The case brought to light the amazing forensic skills of Aboriginal trackers in those days when this science was unheard of.

The trackers’ brilliant skill to read and interpret nature went a long way to solving this murder.

The motive was not anger, hatred or revenge. It was a deep-rooted greed to possess Menzies’ few head of cattle and a few bushels of wheat, valued at 10 pounds in 1845, or roughly $820 today.

In 1845 the countryside around Maitland and between Maitland and Newcastle was very thinly settled and not always by the most honourable class of settler.

There were many comfortable homesteads inhabited by former naval and military veterans and some influential residents of Sydney and Hobart, but these were a minority.

The countryside was magnificent but most of the settlers had been convicts who had gained their tickets of leave or granted conditional pardons.

The landed gentry of the time held immense estates and it was common to subdivide their estates into small farms and let them to tenant farmers on clearing leases.

Between Greta and Maitland the settlement was called Hillsborough where the proprietor, Beresford Hudson, had an estate of 2000 acres, granted to him in the 1820s by Governor Darling.

Menzies’ hut, which was nothing more than a tent thatched to the ground, and an outhouse fireplace kitchen built from wooden slabs and separate from his tent, was pitched among wild scenery.

The sunny slopes were covered with scenes of cultivated fields and the darker foliage of the remaining native forests, spared by the axes of the pioneers.

The Hunter River ran past Menzies’ front door. The area was filled with wattle trees and it was also the site for wheat and maize farming and a tobacco plantation.

In March 1845 Menzies had entered into a partnership with William Shea on a 27-acre farm rented from Hudson under a clearing lease.

The pair worked together with goodwill and friendship and each was confident that in a few years they would earn enough money to buy their own homestead.

Shea was a tall, well built, healthy good looking man of 30. But his face showed features of a fierce and cruel disposition.

Shea’s wife was also 30 and was much attached to her husband and their five children.

Her neighbours saw her as a shrewd and industrious wife.

Menzies was a single man who occupied his small residence adjacent to the Sheas.

Menzies was a robust, healthy and genial tempered Scotsman aged about 60.

He was poor but always showed generosity and kindness to the Sheas and his even temper appealed to everyone.

Towards sundown on December 20, 1845, Shea and Menzies were planting tobacco, when they were questioned by Malcolm Gillies, who lived 200 yards away from their huts.

He was after any spare tobacco plants and Menzies replied they would have more in a month or two.

Gillies was surprised because Shea had spread a rumour that Menzies was about to leave the district.

Menzies had denied the rumour to Malcolm’s brother Edward Gillies, saying he had sold his dray to John Pearson and Shea must have assumed that he was going away.

Gillies heard Shea refuse to give up work at sundown and he continued planting with Menzies.

Gillies went into his hut about 200 yards away from where Shea and Menzies were working and he heard the sound of two or three blows.

The next day Shea was seen taking down Menzies’ hut and Menzies had mysteriously disappeared.

Shea was asked about his partner and told everyone Menzies had gone away and he did not know where.

Shea told several anxious inquirers that Menzies had sold him his four bullocks with yokes and chains for 10 pounds, an old farrow and fan, the terms for which were 2 pound in hand and credit for the remainder until he got a crop of wheat off the land.

The story was seen as too improbable to be creditable and for the next six weeks neighbours talked it over seriously.

Menzies had been on visiting terms with them all and it would have been impossible for him to go away without saying goodbye.

Colin Cowan, brother in law of the Gillies men, saw Shea in Maitland after the New Year when he was selling wheat.

Cowan fronted Shea and asked him what he had done to Menzies.

Shea ignored and avoided Cowan, turning away quickly, raising further suspicion.

Another Hillsborough farmer John Pearson, a former partner of Menzies, openly said he suspected foul play.

Ten days before Christmas Menzies had sold him his dray on terms, 30 shillings down and the balance in January, but Menzies was not around to collect the balance.

Shea protested and said John Pearson’s wife had been informed by a fellow at Farrell’s that Menzies had been passing through Lambs Valley and that Jim Crow had told Shea he had met Menzies along the road to Port Stephens.

