Still There
1868
The insolvency sitting closed in December 1867.
No debts proved. No schedule filed. The legal process had run its course and Geoffrey Keating was recorded as insolvent in the Supreme Court of Queensland.
The electoral rolls placed him in Toowoomba through 1868, 1869, 1870. An address on paper. A name in a column.
But by October 1868 the Keatings were already at Highfields — ten miles from Toowoomba, on the road to Geham, on land they had no legal title to hold.
They had built a house there.
They had moved a fence.
January 1868
Eight weeks after the insolvency sitting closed, Edward Keating sold Portion 77 to Peter Murray.
Edward had purchased that forty acres from Geoffrey in June 1867 — double what Geoffrey had paid the Crown, in the middle of the collapse, the deed recording only the transaction without explanation. Now Edward was selling it on.
The buyer was Peter Murray. Letter-carrier. The plaintiff in Murray v. Keating — the man whose court action had stripped Portion 70 from Geoffrey and Denis Cronin the previous May and sold it at auction for £3.
Murray now held title to land that sat directly beside what Geoffrey had lost and what he was still trying to hold.
October 1868
On Sunday 18 October, Peter Murray rode out to Highfields to see some property belonging to him.
He found Geoffrey Keating. He asked him why he had built a house on his land. He asked him why he had removed a fence without permission.
Geoffrey ran from the house to the yard. He told Murray he had no call to the fence. He called him a thief and a robber. He threatened to beat him.
Then Susan came onto the road.
She struck Murray three times with a stick — on the right arm, on the side, on the thigh. The stick was two and a half feet long. Murray was on horseback. He said he still felt the pain.
Michael Power, licensed victualler, was present and corroborated the evidence. He saw Murray struck three or four times on the government roadway.
In court, the defence argued the assault arose from a question of title to land and that the magistrate had no jurisdiction. The magistrate ruled that the assault had taken place on the public highway, not on disputed ground. The question of title was irrelevant to where Susan had been standing when she raised the stick.
There was, the court record notes, considerable laughter when the defence asked whether Murray had been surrounded by Keatings so as to prevent his getting away.
Susan was fined £2 plus costs.
Geoffrey was bound over to keep the peace for three months — himself in £10, two sureties in £5 each.
November 1868
The Queensland Police Gazette recorded Susan Keating as a prisoner discharged from Her Majesty’s Gaol, Toowoomba. Native of Ireland.
The court appearance was in October. The discharge notice is in November. What happened in between — whether the two records connect, what charge or circumstance placed her inside that gaol — the records do not say.
The gap is there. It cannot be filled.
What the record gives is this: in November 1868, Susan Keating walked out of Toowoomba Gaol and went back to Highfields.
Back to the house they had built without authority. Back to the land they had no grant to hold.
Back to Geoffrey.
They were still there.
The town was behind them. The insolvency was on record. Murray held title to land they were occupying. The law had fined her, bound him over, and recorded her discharge from gaol.
And they were still there.
Building on ground that wasn’t yet theirs. Fencing. Occupying. Refusing to move.
The homestead application was still two years away. The five-year term that would convert occupation into title had not yet begun. The way forward was not yet visible.
But they had not stopped.