Jack Watson

John Watson (March 1852 − 1 April 1896) was a frontier cattle station manager, drover, and murderer in the British colony of Queensland and in the Northern Territory. He was renowned for his fearless behaviour and also his sadistic brutality toward Indigenous Australians. He was called "The Gulf Hero" due to much of his fame being achieved while working on pastoral properties located in the Gulf Country. Early life Watson was born in March 1852 in Melbourne in the British colony of Victoria. He came from the wealthy Anglo-Irish Watson family which had significant landholdings around Kilconnor in County Carlow, Ireland. He was the eldest son of George John Watson who emigrated to Victoria in 1850 and was a noteworthy businessman and horse-racing identity, having important roles in establishing the Victorian Racing Club, the Melbourne Hunt Club, the Cobb & Co transportation company and the Melbourne Cup. Jack grew up in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda in a stately house named "Fenagh Cottage" after his father's home village of Fenagh, County Carlow. He was educated at the Melbourne Church of England Grammar School where he excelled at sports, becoming captain of the rowing team. Jack also became an accomplished horseman with him, his father and brothers all being well known for their abilities in steeplechase racing. As a young man in the 1870s, it appears that Watson became bored with living in Melbourne and took to a lifestyle travelling by sea, heading to the tropical regions. It has been said that while working as a sailor he jumped into the water to rescue a man overboard, taking a knife to a shark that was cruising around the vessel. The Watson family history states that he resided some of the time in the newly formed port town of Palmerston in the Northern Territory. For the remainder of the 1870s it seems that he continued to travel, occasionally returning to Melbourne.