On the 22nd of February 1918, the badly decomposed body of James Barkley was uncovered beside a creek at the remote Wonnangatta cattle station in the Victorian Alps. The 49-year-old station manager had been shot in the back of the head and partially buried. His murder, along with the later discovery of his suspected killer’s body, remains unsolved more than a century later. Barkley, known as Jim, was born on the 18th of February 1869 in Hastings, a town on the Mornington Peninsula about 45 miles southeast of Melbourne.
He was the fourth child of Scottish immigrants James and Mary Barkley, who had settled in the area in 1860. His father was a devout religious man and owned a fishing vessel named Hiro, later building a house called Heroville on land he purchased in the town. Jim attended school in Hastings but regularly found himself in trouble, getting into fights and once being apprehended by a local constable for a minor case of arson. He left school in 1883 with a certificate of sufficient education and worked with his father until 1886, when, at age 23, he ventured to the goldfields in search of his fortune.
For the next decade he lived mainly around Mansfield, a small town in the foothills of the Victorian Alps, where he worked in gold prospecting and rural tasks. He built a reputation as an extremely hard worker and a competent sheep shearer. Eventually he leased his own land in the Howqua Valley, where he reared and traded cattle, gaining a reputation as a skilled bushman. On the 23rd of December 1910, Barkley married 19-year-old Lizzie Cantiani, who had previously been living on a neighboring farm.
The ceremony was very small and no members of the Barkley family attended, possibly because Lizzie was already pregnant, something that did not go unnoticed by the wedding guests. Two months later, on the 22nd of February 1911, she gave birth to a son named James, known as young Jim. His happiness was short-lived. Lizzie contracted a form of tuberculosis and died on the 18th of September 1911.
With no family nearby, Jim relied on friends in Mansfield for support. Young Jim was eventually sent to live with his Aunt Molly and her husband Jack Campbell, about a hundred miles away in Vermont, a small town just outside Melbourne. In 1912, Jim visited the Wonnangatta Valley, where he became acquainted with the Bryce family, who owned the Wonnangatta cattle station, an outpost reportedly the most remote in the state. The nearest population centers were the goldfield towns of Talbotville, about 20 miles away, Grant to the southeast, and the larger town of Mansfield, an 80-mile journey.
The station had been established in the 1860s by Oliver Smith, a North American who discovered the valley while prospecting for gold. His common-law wife Ellen, known as Nancy, and her son Harry joined him, and a homestead was built near the junction of the Wonnangatta River and Conglomerate Creek. After Ellen died in childbirth, Smith sold the station to Mr William Bryce and returned to the United States. The Bryce family occupied the station while Ellen’s son Harry Smith established himself at the Eagle Vale cattle station down the valley.
The Bryces remained at Wonnangatta until Mrs Bryce died in 1914 at age 78, after raising ten children there. As they grew up, the children moved away, and the property was sold to Mr Arthur Phillips and his partner, who also owned the Glenroy station near Mansfield. Phillips had previously employed Jim Barkley and knew him to be a hard worker with a good knowledge of the area. In April 1915, Barkley assumed the role of manager of the Wonnangatta cattle station.
Running the remote station was a lonely existence. Since his wife’s death and his son’s departure, Barkley had become a solitary character who would often go days or even weeks without seeing anyone. His closest neighbor was Harry Smith, the stepson of the station’s founder. In December 1917, Barkley decided to hire a cook and a station hand.
With most able-bodied young men serving in the First World War, he turned to John Bamford, a 61-year-old Englishman who was not a pleasant character. Bamford had a reputation for being bad-tempered, and many people believed he had strangled his wife, though no evidence ever proved this. A shopkeeper in Talbotville, Mr Albert Stout, had warned Barkley of Bamford’s aggressive nature and told him to be wary, but Barkley ignored the advice. Shortly after Bamford began his employment, a visitor to the station said the pair seemed to be getting on well.
On the 20th of December 1917, Bamford accompanied Jim into Talbotville to vote on whether Australia should have military conscription. Harry Smith was also in town, so the two men spent the night before making the long trek back to the station. On the 28th of December, the Gould brothers, passing near the station about five miles away, heard two men and a dog in the distance and assumed it was John and Jim moving cattle. When they reached the station, no one was home, so they left a note saying they had stopped by.
On the 22nd of January 1918, Harry Smith came to the station to deliver mail. When he arrived, no one was about, but the words “home to know it” were written across the door in large chalk letters. Smith decided to stay and wait for John and Jim to return. He noticed the bedroom door was locked and that the crops had been cut, but everything looked in order.
After two days, he gave up waiting and left. Smith visited again on the 14th of February and found an eerie silence. The chalk writing was still on the door, and the mail he had brought was unopened. He noticed Jim’s horse was missing, and Jim’s dog was there but very hungry and neglected.
