There’s a little-known criminal history of German sausage in Ipswich, Queensland. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio the day that Queenslanders went to the polls and feasted on the traditional democracy sausage.

In 1920, August Adolph Christian Henning was charged with killing a steer with intent to turn it into German sausages. He was given a two-year suspended sentence with a two-year £100 good behaviour bond.

Before all this happened, Henning was married with four children when his wife died. Four weeks later he married for second time, and then that wife promptly died as well. So he was left with little option other them to feed his young family on misappropriated German sausages.

The judge in this case took a realistic view. He was Justice Charles Edward Chubb, he had been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, attorney general, was judge of the Supreme Court, and son of an Ipswich mayor. He ordered that at least the hide of the dead steer be returned to the owner.

The owner of the now dead cow was Ipswich’s Charles Francis. He himself was later charged with stealing a gelding, and separately stealing a cow, four heifers and a steer. So intent to make sausages from stolen steers may have been rife in Ipswich at the time.

But it was back in 1899 when one sausage enthusiast appeared not to stand a chance. An old man by the name of Mr J. Hamilton was charged with having stolen a piece of German sausage from the Nicholas Street shop of J. P. Bottomley and Co.

J. P. Bottomley cornered Ipswich’s sausage market by opening shops in the city in Nicholas Street, East Street, upper Brisbane Street, and further shops in North Ipswich and at Bundamba.

The owner was Ipswich’s undisputed king of sausages. His name was James Parker Bottomley, he would serve as an Ipswich alderman for a number of years, and did not take kindly to pieces of his sausages being taken.

The old man Hamilton was up against the who’s who of Ipswich.

The magistrates in the Ipswich police court that day included Adolphus Hasenkamp. He was the clerk of Petty Sessions at the Ipswich courthouse, and today his name is on a Historical Marker at Siemon House, at Leichhardt in Ipswich. There was Major William Deacon. He would be second-in-command of the Queensland contingent to the Boer War and the mayor of Ipswich three times. Then there was Mr. Joseph Pickard who was for several years also an Ipswich alderman.

The team from the police force was less settled. Senior Sergeant Donaldson prosecuted. He was in charge of the Ipswich police station although would soon be transferred to Beaudesert.

The arresting officer was constable William Edward Healy. Earlier he had sensationally been the arresting officer of the Ipswich rates collector who was convicted with embezzling the rates that he had collected. Healy shortly after the sausage case would mysteriously drown in the Lockyer Creek near Gatton.

Testifying against Hamilton was the manager of Bottomley and Co and probably the best-known man in Ipswich of his time. And that’s a fact. His name was Mr. George W. Allen. He was a businessman and sportsman. Among his many committee memberships, he was secretary of the Ipswich Draughts Club.

So, with the who’s who of Ipswich opposing him in court, Mr. Hamilton pleaded guilty and was sentenced to twenty-four hours confinement in the cells.

That may seem a light sentence, but Mr. Hamilton only took a piece of the sausage, and not the whole thing. And that’s all we know about Ipswich’s great German sausage larcenist, because he then simply disappeared from history.

For those voting in elections and grabbing a democracy sausage, take a moment to ponder Ipswich’s Mr. Hamilton and what happened to him 125 years ago.

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

Photo credits:
German sausage – the spruce eats.
Charles Edward Chubb 1883 – State Library of Queensland.
James Parker Bottomley Ipswich c1915 – Picture Ipswich.
Old Ipswich Courthouse, 2024 – Harold Peacock 20241020_060709.
Ex-senior sergeant William Donaldson, long service medallist – Week, Brisbane, 14th October 1904, page 20.