There’s more to the suspicious death in Goondiwindi in 1917 and the Toowoomba policeman who led the investigation. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

That year the Goondiwindi businesswoman Mrs Mary Bushell was killed in suspicious circumstances after attending a political rally.

That was during a contentious period when the Queensland police was under scrutiny for seemingly doing nothing to prevent the prime minister Billy Hughes being assaulted in Warwick. At this time, Queensland’s commissioner for public health was in Goondiwindi investigating a mystery disease and yet denied there was anything wrong, and the Toowoomba detective who investigated Mrs Bushell’s death insisted there was nothing suspicious despite her fractured skull and the family being up in arms.

The investigating officer was Detective Senior-sergeant Thomas Head. He was a police veteran having joined the force as a twenty-one-year-old in 1887.

Not long before Mrs Bushell’s death, Detective Head had been awarded the King’s Police Medal for Bravery after he and a colleague arrested an armed suspect on the platform of the Toowoomba train station.

The suspect had drawn a revolver, Detective Head’s colleague hit the gun with his umbrella, Detective Head then gave chase and succeeded in capturing the man. The whole dramatic affair was witnessed by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams, who was travelling on the train which was at the station at the time. He was highly complimentary of Detective Head on his courage, and so was no doubt influential in Head getting the award.

Head was forty-nine-years-old when in 1915 he married the Toowoomba girl Miss Julia Strohfeld who was almost half age. Head’s father-in-law had almost been killed by a bullock at Ravensbourne near Crow’s Nest before becoming licensee of the European Hotel on Russell Street in Toowoomba. It was on the site where the National Hotel is today.

Detective Head had served in Mount Morgan, Townsville, Rockhampton, before his long-term appointment to Toowoomba. Towards the end of his career, he was transferred to Brisbane where he took over as officer in charge of the Criminal Investigation Branch.

He appears to have had an exemplary career. As well as being decorated for valour, he’d been chosen in every instance to attend Royal visitors to the state, including the national retinue that accompanied the future King Edward the VIII in 1920.

When Detective Head retired after 39 years’ service in 1927, there was £400 collected from people of Brisbane – that’s almost $160,000 today – for a gift of a bag of Australian gold sovereigns and a crystal and silver decanter, as well as a gold wristwatch for his wife Julia. It was presented by Mr Frank McDonnell who was chairman of the McDonnell and East department stores and a former government minister.

The only blot on Detective Head’s career appears to have been his investigation of the potentially political death of Mrs Bushell in Goondiwindi, at least according to the dissatisfaction of her family.

Detective Head died childless in 1929, leaving his wife Julia without a guiding hand or his police protection that she once had.

Julia took over from her family as licensee of the Shamrock Hotel on Ruthven Street in the centre of Toowoomba. Julia’s brother James Strohfeld lost his bid to enter state parliament and was convicted of practising as an unlicensed solicitor.

Julia moved to Brisbane where she set up shop as a hairdresser, casket agency, and tobacconist on Adelaide Street where Ted’s Camera store is today. That’s where she was arrested and subsequently convicted of running an illegal betting shop.

So while I couldn’t find any definitive evidence supporting that the investigation of Mrs Bushell’s Goondiwindi death in 1917 by Detective Head was corrupt, there is evidence that his wife and her family may have sailed a little too close to the wind.

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

Photo credits:
The Question that Followed Detective Head – Harold Peacock with Copilot.
Detective Senior Sergeant Thomas Head – Brisbane Courier 5 Jan 1914 p7 – repaired with Copilot.
Sir Hamilton and Lady Elsie Goold-Adams outside Government House in Brisbane 1915 – State Library of Queensland.
J.J. Strohfeld, Labor candidate for East Toowoomba – Daily Standard, Brisbane, 8th June 1932, page 10.