Only woman executed in Queensland

Ellen Thomson (née Lynch) (c.1846–1887) holds a grim place in Queensland history as the only woman ever legally executed in the colony. Born in County Cork, Ireland, she arrived in Australia as a child in 1858 aboard the ship Joshua with her mother and sister.

By the 1870s she was living in far north Queensland during the turbulent Palmer River gold rush era. Widowed with children, Ellen eventually found work as a housekeeper for Scottish-born farmer William Thomson near Port Douglas on the Mossman River. The pair married in 1880, despite Thomson being around 24 years older than her.

Their marriage became increasingly unhappy and volatile. In 1886 Ellen formed a close relationship with a much younger Englishman, John Harrison, a former marine deserter living on a neighbouring property. Tensions between the three escalated until William Thomson was shot dead near Port Douglas on 22 October 1886. Ellen and Harrison were both arrested and charged with murder.

The sensational trial in Townsville captivated colonial Queensland. Prosecutors argued the pair had conspired to kill Thomson, while Ellen maintained she had not fired the gun. Justice Pope Cooper sentenced both to death. On the eve of execution, Harrison reportedly confessed he alone had shot Thomson, claiming self-defence, but the confession failed to stop the hangings.

On 13 June 1887, Ellen Thomson and John Harrison were hanged together at Brisbane Gaol, later known as Boggo Road Gaol. Newspaper reports described the execution in graphic detail, and public unease over the case helped fuel later debate about capital punishment in Queensland.

Ellen’s prison photograph survives in the Queensland State Archives and remains one of the colony’s most haunting criminal images. She was buried in South Brisbane Cemetery in an unmarked grave. More than a century later, historians still debate whether she received a fair trial, and her story continues to fascinate as a window into colonial Queensland’s attitudes towards women, morality, class and crime.