The most incredible street chase in Queensland legal history happened over a century ago, and it started in Dalby which was 980km from where it finished. I told a version of this story on radio 4WK.

I was researching the solicitor Samuel Bryant Wright who set up business under the name of S.B. Wright in Dalby in 1882. He successfully argued his first case, and a prosperous future was predicted. He’d been articled to The Honourable Walter Horatio Wilson. He was Queensland’s leading solicitor, government minister, and his family owned the historic home Dovercourt in Brisbane which I’ve written a book about.

Samuel Wright relocated his firm from Dalby to Mackay where the amazing street chase took place.

But first I came across another solicitor of the same name in Mackay, he was Gilbert Vaughan Wright. In 1865 he mysteriously disappeared and nothing could be found of him. That was despite Lieutenant Rudolph von Freudenthal, an Austrian count, who led his troopers of Queensland native police on a two-day search. The remains of Wright were eventually discovered a month later, and sadly he’d been suffering from occasional attacks of insanity. Wright’s widow later married Robert Smellie of the historic Smellie building in Brisbane.

In any case, the Dalby solicitor Samuel Wright moved his firm to Mackay and employed his son William Alfred Wright. It’s William Wright who in 1919 made headlines across the country. It involved a sensational running fight, determined struggle, and probably the best chase scene in Queensland or even Australian history, and it covered half the town.

The young solicitor Wright returned home at eight o’clock one night and discovered a man in his drawing-room.

Wright rushed at the man and they locked into physical combat. After a fight lasting several minutes, the burglar escaped.

He tried to climb a side fence, but Mr. Wright again caught him, and a further ding-dong battle ensued.

The man jumped the front fence only to have the solicitor again grab him, and more fighting followed.

The man managed to get away yet again, and this time he raced down the street.

Mr. Wright pursued him for two blocks until the man tripped in Brisbane Street, and Mr. Wright, coming up behind, fell on top of him.

After more fighting and wrestling between the men – who by this time were both completely exhausted – a man passing in the street intervened. The runaway was apprehended and taken to the police station that fortunately by this time was in the same street that the chase ended.

The culprit was James Clarke, a thick-set man who had previously been convicted of grievous bodily harm. Our solicitor Wright did well to come out of the epic encounter unscathed. Clarke was convicted of having been “found in a dwelling for unlawful purposes” and was sentenced to six months with hard labour in Stewart’s Creek Gaol in Townsville.

The original Dalby firm of solicitors is still practicing today under the name of S.B. Wright & Wright and Condie. They’ve been in Mackay for the last one hundred and forty-one years.

But in my mind they will always be remembered for the Dalby founder’s son who sensationally chased and fought an intruder over the fences and through the streets of Mackay one hundred and five years ago – and I loved retracing his steps here this week.

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

Photo credits:
Mackay Police Station, 2024 – Harold Peacock 20240529_060426.
William Alfred Wright Mackay solicitor of S.B. Wright & Wright and Condie – State Library of Queensland.
Mackay Police Station and Brisbane Street, 2024 – Harold Peacock 20240528_102120.
SB Wright & Wright and Condie offices, Mackay, 2024 – Harold Peacock 20240528_100418.