12/09/2026
Charged with horse stealing...
🗞"POLICE COMMISSIONER'S COURT.
Saturday, 5th September,
Thomas Oakley was placed in the dock charged with stealing two horses and portions of two tether-ropes the property of Henry Elphick.
Mr Poulden defended the prisoner.
Henry Elphick stated he lived near the "Flagstaff" Inn. On the 10th August he lost two horses, one a chesnut, the other a white one. On the evening of the 9th they were on his ground tethered out as usual, the ends of the ropes 'being fastened to two logs ; but the next morning, instead of finding his horses, he found the pieces of rope produced, which bad been cut.
He went with his son in search of them, and on the Wednesday following found the chesnut feeding near the prisoner's house. He made several attempts to find the missing horse, but was unsuccessful. He had seen a spot where the horse had been tethered, and which he was sure was his, from the fact of one foot-track differing materially from the other, as also corresponding with the size of the shoe, having the measure in his pocket.
On the Saturday following his son and he went to Mr Hensley's in the valley adjoining where the prisoner lived, and whilst there Oakley (the prisoner) came in. Witness asked him if he had seen his white horse. He replied,
"What white horse?"
Witness said,
" The one that was taken from the front of my bouse whilst feeding along with the chesnut."
Prisoner remarked,
"Well, I suppose I shall be blamed for that job how."
Witness told him where he found the chesnut horse, and also that his son had seen round one of his calves' necks the rope which was fastened to the white horse. He said he did not deny that, but it would be for bim to prove how it came there.
Prisoner then told him he saw a white horse on Friday night on Ayers'a flat. [Sic] He followed the tracks of several bullocks and that of his white horse until they led him home, when ' he' found his horse had got there before him.
By his Worship.—There was no tether-rope on him, and the halter which was always kept round his head was gone.: The several ropes produced were his property, and had all the appearance of having been cut. ' He knew them from the whipping at the end to keep them from unravelling, and the largest was a four-strand rope until he took one strand
out. '
Mr Poulden requested that the charge of stealing might be entered at the head of the deposition, and proceeded to cross-examine the witness.
By Mr Poulden.—He missed his cattle on the 10th, and found one of them on the Wednesday following. The witness recapitulated his former testimony. Mr Poulden tried to elicit something important bearing reference to tracks, &c.
Witness had not laid or given information respecting his horses. He was not the instigator of the present charge. The-police came to him and he related the facts. The horses had been let from their tethers by cutting the ropes. They sometimes break tethers, but never cut them. They don't carry knives In their pockets, not even in the bush. The value of the ropes was 7s.
Mr Poulden requested the prisoner might be remanded until Monday, as he had witnesses-to procure.
His Worship remanded him until then."🗞
Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 - 1904), Saturday 12 September 1846, page 2
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/158923097 #
*Thomas Oakley came out to South Australia upon the Buffalo as a child with his family. Sir James Hurtle Fisher who also acted in Thomas' defence (at a later court hearing,) had also immigrated upon the Buffalo.
Thomas was found "Not guilty" due to 3 witnesses who supported his alibi.
*Ayers Flat, Eyre's Flat - now Kangarilla.
📷"Flagstaff Hotel, (Inn) South Road, Darlington." Circa 1910. SLSA.
