Townsville rocked by bombs

A look back at significant moments in the North’s history

ALMOST a century ago Townsville was shaken to its core by a spate of bombing attacks that struck fear into the city.

From 1929 to 1933 there were five confirmed bomb attacks on residents in Townsville, which media at the time called the city’s “bomb scourge”.

Perhaps more well known were the bombing attacks in the Ingham area, widely attributed to elements of the mafia during the early 1930s, including the 1934 bombing that killed a young mother and injured her fouryear-old son.

The most widely reported bombing attack was the shocking explosion that startled Hyde Park residents in the morning of September 20, 1933.

The city’s Crown prosector, J.P. Quinn, and his wife were sleeping in their house in Sussex St when the bomb exploded, with the sound reportedly heard more than 3km away, and the force lifted floorboards off the veranda and lifted beds off the ground.

Much of the house collapsed, but all six occupants escaped injury, and after the dust had settled residents raced to the scene.

Among the first people on the scene was local detective Harold, who lived in the vicinity of the explosion, and he started his investigations quickly. It was discovered that the perpetrators had carefully thought out their plans and avoided disturbing the several airedale terriers, which Mr Quinn had in kennels under the house.

It is believed that the intruders, after passing through the yard of the home next door belonging to Mr R. M. Mcnickle, climbed the dividing fence and placed the explosive – with a long fuse attached – under the house immediately beneath where Mr Quinn and his wife were sleeping.

The damage, in addition to the broken floorboards and bed, included a broken window and the loss of a prize fowl, kept in a special pen under the house.

A fragment of the bomb cut through the wire netting of the pen and knocked the head off the bird.

The miraculous escape of the occupants of the house was attributed to the fact that the building was up high off the ground.

Earlier in 1933 there was a pair of explosions across two months, the first happening on June 5.

The bomb reportedly went off in the basement of a premises in Flinders Street owned by a B. Palmer.

The building was badly damaged and timber fittings were blown on to Flinders Street.

The door was blown out and every window in the building, with the exception of the plate-glass in the front, was shattered.

Rumours spread around Townsville in the aftermath of the bombing that the premises hosted illegal gambling.

The next bomb outrage took place on July 12, 1933 when a bomb tore a metre-wide hole in the side of the Blake Pastoral Company building at the corner streets.

Nearly every window in the building was broken and the sound was heard as far away as Aitkenvale, and while there was no fire outbreak, investigations suggested an attempt was made “to blow the whole building up”.

Police were reportedly on street duty within 45 metres when the explosion occurred, and a couple of plainclothes constables passed the building about 10 or 15 minutes before the blast.

A follow-up article speculated that the bomb was directed at the office of a prominent bookmaker. of

Flinders and

Stokes

Before the bomb scourge of 1933 there were a couple of attacks that were just as violent.

In July 30, 1930, a Blackwood Street house was damaged by a bomb explosion.

A newspaper article reported that the damage was not extensive, although a Chinese national known as Spencer Long was thrown from his bed by the explosion.

The bomb was apparently placed under the front veranda of the house, but wasn’t powerful enough to wreck the building.

A few months earlier on December 5, 1929 a violent explosion rocked Townsville about 8.30pm.

A bomb had been thrown into the front yard of Edward Foster’s house in Cleveland Terrace overlooking Flinders Street.

The force of the explosion hurled stones into Denham Street, and windows shook in many premises on Flinders Street. Mr Foster’s home was about 4.5m above the explosion area, and all the windows were wrecked, and a four-bedroom house next door occupied by the Hughes family fared even worse.

Mr Hughes, his wife and two children escaped injury when the bomb went off.

Mr and Mrs Hughes and their son were in a detached kitchen, and a daughter was playing a piano in the sitting room when it went off.

The rear rooms of the house were completely destroyed and contents were strewn in all directions.

It was speculated at the time that the bomb was intended for Mr Foster, who was the victim of a recent robbery.

By 1934 reports of bombings in Townsville faded into history, but residents living in the city at the time surely must have remembered the days of their city’s bomb scourge.