Today in History

1866 Murder on the Maungatapu track

The murder of five men on the Maungatapu track, south-east of Nelson, in June 1866 shocked the colony. These killings, the work of the so-called 'Burgess gang', resembled something from the American Wild West.

All four members of the Burgess gang had come to New Zealand via the goldfields of Victoria Australia. Three of them had been transported to Australia for crimes committed in England. They were the sort of 'career criminals' that some of the authorities in Otago had feared would arrive following the discovery of gold in the province. The South Island goldfields of the 1860s offered potentially rich pickings for criminals.

Having killed a lone prospector, James Battle, on 12 June, the gang ambushed and murdered a party of four on their way to the West Coast the following day. The case was made more intriguing by the fact that one of the gang, Joseph Sullivan, later turned on his co-accused and provided the evidence that convicted them. The trial was followed with great interest and sketches and accounts of the case were eagerly snapped up by the public. Sullivan escaped the gallows; his colleagues were not so lucky.

Image: illustration of the Burgess Gang by James Findlater