Lady Ann Rylah 1911 - 1969

 Lady Ann was, from all contemporary accounts, a very nice, kind person.

She was the first female of the species to enroll at the Uni of Sydney School of Veterinary Science, and she continued her vet practice right up until her death.
An odd death; she'd not long separated from her husband, a fierce gate-keeper of everyone's morals who was busy banning books, plays, films all over the shop whilst his pile of Playboys kept his desk drawer cosy.
Sir Arthur Rylah was definitely punching above his weight, such a shame his wife was cremated so quickly without an inquest. It left people wondering, and an inquest could have easily answered so many questions...

Further reading -

Ann Rylah

Cars, crashes and cover-ups

Lady Chatterley and Alexander Portnoy: Narrowing the Limits of Censorship in Australia

The Books Australia Banned 

Bodies in The Morningstar Mine, Rushworth 1908 Unsolved True Crime

 When hoping to reopen the closed Morningstar Mine at Rushworth on 27th November 1908 some blokes got a nasty shock when decomposing matter was brought up with the mine cage; subsequent investigations discovered the very decayed bodies of a man and a woman in the water-logged mine shaft.

The woman's head was missing and never recovered despite bailing of the water from the mine and thorough searches for evidence. A scrap of newspaper sporting a bloody fingerprint, dated 28th August suggested this was the date the murders took place. Both bodies were badly broken and smashed up; so much so that the medical examiner was unable to locate any reproductive organs or much of the pelvis of the suspected female body, but owing to measurements they determined it was indeed a female.

Numerous people stated swaggies and others often camped at the site of the mine, one witness claiming he'd heard yelling at night some time earlier.

Missing friends and relatives were reported to the police but they were all safely located alive, leaving the police and coroner no answers as to the names of the couple or who had murdered them.

Critchley Parker ; Lost In Tasmania Searching For A New Jerusalem; Poynduk 1942

 Critchley Parker, aged only 31, trekked into the Tasmanian wilderness in an effort to find suitable land for future Jewish settlements far away from the bloodshed of Europe.

He was not Jewish himself but he was infatuated with a (married) Jewish journalist named Caroline Isaacson, and was determined to help find a permanent peaceful refuge for those fleeing the violent horrors of WW2. 

During his fateful trek near Port Davey he discovered a small pond with swans, called poynduk in the local Ninene language. Critchley hoped to name the settlement Poynduk but this was not to be.

Critchley had had TB which had left his lungs and overall health in a weakened state; the weather turned suddenly and he was caught in bucketing rain for weeks that triggered pleurisy. He had planned to light a signal fire to alert the fisherman to come pick him up but he ran out of matches, ran out of food, ran out of time.

But he never ran out of plans for the future settlement of Poynduk; he wrote in his copious notes that he wished it to be based on the "principals of racial tolerance and international brotherhood", to have universities open to students of all colours, medical facilities, schools, hydro-electric power plants. 

Critchley planned for the Tasmanian Games to be hosted at Poynduk each year; the games would celebrate not just sports but poetry, plays, weaving, music and pottery.

Alas, with his early death in the wilderness Critchley's plans for Poynduk were dashed for good.

Further reading -

“Poynduk”: the Extravagant, Impossible (and Understandable) Dreams of Critchley Parker

Melbourne's Botanic Gardens Shooting Spree Norman List 23 January 1924

 Almost a century ago a young man displayed worrying mental health symptoms - paranoia, believing wireless messages were being sent to his mind to control him, to hurt his family, that people were telling lies about him and his family, that his enemies had a radio system that advertised him everywhere he went...(I'd like to know what Professor Graeme Yorston made of him).

After tramping all over the world, fighting in WW1, Norman List returned to his family home in Richmond, Victoria, where these symptoms were on full display.

This all came out after the horrific shooting spree he orchestrated at the Melbourne Botanic Gardens; in just 4 minutes four people were dead.

Their names were

Frederick McIlwaine

Miriam Podbury

Eugenie Strohhecker

John Moxham

Norman List himself was found dead by suicide at Deep Creek near Pakenham, Victoria.

Further reading - 

Massacre At The Botanic Gardens

The Many Resting Places of Lieutenant John Putland 1808

 January 4, 1808 was not a great day for Lieutenant John Putland husband of Mary, son-in-law of Governor Bligh, who died on this day of tuberculosis at Government House, aged just 27, and was buried in the grounds of Government House.

Until he wasn't.

He was next buried in a vault at old St Phillip's on Church Hill.

But later relocated to Town Hall burial ground.

Then John Putland's body was later relocated to St Stephens while the headstone has made its way to Camperdown Cemetery.

Mary Putland had intended to have the body sent back to England, but was prevented by the outbreak of the rebellion 3 weeks after his death.

Mary Bligh circa 1803.

Disappearance of Police Constable Thomas Ryan 1886

 Constable Thomas Ryan was a well-liked and very respected member of the White Hills area of Bendigo; he'd been in the police force for almost 30 years, having been similar back in Ireland from whence he came.

He was very familiar with the area, the mine shafts, river, creeks, water holes, yet the night of 6th January 1886 he vanished entirely.

Monster massive searches took place; he was held in high regard so many volunteered to help look for him.

Nothing was ever found, although there were several suspects none were arrested for lack of evidence.

Somewhere under White Hills Constable Thomas Ryan slumbers.

His wife, Johanna Ryan, passed barely 3 years later, never knowing what happened.

Further reading -

Bendigo Graves

Honor Roll

Find A Grave

The Body in the Bathing Box Sorrento 1927

 On 17th May 1927 the body of a deceased man, estimated to be aged 30, was discovered in a bathing box on the Ocean Beach of Sorrento, Victoria.

It was determined he had died from starvation and exposure approx. a week earlier.

Despite having tattoos - a figure of a lady, an American flag and the name 'T. McKenna', he was buried as an unknown.

Strong possibility he was a sailor lost overboard from a ship but no reports seem to have been made as such.

Coincidently there was a Thomas McKenna buried in Sorrento but there does not appear to be any link with the family.

*Mind you there are 31 'unknowns' who were buried in 1927 !