After feeding the dog and searching the station, nothing seemed out of place. He stayed the night and left the next morning, taking the dog with him. On his way home, Smith met a man named William Riggle, who was heading to the small town of Dargo, and asked him to send a telegram to the station’s owners saying something was wrong. On the 23rd of February, owner Arthur Phillips arrived with a stockman named Jack Ajerb, joined by Harry Smith the following day.
Together they searched extensively. After two days, they made a grim discovery: Jim Barkley’s badly decomposed body, partially buried next to the creek. It was identified by his clothing, belt, and tobacco case. The three men reburied the body and set out on an 80-mile trek to notify police in Mansfield.
Detective Alex McCarroll was sent to Wonnangatta with a constable named Ryan, who knew the area well. They soon found Jim’s shotgun in the bedroom, appearing to have been fired recently. There were drag marks from the bedroom to outside the house. Jim’s razor, handgun, and good suit were missing, as were John Bamford’s horse and saddle.
Strange details emerged: 19 check stubs had been removed from Jim’s checkbook. Dr C H Mollison, a government pathologist, conducted the post-mortem. He concluded the cause of death was a shotgun wound to the back of the head and that Jim had been dead for several weeks before being discovered. The verdict was murder by person or persons unknown.
James Barkley was buried on the 9th of March 1918 in the TiaB cemetery in Hastings. Police believed John Bamford had murdered him. The public soon knew of the crime, and a £200 reward was offered for information leading to the suspect’s arrest. Officers arrested a man near Yarra who claimed to be John Bamford, but he turned out to be a delusional vagrant named James Baker.
On the 18th of November 1918, Harry Smith, a police constable, and two other men were searching the Howitt Plains area for the suspect when they found a boot sticking out of the ground. Digging revealed the body of John Bamford, shot in the head from a distance of five yards or more. The post-mortem again concluded death by an unknown assailant. Though Bamford’s death seemed to clear him of suspicion, the police still believed he was responsible for killing Jim Barkley.
They speculated he shot Jim, then someone seeking revenge shot Bamford. The police naturally suspected Harry Smith, but there was no direct evidence linking him to the crime. Smith had been present during the search and discovery of both bodies, and police theorized he would not have left his friend’s body undisturbed for three weeks. Harry Smith was never charged.
Speculation about the murders grew. In late 1917, Jim had reportedly written to his brother saying he was being threatened and feared for his life. He had purchased a handgun and kept two loaded guns by his bed with the door locked. One theory held that Bamford committed the act in a fit of anger during an argument and then took his own life at Howitt Huts.
But this seemed unlikely, as no revolver was found near the hut, John could not have buried himself, and the post-mortem confirmed he was shot from at least five yards away. Another theory suggested the men came across stock thieves who killed them both and moved John’s body to make it look like he had committed the crime, but police dismissed this, noting the only missing livestock from Wonnangatta was John’s horse, later found on Mount Howard. One author named Jack and Sid Beveridge, known cattle thieves from the Buckland area, as the alleged killers, with Sid reportedly confessing to a neighbor in his old age. Local folklore in the Buckland area includes a tale of Jack Beveridge courting a woman named Dolly Eccleston for 40 years, visiting her every Sunday night dressed in Jim Barkley’s best suit, which was marked as missing during the inquest.
Another idea proposed that Jim, driven by ambition to match his successful brother, engaged in cattle theft, leading to a confrontation that resulted in his murder. Given the high esteem in which he was held, this theory holds little credibility. Others suggested his murder resulted from a jealous husband’s rage due to his reputation as a ladies’ man, but this was discredited because of the station’s remoteness. A woman named Mrs Annie Klingsporn, who lived in Maryjig in Northeast Victoria between Mount Buller and Mansfield, was mentioned in connection with the case.
One theory held that her husband Robert Klingsporn and his brother-in-law Jack Ware were responsible. Others claimed Jim’s death resulted from indiscretions with Klingsporn’s sister, whom he had reportedly agreed to marry before reneging. However, both men were well respected, making these theories seem unlikely. The murders remain unsolved.
Jim Barkley’s son, Jim Jr, joined Harry Smith at Eagle Vale cattle station and worked there for many years. Harry Smith passed away around 1945 at age 86. In the late 1970s, author Wallace Mortimer interviewed Jim Jr for a book on the history of the station. Asked about the murders, Jim Jr responded enigmatically, stating it was all in the past, both murderers had long since died, and nothing could be gained by dwelling on the events.
In 1957, the Wonnangatta cattle station was consumed by fire caused by the inadvertent actions of bushwalkers. The area is now part of the Alpine National Park, accessible only by four-wheel drive, dirt bike, horseback, or on foot. Visitors can enjoy the rugged beauty of the Australian wilderness, knowing it is an area where two men were murdered and their killers were never apprehended.
The Wonnangatta cattle murders remain unsolved to this day.