I’ve returned from the Queensland Outback with some thrilling tales. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

I went out past Barcaldine looking for the lost grave of my great-great-grandaunt Maggie McNeill. She’d come out from Ireland, drank herself to death, and was buried in the Outback. I haven’t found her grave yet, but I’m zeroing in on the location and did find some pretty cool relics from her time the 1880s including bottles, buttons, buckles, bullets and even a clock.

And while I was out there, I also found some good stories. All were totally true. One was not so long ago when a ninety-year-old fella who I think may have been from down Darling Downs way. He was being left at home on his own while his wife went on holidays to England.

His wife was worried so she arranged for three neighbours to look after him. But while she was away, one neighbour died, one got cancer, and the other just disappeared. When the wife got home, her ninety-year-old husband was welding and set fire to himself. I don’t think she’s been on holidays since.

Another story was about a kangaroo fight and that led me to find out about the bad luck of one bloke who was definitely on the Darling Downs.

In 1875 when the first sections of land were being balloted out at Eton Vale, Westbrook and Clifton, Mr. Peter Daly was a winner and secured 640 acres. But then his luck turned, and he was robbed at the Western Hotel on Ruthven Street in Toowoomba.

His son Peter Daly Junior inherited the downward trend. Daly Junior was working as a station hand at Hunsingore Estate out near Ellinthorp on the Southern Downs. A mate of his Jock Power was a talented cornet player, but he just dropped dead in a quarry there one day.

But not long before that, in 1929 Daly himself was mounting a restless horse when he lost his balance and fell off. The result was a compound fracture of his leg just above the ankle, the bone was sticking completely out.

Daly took life a little more carefully after that and didn’t going anywhere without his dog, a half-bred Alsatian. In 1937, Daly was returning from Mitchell to go back to work on Bishop’s farm at Swan Creek on the Southern Downs. The Bishop family was from Tipperary, Ireland, and had been farming there for sixty years.

As Daly approached the farm, his dog was attacked and seized by a really buff old-man kangaroo. Daly went to the dog’s aid and tried to beat the kangaroo off with his fists. The kangaroo released the dog and grabbed Daly around the neck. Daly was being slowly throttled and was on the point of passing out when Mr. Doug Bishop opportunely arrived and drove the kangaroo off with a stick.

Daly recovered from the kangaroo attack, but later died at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Toowoomba and today lays at rest in an unmarked at the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery.

After surviving what he went through, I think he deserves more than just an unmarked grave, don’t you think?

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

Photo credits:
Roger the giant kangaroo that looked like a bodybuilder2 – USA Today, 2018.
Maggie McNeill location relics 2025 – Harold Peacock 20251003_164445.
Western Hotel, Cnr Ruthven and Russell Streets, Toowoomba – Remember Toowoomba When Facebook page, 2017.
White Swan Inn, Swan Creek, 2015 – Kerry Raymond, Wiki Commons.