The postman Joe Cook was just one of many to face unusual charges in the 1860s in colonial Queensland. Here are just a handful. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio.

Do you think some of our local city roads are bad today? Well in 1861, Bell Street in Ipswich was so bad that even Mr. Peter Slee with his team of bullocks was unable to pass. Mr Slee was forced to drive his bullocks up onto the footpath in order just to get by. For illegally using the footpath, Slee was summoned to the Ipswich courthouse and fined ten shillings.

Then there was Mr. Edward Edwards. To Edwards, life must have seemed seemed unjust. He was a Methodist church lay preacher who once had eight gold sovereigns stolen from him. Then his wife deserted him, forcing him to advertise to all and sundry that he wouldn’t be responsible for her debts.

So it was perhaps with a touch of satisfaction that he went to the Ipswich courthouse in 1861.  There he was charged with refusing to register a dog. Mr. Edwards sat quietly as evidence was provided as to the aggressive nature of the dog in question. When asked to defend himself before the inevitable fine was handed down, Mr. Edwards stated that the dog was incapable of harming anything, in fact it been shot a few days earlier. The bench agreed that the dog could do no further harm and so dismissed the case.

Also in 1861 there was a rash of £3 fines for people not turning up for jury service. That’s no trifling sum because today that’s over $3,000. Mr. John Hardie was one who got fined. Hardie was joint proprietor of the Fassifern run and would later be horse-whipped on the corner of Brisbane and East streets in Ipswich. The whipper was provoked because Hardie was having an affair with the whipper’s sister-in-law.

Mr. William Hendren was also fined £3 for non-attendance as a juror. Hendren was a stock and station agent and was secretary of the trustees of the Ipswich Cemetery. He would be elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly representing Bundamba, but after the election he was summoned to court after failing to pay for refreshments that he’d got during his election campaign. So politicians – you better pay up.

Mr. Patrick Carroll was another one fined £3 for missing jury service, although ironically he was no stranger in the Ipswich courthouse. You see, despite being convicted there for public inebriation, he became the Clerk of Petty Sessions. Carroll came to a sticky end though when crossing the railway line at Bundamba station and runover by a train. And his wife then checked into the Woogaroo lunatic asylum.

Now finally we come to the Ipswich postman.

In the 1860s Mr. Joseph Cook had the mail contract for the Ipswich to Toowoomba service for which he was paid the handsome sum of £400 or over $400,000 per year. Embarrassingly, he was called to the Ipswich courthouse and fined for forgetting to get a license for his coach.

One time he was driving along Brisbane Street, past West Street and was pretty much in front of where the West Bremer Radio studios are now, when the front wheel of his coach came off. The result was the Mr. Cook was thrown out and dragged a fair way along the road before the horses could be stopped.

But Mr. Cook’s most unusual incident was one that didn’t end up in the Ipswich courthouse, but perhaps it could have.

In 1862 there was a narrow escape when the coach had just crossed the Seven Mile Creek bridge at Rosewood. That’s when the horses began to kick and tried to bolt into the bush, but they were brought under control thanks to the good management of the driver Joseph Cook. There were several passengers in the coach at the time, and one old gentleman was pitched over against two young women seated opposite. He quite enjoyed the experience.

Joseph Cook received a kick on the knee, but nothing happened to the old gentleman. And I’m pretty sure that if he tried that today, he would definitely end up in court.

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

Photo credits:
Royal Mail Hotel, Tingalpa, Brisbane, 1876 – State Library of Queensland.
Ipswich courthouse, c1860 – State Library of Queensland.
William Henden MLA in a group at the first Rosewood Show, 1879 – Week, Brisbane, 10th June 1927, page 21.