On the 22nd of March 1866, Mrs Elizabeth Mandall boarded the coach from Warwick to Toowoomba having been in Warwick visiting her mother Mrs Harper. That was the last that most people saw of her. I told a version of this story on radio 4WK.

Elizabeth’s husband was formerly the sheep overseer at Eton Vale. Eton Vale Station was squatted in 1840 and is one of the earliest stations on the Darling Downs. The ruins of the former homestead can still be seen and today are heritage-listed.

During the trip, the coach stopped to change horses at Emu Creek. Emu Creek in the Cambooya district is famous today because that’s where the author Steele Rudd of “Dad and Dave” fame spent much of his childhood.

But back in 1866 while the coach horses were being changed, Elizabeth walked off and hadn’t returned by the time the coach had to leave. So they left without her. Notice was sent to the police at Toowoomba later that evening.

Every part of the country for miles around was thoroughly searched by Sergeant Robert Grayson of the Allora police and a number of others, but nothing was seen nor heard of the unfortunate Mrs Mandall.

Six years earlier Sergeant Grayson had been one of the unsuccessful searchers for the lost girl of Callandoon. Grayson later mysteriously disappeared himself. It was weeks until his body was found in the Condamine River in Warwick.

Anyway, some items belonging to Elizabeth Mandall were eventually found. These included her hat, shawl, and crinoline which is a stiff petticoat designed to hold out a skirt.

Elizabeth’s mysterious disappearance made headlines around Australia. Finally, three months after she stepped from the coach at Emu Creek, Elizabeth’s decomposed remains were found about three miles from where she disappeared.

Elizabeth’s family remained in the district. One son was a particularly high achiever. This was Thomas Henry Mandall who was a well-known resident of Dalby. He was considered to be the best wool presser in the district, having pressed eighty bales of wool a day at the big Jimbour wool shed. Jimbour is another one of the very early stations on the Darling Downs, having been established in 1842. Its homestead (pictured top of page) is still there today and is also heritage-listed.

But the Mandall descendants had some misfortune too.

Elizabeth’s grandson Harry was killed in action France during the First World War.

A great-grandson Walter was just two years old when he was lucky to survive being bitten by a death adder while playing in the yard of the family home in Dalby.

But the disappearance of Elizabeth Mandall overshadows them all and was never fully explained.

Firstly, the coach she was on between Warwick and Toowoomba just left her in the bush. The bush back then was deadly so how could they just leave her there, even if they did look around for half an hour or so.

Secondly, every part of the country for miles around was allegedly thoroughly searched. But Elizabeth’s remains were found just three miles from where she disappeared, so it could not have been too thoroughly searched.

And then there was Elizabeth’s husband Henry Mandall. He was advertising for work before the disappearance and was convicted of drunkenness in Toowoomba afterwards. That’s not unusual for the time, but there doesn’t appear to be any record of him leading any public appeal or similar, which you might expect for someone whose wife had been missing for months without a trace, leaving him with children as young as two years old.

Elizabeth Mandall was abandoned by the coach, a less-than-thorough search was made, and her husband didn’t seem to kick up a fuss. It all sounds a bit strange to me.

There are still Mandall family members living on the Darling Downs, so I’d love it if they could shed any light on this 1866 mystery, which in my mind is unsolved to this day.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON RADIO 4WK.

Photo credits:
Jimbour House – Ausfilm, Tourism Events Queensland.
Eton Vale Homestead Ruins chimney 1992 – by Heritage branch staff Queensland Heritage Register, Wikimedia Commons.
Arthur Hoey Davis aka Steele Rudd b1868 – by Annie May Moore, State Library of Victoria, Wikimedia Commons.
Harry Mandall – The Queenslander Pictorial, 1916, State Library of Queensland.