A century ago two doctors in Marburg , Queensland, disagreed and so began a defamation case that gripped the nation. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio.

There were charges and counter-charges of defamation. These stemmed mostly from letters that were made public. They stirred the nation and captivated newspaper readers like never before.

In August 1923, Dr. Herbert de Pinna purchased the medical practice of Dr. Euchariste Sirois at Marburg near Ipswich. Today Marburg has a population of just one thousand people. The practice was over-priced and the purchaser Dr. de Pinna found himself unable to meet the first instalment. So in September 1924, Dr. Sirois re-possessed the practice.

Meanwhile, Dr. de Pinna bought the cheaper Marburg Hospital (pictured top of page) and set up business there in competition. Bitter correspondence followed and the matter went to the Supreme Court before Ipswich’s own Chief Justice Sir James Blair.

Sir James was born at Coalfalls in Ipswich, went to Ipswich West State School and Ipswich Grammar, was elected to Queensland Parliament representing Ipswich. Unusually, the Queensland state school in Sadliers Crossing, a suburb of Ipswich – they’re normally never named after a person – is called Blair State School in his honour. So the judge in the most captivating defamation case in Queensland history was also a local of the Marburg doctors.

Dr. de Pinna alleged that Dr. Sirois and his wife had written defamatory letters about him, causing recipients to consider he was “not a fit and proper person to conduct a medical practice, that he neglected the patients, and that he should be regarded with odium and contempt.” He claimed a total of £1,500 damages which is half a million dollars today. Dr. Sirois counter-claimed £1,500 damages, alleging that Dr. de Pinna had made defamatory remarks about him to his patients.

The case proceeded to court with the reading in detail of some thirty or forty letters.

The newspapers of the day reported the events with beautiful prose such as, “The voluminous correspondence between the parties and some inkling of the torrents of verbiage these medicos poured at one another may perhaps be gauged from the fact that one closely-typed letter from defendant to plaintiff took the associate 23 minutes to read to the Jury.”

The defamation suit lasted a remarkable eight days and the jury found entirely in favour of Dr. de Pinna. Damages were assessed at £700 or a quarter of a million dollars.

But what was really interesting about the case is Marburg’s Dr. Herbert de Pinna himself.

He was born in England, studied medicine at Cambridge University, served as a surgeon in the British navy, came to Australia and practised in Melbourne and across New South Wales, arrived in Queensland and practiced in the Outback before settling in Marburg.

His mother owned hotels in Brighton, England, had extensive interests in rubber plantations in Papua New Guinea, and her investment in the Canadian Pacific Railway was worth £90,000 or over $32 million today.

While Dr. de Pinna was in New South Wales he actually made a name for himself in the musical world as a composer. He is best remembered for the Broadway-style pantomime “The Bunyip” which was a highly successful comedy that toured Australia for a decade. One of its songs was adopted by schools and enjoyed phenomenal sales.

Dr. de Pinna composed things like the Palings Dance Album and their yearly book of piano selections. He composed more music than any other Australian up to that time, and his music royalties exceeded the fees he was making as a doctor.

Early in the Second World War, his son James was killed when the Qantas flying boat in which he was travelling from Darwin to Indonesia was attacked by six Japanese Zeroes and shot down. That was a forewarning that nineteen days later Darwin would be bombed for the first time.

Dr. de Pinna died in 1936 aged just fifty-three and is buried at Brisbane’s Toowong cemetery.

Meanwhile, regards his arch nemesis Dr. Sirois, he was born in Quebec, Canada, and practiced medicine across North America and surprisingly mined gold for 15 years. He lived to be Marburg’s oldest man and still worked as a doctor and dentist, performing minor operations up to the age of ninety-two. He passed away at Marburg in 1947 aged ninety-four.

And so ended the story of the sensational 1924 defamation case when two doctors disagreed in little old Marburg just outside of Ipswich, and captivated the nation.

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

Photo credits:
Dr Herbert De Pinna’s Marburg Hospital, Marburg, Ipswich, 1920s – Rosewood Scrub Historical Society.
Sir James William Blair – State Library of Queensland.
Herbert De Pinna, 1914 – W.H. Paling Co, Wikimedia Commons.
Dr. Euchariste Sirois – State Library of Queensland.