Lonely Grave. Lonely Grave
A LONELY GRAVE.
A Policeman and a Lunatic.
West Australian
5 October 1937 – P25
The reference appearing recently in “The West Australian” to a grave at the side of the Perth-Albany road near the Bannister recalls the story of a grim happening of nearly 80 (165 years in 2022 ed.)years ago and also of the courage and fortitude of the women pioneers of those early days.
To tell the story of that lone grave, first of all one has to give an outline of the history of the Perth-Albany road. After the Government had decided, as a means of carrying out public works, to permit the introduction to the State of British condemned to penal servitude, a number of ex-Indian service men were drafted to Western Australia to act as guards over the convicts, who, at this particular time (1860-65) were employed in clearing and making a road from Perth to Albany.
Sergeant Toovey, an ex-Indian regular, was stationed for a time at Round Pool, near what is known as Tenterden today. When his time expired, he settled at the Round Pool but frequently was called upon to undertake special duty in connection with escorts on the Perth-Albany road, or against obstreperous convicts or natives, as the case might have been.
On this particular occasion, he was deputed to assist Trooper Gibbs in escorting a demented man from Albany to Perth, driving the cart which conveyed the lunatic whilst the trooper rode alongside. At the Bannister, where they had camped for the night, and prior to a start being made on a further stage towards Perth, the lunatic gained possession of the trooper’s rifle and shot the trooper dead. He then threatened to make an end of Toovey, who was preparing breakfast for the party, but Toovey persuaded the madman that shooting would be better on a full stomach and finally he sat down and commenced to eat. Immediately he laid the rifle on the ground, Toovey grappled with him and after a desperate fight overpowered him, eventually trussing him up and placing him in the cart. The body of the dead trooper was hastily buried before Toovey set out with his prisoner who, in due course, was handed over to the authorities at Perth.
Prior to this tragedy and when the trooper, Toovey and the madman were resting for the night at Kojonup, Mrs. Eleanor Noonan, wife of Sergeant William Noonan, also an ex-Indian soldier, who was in charge of the settlement at Kojonup, determined to accompany the escort to Perth with her daughter, Bridget, aged 12, whom she wished to place at a convent school in Fremantle (the only school in the State).
Owing to the extraordinary circumstances, the best that could be done for Mrs. Noonan and the girl was to carry their belongings whilst they walked. By starting in the mornings long before the police escort, and by walking well into the evening. Mrs. Noonan and Bridget were able to keep pace with the cart, and camp under police protection each night. So it happened that this courageous woman and her daughter had left the camp at the Bannister prior to the tragedy and actually reached Perth before Toovey and his prisoner.
On the return journey, which she undertook unaccompanied, Mrs. Noonan found that wild dogs had partially uncovered the body of the trooper, and she carried stones and placed them on the grave to make it secure from further depredations. A permanent grave was dug for the body when Toovey and a police Magistrate returned to the scene of the murder.
Although the distance from Kojonup to the convent school at Fremantle was 170 miles, the journey on foot occupying anything from eight to ten days, Mrs. Noonan on more than one occasion walked the whole of the distance, there and back, in order that her children might obtain a certain amount of schooling.
The girl, Bridget, afterwards married William Grover, who was one of the first policemen to be stationed at Twonkwillingup Pools (now known as the Police Pools) close to the present Katanning township area and her descendants are still in possession of Indinup, the property selected by him on retiring from the force. The Toovey’s are still in the Tenterden district, where they are well known farmers.
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