Goondiwindi’s great chase occurred 91 years ago this week, and it all happened because of one false step. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

In 1935, Arthur Watson, a young man of twenty years of age from Toowoomba, Queensland, quietly cycled into Goondiwindi. He was blissfully unaware that twenty-four hours later one false step would result in his arrest and imprisonment in Brisbane’s Boggo Road gaol.

Five weeks earlier, Watson had travelled to Tara where he worked for three weeks. He then went home to Toowoomba and his mum bought him a bicycle. Watson departed Toowoomba on a great bicycle adventure on the 7^th of September 1935, setting off to go via Warwick, Inglewood and Yelarbon to Goondiwindi.

Four days later he arrived in town at around 2.30pm and took a room at the Royal Hotel. What he did at check-in was his one false step – he gave a false name. The next day he sold his bicycle to Mr William Nichols a second-hand dealer on in Marshall Street for £2.

Mr Nichols suspected something wasn’t right, and the police were called to make enquiries concerning the bicycle to see if all was in order. They located Watson in the yard at the Royal Hotel where he was staying under the false name of Norton, the police suspected something, and with further inquiries they discovered that wasn’t his true identity. Watson ran away. The police chased him through the streets for about a quarter of a mile to the banks of the Macintyre River, but he disappeared into the scrub. When Watson broke cover he was captured.

Watson’s whole story was far more remarkable than the astonishing police chase which stunned the Goondiwindi locals.

Five weeks earlier, Watson had escaped from Boggo Road in Queensland’s most spectacular gaol-break by dressing himself in clothes belonging to the seventeen-year-old invalid son of the gaol superintendent, passing himself off as the boy, and walking past the guards at the main gate. Watson carried on the impersonation and secured a passage to Toowoomba by aeroplane.

Watson then spent the next five weeks travelled from town to town, virtually under the nose of the police as large numbers scoured the state. Helped by Aboriginal trackers, police followed up every lead, all of which proved false, the search area stretched across Queensland and beyond. Watson finally tempted fate in Goondiwindi and the game was up – despite him sporting a hat and a moustache that he presumably thought was enough of a disguise.

Watson had been convicted of stealing a car and sentenced to twelve months imprisonment, but he was returned to his cell via the Toowoomba mail train to finish his sentence.

But his story continued to become more remarkable still. Upon his release, Watson it seems was fixated on pleasing his mother Lily who had bought him his bicycle. You see he married at Toowoomba’s St. James’s Church the eighteen-year-old Lilly Styan. But that didn’t last long despite the newspaper coverage, so Watson then married the similarly aged and named Lilly Gardner. Lillys filled his life.

That marriage also didn’t last long, so Watson enlisted in the army and promptly went Absent Without Leave for days at a time not once but twice in his only first few weeks.

In Melbourne Watson impersonated a lieutenant and while promising a Mrs McNeil that he’d transfer her soldier husband closer to home, he fraudulently obtained £10 from the poor woman. The army discharged him because “he is not amendable to discipline and is unlikely to become an efficient soldier.”

Watson it seems refused the leave the army and impersonated an army captain at Coolangatta on the Gold Coast and stole £5 from a Mr Nicholas Kneebone.

Posing as a recently returned army lieutenant, the tall, dark and handsome, Watson then convinced Morna McConnelly, who was an engaged and attractive brunette, to remove her three-diamond engagement ring which he kept.

Watson then went dancing with a pretty nurse Nonie Drake and stole a ring from her after he had escorted her home.

He then stole from Mrs. Joyce Horton some cash, her engagement ring and an electric drill. And we blokes know that an electric drill was a theft too far.

Toowoomba’s incorrigible Arthur Watson was once described as the most audacious, impudent and constant crook in Queensland, but 91 years ago this week he met his match when he cycled into Goondiwindi.

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

Photo credits:
The Goondiwindi False Step – Harold Peacock with Copilot.
Arthur Charles Watson the 21 year old escapee from Boggo Road Gaol – Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, 9th August 1935, page 9.
Prison Superintendent James Francis Whitney – Truth, Brisbane, 24th January 1943.
Watson wearing his new moustache on arrival at Roma Street Railway Station – The Courier-Mail, Brisbane, 14th September 1935.
Toowoomba wedding photo left to right – Bestman Mr L.E. Young, Mr Arthur Watson, Mrs Lilly Watson, bridesmaid Miss C.A .Otto, Mr Arthur Watson Snr in the centre with his wife to his left – Truth, Brisbane, 19th July 1936.
Arthur Charles Watson, WW2 identity photo – National Archives of Australia.