The Gammie Brothers of Queensland’s Darling Downs made a fortune but left carnage in their wake that’s not taught in school. I told a version of this story live on radio 4WK.

The Gammies were among the first to settle the Darling Downs, became the most eligible bachelors in the colonies, but they left, and are virtually unknown today. There’s even a Mount Gammie that’s forty kilometres west of Warwick, a Gammie Street in Clifton (pictured above), and Gammies Swamp at Purga, but nobody knows the Gammies.

George and John Gammie were two young men, the sons of a Dr. Gammie, of Aberdeen in Scotland. They squatted on the Darling Downs in the 1840s, eventually acquiring the trophy properties Clifton Station, Talgai Run, and Mount Flinders Station.

It was at their Mount Flinders Station in 1848 that a former convict was killed when an axe went through his head. The accused was sent to Sydney and found not guilty because the jury believed that the dead man had tripped and fallen on the axe himself.

By 1850 the Gammies were very wealthy men worth in the hundreds of millions in dollars today. It was said they were shearing up to 60,000 sheep a year. But in May 1853, the Gammies had a falling out and the Gammie Brothers partnership was dissolved. Ten weeks later, John Gammie, who had travelled from Talgai to Ipswich, suddenly died.

The partnership barely had time to be properly wound up when John’s fabulous wealth was transferred to his brother George who in 1855 sold the properties.

George Gammie hightailed it off the England where he bought the huge Shotover estate in Oxfordshire, got married, went broke, and his Oxfordshire property fell into the hands of a family that became close friends of the late Queen Elizabeth. The royal family were regular visitors.

But the Gammies were not lost to Australia.

You see we know that some DNA remained thanks to a much-celebrated paternity case that began in 1850. It was the first big paternity case in Australian history. That’s when a maid at one of the Gammie properties, possibly Talgai, took John Gammie to court.

The 20-year-old Esther Simmons alleged that John Gammie was refusing to support his illegitimate child. Gammie admitted being the father and the Ipswich court made an order for maintenance, but Gammie simply ignored it. Esther took the case to the Brisbane court where an order was again made, and again he ignored it. Esther then took her claim to the court in Sydney.

The thirty-two-year-old squatter John Gammie was very much a member of the Squattocracy, which was that fraternity of wealthy landowners, he was a very rich and very eligible bachelor.

When the case arrived in Sydney it was greeted with newspaper headlines and feverish public interest, but the case was postponed for a month while they waited for the mail to arrive from Moreton Bay. Once the Brisbane written court order arrived, the judges refused to rule anyway.

One of the two judges was Edward Flood. Just like John Gammie, Flood was a father of a number of illegitimate children and also a member of the Squatttocracy. He was also the mayor of Sydney.

Almost a year after young Esther had taken her case to Sydney, the court eventually ruled and John Gammie was ordered to pay ten shillings a week for twelve months. There’s no evidence that any payment was ever made.

So next time you’re passing Mount Gammie west of Warwick, remember young Esther, her child, the Gammie brothers and the sudden deaths, questionable inheritances, financial ruin, and DNA that they left behind on the Darling Downs.

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

Photo credits:
Gammie Street, Clifton – Google Maps 2025.
Homestead at East Talgai Station, Queensland c1877 – State Library of Queensland.
Shotover House, Oxfordshire – Photograph Oxford Botanica, Adam Hodge.
Ipswich Courthouse c1860 – State Library of Queensland.
Edward Flood 1805-1888 – NSW Parliamentary Archives Collection.