Nat Map’s Bill Johnson assists the Police

In a book published in 2015, Great Australian Outback Police Stories, by Bill Swampy Marsh, John Allen came across a story involving Nat Map’s Howard Angas Bill Johnson, now fondly remembered as HAJ. John remembered hearing about the events at the time, but as it happened in the field it seems that’s where it stayed until now.

The events took place at the end of 1957 and beginning of 1958. According to Reg Ford’s The Division of National Mapping’s part in The Geodetic Survey of Australia during 1957 HAJ had completed the reconnaissance of the Aileron to Halls Creek, NT-WA, Finke to Musgrave Ranges, NT-SA, Kingoonya to Wirrulla, SA and Alice Springs to Powell Creek, NT, sections of the geodetic survey.

HAJ preferred his own company so was travelling back to Melbourne for the Christmas break alone down the Stuart Highway, which then was often not more than a wide, poorly maintained track, interrupted occasionally with property owners' gates across it. Somewhere (it is thought between Kulgera and Coober Pedy), HAJ came across a family of three; Raymond John Bailey, his wife and young son aged about four or five. The Bailey’s were travelling north heading towards Alice Springs looking for work. Their vehicle was a black Plymouth DeSoto towing a green two-wheel caravan and they had pulled up for a break just beyond a road gate. HAJ pulled in to see if they were OK, and had a cup of tea with them before continuing south. As HAJ was leaving, Raymond Bailey opened the gate for him.

It would seem that sometime later, possibly even that day or the following one, Bailey murdered three people, Sally and Wendy Bowman and Thomas Whelan, who had camped on the side of the road enroute south to Adelaide. The media titled it Sundown Murder.

Over the next month or so the search for the culprit stalled as the police were following a lead that the car involved was a dark Ford Zephyr that was towing a green two-wheel caravan.

The following is from Marsh's book. It is a firsthand account by the police officer involved and while the officer is not named it was possibly Bruce Freebairn Evans. He was a distinguished, long serving member of the SA and NT police force. Welbourn Hill is also mentioned and is located today on the Oodnadatta Track, between Oodnadatta and Marla, some 125 kilometres from Oodnadatta and 45 kilometres from Marla. Bypassed today, in 1958, Welbourn Hill was on the Stuart Highway. 

"The Sundown Murders was a nasty thing. That was in '57, just before Christmas. Hot as hell. At the time I was officer-in-charge of Oodnadatta Police Station". (He goes on to recount some details of the investigation. Then he tells of the breakthrough). "For a month or so we were at a complete loss. We then had some luck. I just happened to meet an old feller out on the road who was heading north; a feller called Johnson. He was a land surveyor who travelled through that country quite a lot. I was coming down Welbourn Hill and we got to talking about things and I asked him, 'You weren't in the area around so-'n-so date when all this happened were you?'

'Yes', he said. 'I was coming down the road and I met this family in a black Plymouth DeSoto who were pulling a green two-wheel caravan. We had a cup of tea together and the feller said that he was heading up north to look for work.'
Then after they'd had their cup of tea, the feller opened the farm gate for Johnson and so he went on his way and the family went on their way up north.

Now because a dark coloured Ford Zephyr could quite easily be confused for a black Plymouth DeSoto, we sent word to the Northern Territory Police…and a bit later on they located the DeSoto in Mount Isa…and later Bailey was taken into custody and taken back to Adelaide to be tried for the murders".

"On the 24th June 1958, Raymond John Bailey became the second-last person to be hanged in South Australia. But, oh gee, when you look back on it, it was a terrible thing. I can tell you, we never camped on the side of the road again after that, but a lot of people still do!"

From Reg Ford’s paper, in 1958 HAJ would have been heading north along the Stuart Highway to continue his reconnaissance for the geodetic survey. His meeting with the police officer was purely by chance and if HAJ had not been asked about his whereabouts the previous year the outcome may well have been different. It is notable that later in 1958, HAJ undertook the Giles-Carnegie reconnaissance. For this difficult trip T.R. Nossiter, L. Beadell and W. McDougall of WRE joined HAJ at Giles for this reconnaissance.

The following is from page 8 of The Canberra Times of Wednesday 21 May 1958 (http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91250953)

Compiled by John Allen and Paul Wise, July 2016.