In 1830, Captain Patrick Logan, explorer and commandant of the Moreton Bay penal colony, was waiting to join his regiment in India. Keen to complete the maps he had been working on, he decided to go exploring once more. On 9th October, accompanied by his batman and five prisoners, all good bushmen, the party set off into the outback with some bullocks to carry their packs.
Along the way they were threatened by a large group of about 200 aborigines. The group followed them for a day or two before disappearing. A week later Logan went off alone on horseback to explore a creek, returning to the camp in the evening.
The next morning, he told his companions to prepare for the return home while he went off alone once more to follow a trail he had spotted. He did not return that evening, so the men set off to find him, but without success. They concluded that he must have returned to base alone, so decided to follow him back.
On their return, however, there was no sign of him. The alarm was raised and a search party went into the bush once again, retracing their steps to an earlier camping place. There they found Logan’s saddle with the stirrups cut off, but nothing else.
Returning the following day they discovered his waistcoat, covered in blood, his compass and part of his notebook. Further searches revealed his dead horse and, finally, his body, naked and half buried in a shallow grave, with clear signs that he had been murdered.
The subsequent investigation concluded that Logan had been surprised by aborigines when he camped for the night alone, probably because he had been unable to reach his colleagues. With no time to saddle his horse he had leapt on it bareback, with his attackers in pursuit. The horse had apparently stumbled and fallen into the creek. Logan was killed by native spears while trying to extricate it.
Aftermath
Logan’s body was carried down to Sydney where he was buried in a state funeral with full military honours. The colonial governor, Sir Ralph Darling, gave a fulsome tribute. Logan’s widow, Letitia, and her two small children then sailed back to England. She had to pay for the passage out of her own pocket, as the government provided no financial help.
After returning to her home in Ireland, Letitia petitioned the British government for a colonial pension, even writing to Queen Victoria to seek her support. Her efforts to gain compensation continued for more than 30 years. Eventually, and most reluctantly, the government awarded her a pension of £70 per year.