Thomas Conquit: conquering a colonial past

The drama that unfolded in the Adelong Coroner’s Court caused a sensation well beyond the town, then sank beyond memory without a trace. And though it may have escaped ‘the grand repertoire of history’, it ‘imitate[s] it in miniature’,1 yielding a wider Australian tale of colonial formation. The evidence from the inquest ‘touching on the death of Thomas Conquit, the culprit of the tragedy of the 16th instant’, Adelong (NSW), 17 June 1912, is spare and skeletal, yet jostled in its reporting by the ‘state of excitement’ that swept the town.2 The proceedings reveal much about contemporary ideas of class and race, and about attitudes to authority in a small country community. Moreover, a closer examination of the personal and family history of Thomas Conquit opens a window on Australia’s multicultural origins.