Don’t you wish you could go back in time to meet certain people? I do to see 175 years ago to meet “Bag of Weasles” and other people. The Ipswich district had many characters like this. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio.

Ipswich in Queensland started as a convict outstation in 1827. After free settlement in 1842, the place became a really important commercial hub because it was at the head of navigation of the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers and was the junction of transport routes to the Darling Downs and Brisbane Valley. It was the centre of attraction for the squatters and their workers coming to the big smoke. In other words, everyone who was anyone went there.

In 1848, a pugilistic encounter for the ages took place four miles outside of town. The fight was for £50 which is more $100,000 today. Ipswich became crowded with thousands of strange faces as people travelled from hundreds of miles away to see the biggest fight in the colony’s history. After thirty-two rounds, a lucky blow on the jugular settled the contest.

Ipswich’s fight of the century was between James Smith who had arrived in the colony as a child but none the less was commonly called “The Native”. The Native’s opponent was William Jones alias “Black Bill.” Black Bill was an ex-convict and Moreton Bay’s best-known boxer, and despite losing this classic against The Native, he was famous as twice beating “The Boomer” in two other encounters in Ipswich.

Now a little bit about Black Bill. In 1849 when a constable came to close a public-house at nine o’clock, a scuffle ensued, and Black Bill was carried off to the watch-house. The magistrates however were of the opinion that the constable had exceeded his duty in interfering with the famous Black Bill and so no fine was inflicted.

This happened in South Brisbane at the establishment of Mr. Thomas Grenier, he would become one of Brisbane’s very early council aldermen. Incidentally it was from here just months earlier that Ludwig Leichhardt left on his fateful final expedition. One of the learned magistrates in Black Bill’s case was Captain John Wickham who was the explorer and colonial government officer after whom all those Brisbane parks and streets are named.

In 1850, Black Bill was at it again, this time with another man breaking into a home at Drayton near Toowoomba. The homeowner said Black Bill was a little under the weather at the time and didn’t think either man acted with any felonious intent, and so the prisoners were discharged. The generous homeowner was James Houston who was later the local mayor and so I suppose he won a couple of votes that day.

Black Bill’s partner in the crime was David Barry. With the exception of an occasional bender, Barry was considered also to be of very good character. He ran unsuccessfully for council a number of times. He also had friends with very good aliases.

Barry was a shoemaker and worked with James McCauley, alias the “Cranky Cobbler.”

Barry cohabited with a very disorderly character named Jeanette Stuart, alias the “Bag of Weasels.”

Don’t you wish you could go back in time to visit Ipswich back then and see what the Cranky Cobbler and the Bag of Weasles were like?

These people called Black Bill, The Native, The Boomer, the Cranky Cobbler, and the Bag of Weasles, they never left any great mark on history, but with intriguing aliases and through their association with each other, they’re worth calling out.

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

Photo credits:
Least weasel Newenham – photo Sheila Newenham via Wildlife Illinois.
View along East Street Ipswich, c1860 – State Library of Queensland.
Thomas Grenier – State Library of Queensland.
Captain John Wickham in Uniform, 1820 – Brisbane City Council.