A visit to the Allora Heritage Australia Day Weekend led to some mysteries and very strange robberies from a century ago. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

There was an amazing mystery object at the collectible stall there. I foolishly thought it was some sort of irrigation device, but Rhonda there explained it was actually an 1830s brass travelling quill kit, complete with ink well and quill holders. It got me thinking if quills ever featured in Allora history over the centuries.

The answer is no, but I did come across a series of really strange robberies, and one of them involved not quills but fountain pens, and the tales begin over one hundred years ago.

It was one night in 1923 when the Barnes & Company store in Allora got robbed. Barnes & Company was a chain of department stores founded in Warwick in 1880 that quickly spread throughout southern Queensland. On that night in 1923 the entire safe from the Allora store was stolen and the crack investigator Detective O’Driscoll was put on the case. O’Driscoll’s full name was Florence Michael O’Driscoll, however Florence preferred to be called Mick.

Detective O’Driscoll got a lucky break when he boarded the train heading back to Toowoomba. He was alerted to two suspicious characters who had got on the same train at Toolburra just south of Allora. He found the men in a compartment and in possession of a bag containing the money stolen from the Allora safe. Their names were John Roberts and Benjamin Metcalfe and they were only discovered because the two of them tried to board the train with just one ticket!

Both men were convicted of breaking and entering. They were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with hard labour and declared habitual criminals, which back then meant their gaol terms were indefinite.

The two men lost an appeal, and upon hearing the news, the very next day Metcalfe made a daring escape from Boggo Road Gaol in Brisbane. He used a rope ladder which he’d made from waxed thread while he was working in the gaol’s cobbler’s shop, he slung it across prison wails and was able to get clean away. Five warders were suspended and charged with negligence in the discharge of their duties.

Another strange robbery happened at the very same Barnes & Company store at Allora nine years later in 1932. About £2,000 worth of fountain pens, pencils, blankets, boots and other wearing apparel were stolen. That’s almost $1 million in today’s money.

The burglars this time were Allan Jackson alias Frederick Bilby, and John Talbot. They were both New Zealanders with a lengthy list of convictions in both New South Wales and Queensland. It’s no wonder they were always being caught, because for their Allora robbery, they used a stolen car, loaded it with the stolen goods including the fountain pens, and strangely left it parked in the Barnes & Company yard. When they were picked up by police, they were even wearing clothes from their Barnes & Company heist.

The businesses in the main street of Allora didn’t seem to take the robberies seriously and at least one left their door key accessible to the whole town. An employee of the Howell Brothers’ butchers shop on Herbert Street felt underneath the tank-stand for the key to open the shop one morning. He discovered the key was missing, and the iron safe in the shop was gone.

So with burglars boarding trains without a ticket, and leaving their getaway car at the scene, you never know what history gets uncovered after a visit to the Allora Heritage Australia Day Weekend.

Thanks Rhonda from Toowoomba for having such a great collectible stall there, and I can’t wait to go again next year!

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

Photo credits:
Representation of The Allora Robberies – CoPilot image.
Rhonda’s mystery object Allora Heritage Australia Day Weekend 2026 – Harold Peacock.
Inspector F.M. ‘Mick’ O’Driscoll – Truth, Brisbane, 30th July 1950, page 13.
Barnes & Company Ltd in Warwick c1920 – State Library of Queensland.
Grand parade, Allora Heritage Australia Day Weekend – Harold Peacock 20260125_121955.