Queensland Theatre Company Reception in Support of Nellie Duffy Project

I know, ladies and gentlemen, that with me your thoughts will be very much with our fellow Queenslanders at risk at this time, especially, forthwith, the residents of the Capricorn Coast and the Burnett.

Kaye and I are watching the developing situation closely, and will be doing our utmost to offer support and encouragement.

I spoke in that regard only a few moments ago with the Mayors of Gladstone, Bundaberg, Yeppoon and St Lawrence who are, in a state of preparedness, “waiting”, as the situation intensifies. Our thoughts are very much with them and their communities.

Kaye and I warmly welcome you all to Fernberg as we join in support of the Nellie Duffy project. And I may add it is delightful to see so many familiar faces.

This exciting venture has been adopted by the QTC Legal Chapter. I do hope that, after tonight, many new members will join the Chapter in supporting this unique undertaking. It’s certainly difficult to imagine a more apposite commission for the Chapter to support than a play based on one of our State’s most notorious unsolved murder cases.

The case, as many of you already know, involved the 1908 murder of Nellie Duffy, a governess on Carpentaria Downs station in remote north Queensland. An Aboriginal station-hand, Billy, actually confessed to the crime, but in just one of many twists and turns in the case, the jury refused to convict him!

The case created a sensation. The resultant intrigue kept the readers of the The Brisbane Courier entertained for months.

Fortunately for us all, Nellie’s story caught the attention of Brisbane writer Stephanie Bennett, who unfortunately cannot be with us tonight. Her forensic examination of the case resulted in the publication of a book (and I was delighted to receive a copy recently from Wes Enoch). Queensland Theatre Company, the Legal Chapter, and Brisbane theatregoers can all be very grateful that, in her retirement, the former dentist decided to dedicate her talent and energy to writing about Queensland’s unsolved colonial murders!

We can also be grateful that Justice James Douglas, as a former Chairman of the QTC, recognised the theatrical potential of the story and brought it to the Company’s attention.

The Company shared James’s view that this was not only an intriguing episode in Queensland’s legal history, but, importantly, was a story with significant Indigenous perspectives worthy of exploration. From there, it was but a short step to the decision by the Chapter to support the project.

In the process, a number of historical connections with Nellie’s story emerged: James Douglas’s grandfather, Robert Douglas, was the barrister for Billy, the accused station-hand; the Arresting Officer in the case, Rody Byrne, was the grandfather of solicitor James Byrne, formerly of James Byrne and Company; and retired Townsville solicitor, Peter Roberts, is a descendent of one of the partners in the Townsville law firm that represented the accused – he is indeed the nephew of the redoubtable George Vivian Roberts, who left us last December only days shy of his 100th birthday. I am particularly pleased to welcome Peter and his wife Jennie here tonight – they have travelled from Townsville especially to be with us.

As Patron of the Queensland Theatre Company, I congratulate the Chapter and thank them for embracing this bold and ambitious project.

It’s very pleasing to note that the Australia Council for the Arts has matched your enthusiasm by pledging dollar-for-dollar support through Creative Partnerships Australia if the Chapter reaches its fifty thousand dollar fundraising target within the next three months.

I know the Chapter is up to the challenge! I’ll leave you with the thought that the Nellie Duffy project might be just the beginning for the Legal Chapter. That is because it wasn’t only Nellie who was killed on that September day in 1908 but also the Chinese Gardener, Ah Sune. There are indeed said to be twenty-seven gravesites at Carpentaria Downs, all of them burials conducted 'under suspicious circumstances'.

Over the last 20 years, I have unsurprisingly been asked to read many, many scripts, whether for the purposes of book launches, the writing of a foreword, or some other form of commendation.

I can assure you the task has not been uniformly rewarding.

But reading The Murder of Nellie Duffy certainly was a most rewarding and distracting experience.

I congratulate the author, and really do hope that this excellent initiative of the Legal Chapter is accomplished.

Thank you all, again, for being here tonight. Kaye and I wish you a most enjoyable evening.