I’ve gone in search of the lost grave of Maggie McNeill who went droving through the Darling Downs in the 1880s. This is what I know so far and found this week. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

Recently I discovered stories about the Muckadilla bore and Barcaldine Bull Thornton, but the actual reason for me going to the Maranoa and Central West districts of Queensland was in search of a lost grave that is very important to me. I had found the general vicinity years earlier, but now was time to uncover more.

It’s the lost grave of Maggie McNeill who in the 1880’s went droving with her husband up through the Darling Downs and onto the Barcaldine district. That’s where in 1890 she drank herself to death, the publican buried her and then reportedly moved the hotel. Maggie’s grave has been lost ever since. For her family, she’d simply disappeared and never heard of again, with rumours being that she’d been killed by Aboriginals.

When I visited Barcaldine last week, I was introduced to some wonderful people. All of them have helped me in my quest for Maggie McNeill.

People like the mayor of Barcaldine, Rob Chandler. Rob has been mayor for about fourteen years. Then there’s James and Sue Walker who I visited on their Cumberland property famous for Santa Gertrudis cattle, they’re well-known by cattle producers everywhere. There’s also Dr Sharon Broughton, she’s the proprietor of Barcaldine’s Shakespeare Hotel and a local historian.

All of them and others have helped me trace the lost grave. I knew the grave was somewhere at a location once called 21 Mile Bore between Barcaldine and Longreach. This week went on-site and searched the area by foot. We found a number of historic artefacts including horse tack, shot gun shell, button, and bottle remains, which date from the 1880s to 1920s.

We also found a dry-stone wall and other telltale signs of the ghost town. Then we identified two particular sites of interest – one was a small, isolated pile of rocks that looked like they could have been used to mark a grave. And there was a rectangular area of rocks on sunken ground that also looked to be covering a burial site.

However during the visit, we received new information that had come from a 100-year-old gentleman who had passed away a number of years ago. He said there had been a cemetery south of the settlement dam, and that when the current road had been moved, it was moved over the top of the old cemetery.

So we refocussed our search on that specific area and remarkably right where the man had said, along the side of the road, hidden by scrub, were a series of five or six rectangular areas of sunken earth that were perfectly lined up. They appear to be unmarked gravesites.

I then spoke with two more local gentleman Lewie and Chilla who each gave me a mud map of the ghost town, drawn from memories from seventy-five years ago. When combined they could lead me directly to Maggie McNeill.

These are authentic treasure maps because I’m on a very personal quest. To quote the Blues Brothers, I’m on a mission from God, because Maggie McNeill is my great-great-grandaunt.

Maggie was born in Ireland during the famine, as a girl she came to Australia and later nursed her sister who was my great-great-grandmother in her final days. Maggie then went droving up through the Darling Downs, died under awful circumstances, buried in the Outback and forgotten. She never had any children, so I feel that it’s incumbent on me to do my best to find her.

I’m already planning my next expedition in search of Maggie’s lost grave, which is likely to be next winter, and I can’t wait to share more news as it comes to hand.

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

Photo credits:
21 Mile Bore artefacts, 2026 – Harold Peacock 20260808_154407.
Barcaldine mayor Rob Chandler, 2026 – Harold Peacock 20260808_095821.
21 Mile Bore artefacts, 2026 – Harold Peacock 20260808_154057.