie's life

Family members

Parents

Siblings

Spouses

Children (to Emily Stewart McManus)

Children (to Elizabeth Legg)

Photo Gallery

Personal documents

  1. Birth certificate

  2. Marriage certificate

  3. Death certificate

bottom of page