Mrs Pearson denied Shea’s claim.

Their landlord Beresford Hudson reported the matter to Maitland police magistrate Edward Denny Day on February 23, 1846.

Shea was arrested the next day on suspicion of causing Menzies’ death even though a body had not been found.

Day took a long rambling statement from Shea about his dealings with Menzies before he disappeared.

Foul play was suspected so the neighbourhood was determined to search for Menzies’ body with the help of black trackers who had been successful with tracing criminals in the past.

Police Magistrate Day went to Shea’s farm with Chief Constable George Wood, Constable Boyland and four Aboriginal trackers on February 25, 1846.

Matthew Thompson, a Hillsborough tenant-farmer, summoned his neighbours and a search started at Shea’s hut.

Mrs Shea firmly believed in her husband’s innocence. Surrounded by her children, she 

anxiously watched the search party.

The trackers began their work from the hut and they made their way to a burnt out tree stump, the remains of one of the biggest giant trees in the old forest, which had a diameter of 10 feet.

Police Magistrate Day and officers were summoned to the spot and one of the Aborigines showed them a big white maggot on his finger, uttering “white man’s maggot”.

The Aborigines pointed out the stump hole which had been filled to to within 12 inches of the level of the ground. There were spade marks around the edges of it as if the soil had filled the hole.

The Aborigines pointed to a hole in the soil where a line of black ants were going up and down.

They saw the ants bring up the big white maggot and pointing to the hole said, “white man’s body down there.”

Day ordered the earth dug up and the remains of a human body were found two feet below the surface.

The body was laid on its face.

A shirt, trousers and braces were on the body which was in the final stage of decomposition.

There were long grey hairs on the skull which corresponded with the hair that grew to an unusual length over Menzies’ forehead.

The body was taken to Shea’s hut where a tomahawk was found.

The tomahawk had a long grey hair on it but the handled had been scraped clean.

The body was identified as Andrew Menzies.

Mrs Shea was overcome with horror at the discovery and proclaimed that her husband was innocent and urged that it must have been a terrible mistake that her husband would have killed the kind-hearted Menzies.

Shea was tried at Maitland Circuit Court before Judge Therry on March 18, 1846 for murdering Andrew Menzies with a tomahawk.

The trial continued for 14.5 hours and ended just before midnight when Shea was found guilty on circumstantial evidence.

Attorney General Plunkett acted for the prosecution and Mr AT Holroyd defended the prisoner.

The prisoner produced a forged docket for Meznies’ bullocks during the trial.

Judge Therry’s summing up was in great detail for three hours.

The jury returned a guilty verdict after an hour in deliberation.

Two days later Judge Therry sentenced Shea to death.

Shea said: “Thank God I can now go before my Lord innocent of it.”

His unhappy wife stood close to him with three of their youngest children.

Efforts were made to alter the sentence to imprisonment for life but the executive council ordered Shea be executed by hanging.

The Maitland Mercury covered all aspects of this case in great detail.

“The depravity of mankind appears in Shea to have met with one of its fittest and most atrocious representatives.

“Human nature itself must have been startled at the horrible crime for the commission of which this wretch was to be executed.

“For the gratification of a desire to possess the poor man’s property, not worth 10 pounds, Shea had murdered the peace-loving Menzies and for this horrible deed he was torn from his wife and children in the prime of manhood, and suffered an ignominious death on the scaffold.”

Shea was hanged at Newcastle Gaol on April 17, 1846.

He was on the scaffold with Catholic priests Dean Lynch and Father Magennis.

Shea prayed and appeared to be repentant and admitted his guilt to the priests who announced this from the drop.

The Mercury reported on March 21: “A subscription was opened by Police Magistrate Denny Day for (Shea’s) the wife and children who were then in the most destitute and helpless circumstances being almost without food or clothing.

“We have not heard the exact amount collected but by about the middle of the day and it was upwards of 14 pounds.”

On March 25 The Mercury reported:

“We are glad to state that the amount collected by Mr Day, for the poor woman and her children amounts to 17 pounds, 11 shillings.” (about $1348 today).