remained in the Melbourne Gaol, reportedly too dazed to give evidence. On October 2 that year, a mere nine months after the attack, she was released into Thomas’s custody on his assurance that she kept the peace. Thomas paid a surety of £25.¹²⁰
The case caused a sensation around Australia. Newspapers wrote about the case in detail, but the standard of newspaper journalism in the 1890s wasn’t what it is today. Journalists and police were often loose with the facts. Information was not always accurate. In an era before passports, names and spelling weren’t always checked, and records of births, deaths and marriages were nowhere near as meticulous as they are today. In short, errors were made. So, it is entirely feasible that a boy registered at birth as Bernerd could somehow be misconstrued as Burnett if, as is likely, police or journalists misheard his father and grandparent’s strong Irish accent when they were asked to identify the dead child. Whatever the case, or whatever misinterpretation ensued, the inquest transcripts, newspaper reports and cemetery records all refer to the four-year-old as Burnett. There was never a birth certificate for Burnett Moylan, only for Bernerd. To this day his body lies in an unmarked grave in the Oakleigh Pioneer Cemetery.¹²¹ A Bicentenary project in 1988 laid bricks that recorded for the first time the burial dates of most of the cemetery’s occupants.
Oakleigh Pioneer Cemetery; Photo J Turton 2017
No documents can be located of a Catherine Moylan in either a lunatic asylum or gaol. By 1904, eight years after Bernerd’s death, Catherine was again living at home with her husband Thomas, who by now was a fruiterer or orchardist on the land now occupied by The Glen Shopping Centre on Springvale Road in Black Flat or Glen Waverley. Catherine and Thomas remained living in the Glen Waverley area until they died, in 1919 and 1923 respectively. They are buried together in an unmarked grave in the Springvale Cemetery.
And what of Marguerite? Did she survive her injuries? If so, what became of her? Did she live a healthy productive life? Indeed, she did. Marguerite Moylan remained at home, living with her parents, until their deaths. She was 35 years old. In his will, Thomas left Marguerite a wagon, a horse of her choosing, all his farming equipment and one-third of his land to her.¹²³ Perhaps because Thomas knew before he died that Marguerite was soon to marry, he left the houses on his land to Catherine and son, Patrick.¹²⁴
Thomas Moylan Land Source¹²² courtesy Clive Haddock
Marguerite Moylan married George William Stayner in 1923 when she was 35.¹²⁵ He too was a market gardener, living in Bay Road, Cheltenham. Marguerite and George had three children: Francis, William and Thomas. She died at 45 years of age in a psychiatric hospital in 1934, of unknown causes.¹²⁶ She is buried with her husband in the Old Cheltenham Cemetery.¹²⁷ He survived her by almost 40 years.¹²⁸
Old Cheltenham Cemetery. Note changed spelling. Photo J Charles
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