Ipswich’s Collins family had an unprecedented run of violent deaths from the 1860s. I told a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.

In 1872 an Ipswich man by the name of Patrick Collins was sentenced to death at Toowoomba for the savage murder of a man near Surat in western Queensland.

Collins and his family came from County Limerick in Ireland, he grew up in Ipswich, his family is still in the region, and he may be the only person from Ipswich to have been given capital punishment.

After the sentencing and on his way to the old Brisbane Gaol on Petrie Terrace, Collins was heavily ironed and guarded by a strong force of police led by Ipswich’s Sub-inspector William Francis. Francis had made a name for himself as a bushranger hunter. He had caught the bushrangers Ned Randall after tracking him for over 320 miles, John Burns alias “The Hairy Man” after 150 miles, and he arrested a man believed to be Captain Thunderbolt.

Collins also had a bushranging past of his own, having been convicted in 1867 of a highway robbery committed near Ipswich, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison.

But now having been sentenced to death, Collins was taken by train from Toowoomba to Ipswich where a large crowd waited to see him. He had grown up and continued to live on the family farm at Three Mile Creek, which today is Amberley, older sister lived in on Park Street in Ipswich at the time, and so Collins was well-known by those who gathered to see him. Because the railway line to Brisbane hadn’t been built yet, he was transferred in an open wagon through the streets of Ipswich to the ferry, followed by a large number of curious horsemen. By contrast, there was only a small crowd awaiting his arrival at the Alice Street ferry in Brisbane.

During the journey, Collins admitted the whole murderous affair to Inspector Francis. He said that after his five years in prison, he couldn’t settle down and so was determined to get money any way he could. He held up his victim believing he had a large sum of money, but when he realised that he was recognised, a wrestle broke out on the edge of a waterhole. They both fell into the water where they struggled for life, Collins himself was nearly drowned, but it was the other man who ended up savagely murdered.

During his previous term in prison, Collins had befriended the Ipswich bushranger Bill Jenkins who had been convicted of highway robbery under arms in 1867, which was the same year that Collins had been convicted of his own highway robbery. On the day that Collins was to be executed, he was granted permission to see Jenkins one more time, and so the two men heartily shook hands outside his cell door as Collins said a cheery goodbye.

The hanging itself was a botched job by Queensland’s first colonial executioner John Hutton. The death was instantaneous but quite gory because Collins was dropped from an excessive height.

While Patrick Collins is possibly the only man from Ipswich ever hanged, it’s notable that his father and his brother both met with violent deaths not long before.

His father Maurice Collins was killed while riding through the bush intoxicated. It was between One Mile Bridge and his home at Seven Mile Creek that he ran afoul of a bullock team, was thrown from his horse, dashed against a tree, and was picked up dead. 

His only brother John Collins met with his death near Ipswich when knocked down by a furious bullock in a team that he was driving, which then trampled him, killing him on the spot. In fact Patrick Collins was arrested for highway robbery while he was actually attending his brother’s wake. You can imagine the furore among the 100 or so Irishmen in attendance for the wake and the arrest.

That’s the story of Ipswich’s Collins family 160 years ago, and their shocking and unprecedented series of violent deaths. One can only hope that life, and death, have settled down for the family since then.

Although the Collins clan had it tough, the story “The many deaths of Mrs. Collins” is of no relation to the one above.

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

Photo credits:
Representation of Patrick Collins at Ipswich Courthouse, 1872, matching his newspaper description – ChatGPT Image Sep 12, 2025.
Ipswich’s 1859 old courthouse, 2024 – Harold Peacock 20241020_ 060709-2.
Amy ferry, 1872, plyed daily from Brisbane to Ipswich from about 1868 onwards – State Library of Queensland.
The bullock driver postcard mid 1800s – The Keeper of Stories website, 2019.