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Thu 16 May 1957 - Nepean Times (Penrith, NSW : 1882 - 1962)
Page 1 - Outline of History of Glenbrook District
Outline of History of
Glenbrook District
THE NOTORIOUS BUTLER
MURDERS
By H. A. McLEOD MORGAN)
[Herewith is the final instal-
ment of the address given by Mr.
H. A. McLeod Morgan, hon.
treasurer of the Royal Australian
Historical Society, at a
meeting convened by Glenbrook
branch of the C.W.A. and held
in Glenbrook School of Arts on
April 4].
"The abandonment of the old
zig-zag eliminated two interest-
ing features of the early railway.
LUCASVILLE PLATFORM
On April 15, 1878, a platform
named Lucasville was erected on
the top wing to serve the estate
of John Lucas, M.L.A., who erec-
ted a country residence here
about 1878. "He was born at
Newtown, Sydney, in 1818. He
became a Minister for Mines in
Sir John Robertson's Ministry
(1875-77). He was a heavy, stout
man, and Phil May's caricature
depicting him driving his phae-
ton, all weighted down on one
side will be recalled. A stairway
cut in the rock lead from the
house to the platform.
"At an auction at Penrith, on
July 22, 1885, Randolph Charles
Want purchased some land near
Lucas' property. He was a soli-
citor and his son entered Parlia-
ment and became an Attorney
General.
The platform of old Lucasville
station and some of the stone
steps may still be seen in the
north-west of the R.A.A.F. sta-
tion. Breakfast Point platform
on the crown of the hill, just to
the south-east of the Air Force
establishment of to-day, was
opened on September 1, 1880, but
had disappeared from the time-
tables by 1889. The highest point
the old line reached in the Glen-
brook region was 617 feet above
sea-level on the semi-circular
curve to the west of Breakfast
Point. At this place it was in a
30 feet deep cutting, and the line
then fell to old Glenbrook Sta-
tion, 598 feet above sea-level.
A SENSATIONAL CASE
At Glenbrook railway station
on the 11.50 a.m. train, on Octo-
ber 28, 1896, there arrived a pros-
pecting party of two, Frank But-
ler and Captain Lee Weller. Sta-
tionmaster Lewis Beattie later
stated that he clearly remember-
ed this.
Some days afterwards, Butler
joined a train at Emu Plains
Station, without Weller. He
moved from Sydney to Newcastle,
whence he shipped to America,
hnving assumed the role of Wel-
ler.
One of Weller's friends in Syd-
ney became alarmed at not see-
ing him for a period and noti-
fied the police. Weller's body
was found in a kneeling position,
with a bullet wound in the back
of the neck, in a shallow grave,
in rough scrub country, not far
from Glenbrook Station.
Then began one of the most
sensational hunts in the history
of Australian crime, equalling
any present-day film, radio, or
television drama.
As the ship "Swanhilda", on
which Butler had shipped as a
sailor, entered the Golden Gate
at San Francisco, it was boarded
by the local police, and despite
some preliminary attempt to get
ashore, as well as to conceal his
identity, Butler was arrested.
He was eventually extradited
to Australia, and suffered the
death penalty for his crime, hav-
ing made a number of suicide
attempts whilst in gaol.
He also carried out a similar
murder of a student near Lin-
den, having, as with Weller, got
the student to accompany him
on a prospecting expedition to
which money must be brought.
The Attorney-General, who
prosecuted very ably, was Mr.
Want, a son of Randolph Charles
Want, as before stated.
Reports of the trial proceed-
ings may be read in the flies of
"The Sydney Morning Herald"
for early June, 1897.
Surveyor Charles Robert Scri-
vener, a well known surveyor in
the Blue Mountains, and of the
site for the then future city of
Canberra, gave evidence as to
the terrain. James Coxon, a
fence repairer, witnessed their
arrival at Glenbrook and saw
them getting off at the Lagoon.
George Bunyan, a lad, deposed
that in October, 1896, he was
driving a butcher's cart at Glen-
brook. He spoke to Lee Weller
at a camp there, and identified
his body afterwards.
So you see that Glenbrook
does not need any ghosts for
historical flavour—it had the
crime of the nineteenth century
committed in its very precincts.
Shires were formed early this
century, and Glenbrook came
within the Blue Mountains Shire
area, which was some 10 years
ago merged in the Blue Moun-
tains City Council area. The
hotel came to Lapstone Hill in
the 1930's, but was taken over
by the R.A.A.F. some years ago.
The advance of Glenbrook has
been rapid when one thinks of
Dawes forcing his way westward
in 1789. Jamison's naming of it
in 1818, and the fact that it was
merely called "water-tank" in
1867.
In proportion to its size and
location on the sandstone rim,
as it were, of the eastern escarp-
ment of the mountains, its
growth has been no less rapid
than that of other towns on
what was originally only a ridge
allowing access to the western
plains of gold and grazing prom-
ise.