Two killers. A tainted trial. A bungled execution.
The killers were Pevay and Timme. In 1841 they slew two men and wounded others in an angry rampage through the Victorian countryside.
As Tasmanian Aborigines, they had many reasons to be angry.
When teenagers they'd been jailed for being black. They'd taken unwilling part in the ethnic cleansing of Tasmania. Forcedly interned in a bleak offshore gulag, they'd watched helplessly as friends and family died of disease and despair.
Then they were exiled to Victoria where colonists victimised them. It was the last straw. They stole guns and seized their freedom.
Their breakout was vengeful and violent. Farms were raided, settlers shot. Despite firefights and ambushes, they evaded pursuers for weeks before being captured in a blaze of gunfire.
Their murder trial was a farce. Public officials lied under oath. The judge was biased and inept. The verdict was a foregone conclusion.
Now, for the first time, their tragic story is told in full. From their perilous boyhood during Tasmania's Black War to their botched hanging in a crowded Melbourne street.
Tasmanian Robert Cox is a former copywriter, journalist, newspaper subeditor, and magazine editor with a special interest in the history of his home state. His publications include eight other books and numerous articles, essays, short stories, and reviews, plus an unobtrusive poem or two. He has also done voice work in radio and television and written documentary film scripts. Broken Spear: The untold story of Black Tom Birch, the man who sparked Australia's bloodiest war, was longlisted for the 2024 Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History.
