For one Queensland family last century, a snake attack was just one more thing on a long list of problems, and it could have all been avoided if only they stayed home. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio.

Constable John McFadden was a policeman in Bathurst and then Ipswich in the 1850s and 60s. In 1857 he was responsible for the investigation of the Mount Macquarie Murder that resulted in a former child convict being convicted and hung on the constable’s evidence.

The constable then travelled to Ipswich and was an original member of the Queensland police force after the colony had separated from New South Wales. Constable McFadden’s descendants seemingly led jinxed lives.

His daughter Sarah married Frederick Bowers in 1892, they had seven children – six boys and a girl – and that’s when the trouble started.

By 1916, both Sarah and Frederick were dead, and their seven children, as young as eight years old, were orphans.

The boys were in a rush to travel because within four months of losing both parents, three of them were in the Australian army and heading off to the First World War. They all served together in the 31st Battalion.

Charlie Bowers was the first to enlist. He was working as a labourer and was seventeen years old but told them he was eighteen.

Robert Bowers was next. He was working on a farm and was only fifteen years old but said he was eighteen-and-a-half.

Then there was Louie Bowers. He was a bootmaker and went to look after them all because he was a relatively mature nineteen years old.

All three of them gave their oldest brother Fred Bowers as next of kin. Fred was a champion cornet player and was working at the small arms factory at Lithgow in New South Wales at the time. Shortly afterwards, however, Fred moved back up north to be with his remaining orphaned siblings and lived on Harlin Road in Ipswich.

In 1917 while away at the war, the three brothers, Charlie, Robert and Louise, took a holiday in France together when they went Absent Without Leave for ten days. 

Charlie suffered from fits and so was invalided home in 1918.

Robert was shot in both buttocks and his right thigh during battle of Amiens in France, and he was also invalided home in 1918.

The oldest of the three Louie had successfully seen his two younger brothers through the war and return to Australia. But that’s when Louie, still in France, died of influenza after the war was over. It was the dreaded Spanish flu that claimed million lives around the world.

Back home in Australia, young Robert got wounded again. This time it was a collision at the intersection of Gordon and Brisbane streets in Ipswich. The horse he was riding collided with a bus at the same time that it collided with a motorbike.

Meanwhile, their sister Flora Bowers was also having an interesting time. Her first husband in 1927 fell off a truck, in 1928 he fell off his motorbike, and in 1938 he died. Flora then married again, this time to a cousin on both her father’s and mothers side.

Then there was the youngest of the Bowers orphans George Bowers. In 1921 George was working on a farm at Haigslea just outside of Ipswich. He went out with the cows to keep them off the crops. His dead body was found after lunch. His corpse was examined by Dr. Euchariste Sirois (pictured here and top of page) from nearby Marburg. George had been attacked by snakes. He was just fourteen years old.

Meanwhile, the responsible oldest brother Fred Bowers had stayed home in Ipswich to be next-of-kin for everyone. Unsurprisingly he lived the longest, passing away in Ipswich at the grand old age of ninety-six.

There’s a lot to be said for staying home because the Bowers orphans proved that it’s safer than running off to war, marrying your cousin, or even minding the cows.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Dr. and Matron Sirois, Marburg, Ipswich, 1923 – Picture Ipswich.
Charles Victor Bowers – Australian War Memorial P10439.003.
Robert Bowers – Australian War Memorial P10439.002.
Albert John Llewellyn Bowers – Australian War Memorial P10439.001.
Dr. Euchariste Sirois – State Library of Queensland.