As a teacher in Dubbo Maurie Garland heard the story of the notorious Jimmy Governor and now decades on he has exposed the truth of the infamous murderer.
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Mr Garland’s new book, Jimmy Governor: Blood on the Tracks, puts the spotlight on the murders of women and children at Breelong near Gilgandra and the subsequent man-hunt, one of the State’s biggest.
Mr Garland has his own hypothesis about why the Aboriginal workman of farmer John Mawbey broke into the Mawbey home and murdered members of the family on a winter night in 1900.
Governor’s accomplice Aborigine Jacky Underwood was also convicted of murder and was tried and hanged at the Old Dubbo Gaol.
Jimmy Governor and his brother Joe fled Breelong on the night of the murders and led police and civilians on a hunt lasting 101 days, gripping the country’s attention.
Governor was eventually captured in the Manning Valley, where Mr Garland now lives, and sentenced to death for his involvement in nine murders.
Although others have researched Jimmy Governor and Tom Keneally wrote The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith loosely based on Governor’s life, Mr Garland has provided a unique take on the tragedy.
His is the first work to clear Ethel Governor, Jimmy’s caucasian wife of involvement in the murders.
“The general consensus was that Ethel was outside the Mawbeys’ home, urging the murders on - there is clear (police) evidence she was not,” Mr Garland said.
After extensive research on Jimmy Governor that took him to the Mitchell Library, the State Library of NSW and other archives, Mr Garland has his own belief about why the workman who appeared to get along with his employer murdered the Mawbey family members.
“What I think is they decided to become bushrangers, but to do that they needed weapons,” Mr Garland said.
“So they went to the Mawbeys to get rifles and ammunition, and once there, their emotions spiralled out of control.”
Mr Garland has “mixed feelings” about the historical incident.
“I can’t condone the killings,” he said.
“At the same time, I’ve looked at the way Aborigines were treated . . . there was no place in white society for them unless they were doing basic jobs on black fellow’s wages.”
Mr Garland said he thought the Mawbey descendants, who live in the Dubbo region, would not mind his book.
“In the Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith they were made out to be nasty people,” he said.
“I say the Mawbey family was no different from any other in country NSW.
“John Mawbey was a good person - but knock on any door at the time and you’d find racism.”
faye.wheeler
@ruralpress.com
To read an extract of Maurie Garland’s book Jimmy Governor: Blood on the Tracks see page 12 of today’s Liberal.
