Brisbane Arcade

 

The beginnings of the Brisbane Arcade involve murder, scandal, insanity

and a deathbed confession!

 

 It was built in 1923 by Dr James Mayne and his sister on the site of their former family home. Their father, Patrick Mayne, infamously confessed on his death bed to the murder, robbery and dismemberment of an itinerant sawyer. The sawyer had been in possession of a large sum of money when he was murdered.

 

A year later, Patrick Mayne, then a slaughterman, began buying up large tracts of land and became one of the wealthiest landholders in Brisbane.

 

Parts of the body were discovered at various locations along the river. However the entrails were discovered in the well used by the Bush Inn’s cook to cool their butter, milk and cheese. The cook was convicted and hung for the murder.

 

Cathedral of St Stephen’s, Brisbane’s oldest church, has two stained glass windows dedicated to Patrick Mayne and his son, Isaac. Isaac was suspected of the murder of a Japanese man whose body was found close to the Mayne residence.

Isaac was committed to Sydney’s Bayview Mental Asylum by his brother, Dr James Mayne.

None of the children of Patrick Mayne married or had children of their own.

 

 

The story can be read in The Mayne Inheritance (1997).