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Thread: "The Lady Of The Swamp Mystery": Margaret Clement, Missing From "Tullaree" Gippsland, Victoria, Since 1952

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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    "The Lady Of The Swamp Mystery": Margaret Clement, Missing From "Tullaree" Gippsland, Victoria, Since 1952

    This is old & sadly is unlikely to ever be solved now, but it's a hell of a read if anyone has some time to fill.

    I can't believe I'd never heard of the Mystery of Tullaree before today. It's possibly Australia's only gothic tale & it's all real.

    http://m.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-o...ode=11&login=1


    The search of the Tullaree property in Victoria's Gippsland for signs of missing Margaret Clement. Picture: HWT library

    She was a belle of Melbourne society.

    She held some of the best society parties, travelled the world, was invited to Buckingham Palace and was stinking rich.

    And then one day it was all gone.

    Margaret Clement?s lifestyle of gleaming carriages and fancy garden parties gave way to a life of squalor.

    The 17-room Gippsland mansion she shared with her sister fell into disrepair and became increasingly surrounded by swamp waters. Dressed in an old coat with a fur collar, Ms Clement was forced to wade waist-deep through the murky water to the nearest town 11km away for supplies and to send letters to her family begging for money.



    The refined gentlewoman became known as the Lady of the Swamp.

    Once a jewel of Gippsland, the sisters? mansion Tullaree became overrun with cats, rats and snakes.

    And then one day in May, 1952, Margaret Clement was gone too. Vanished. Never to be seen again.

    Did she simply fall victim to the murky floodwaters surrounding her derelict homestead and get washed out to sea? Was she murdered? And, if she was murdered, who was the killer?

    It has become one of Australia?s greatest unsolved mysteries and a source of local legend.

    Sixty-two years later, the police file remains open but inactive.


    Searchers setting out from the Tullaree homestead to look for Margaret Clement.

    Extensive searches by police and 200 volunteers failed to find any trace of the Swamp Lady.

    Initially, it was thought Ms Clement had slipped and drowned, but when her walking stick ? which she took everywhere ? was found back at the house, suspicion centred on a neighbour, former Footscray footballer Stanley Livingstone.

    Police questioned the Livingstones closely about Ms Clement.

    Stanley Livingstone accused Margaret?s nephew, Clement Carnaghan, of foul play.

    He in turn accused the Livingstones.

    Not even a coronial inquiry in 1980 could solve the baffling case.

    Police had believed bones found in November, 1978, were those of Ms Clement.

    Expert opinion differed.

    Professor John Clement maintains that they were the bones of an elderly Aboriginal woman.

    Born on March 8, 1881, Margaret Clement lived a life of Victorian opulence.

    Her father Peter had migrated from Scotland in search of gold. Failing to strike it rich in

    Ballarat, he turned his hand to delivering groceries to goldfields in Gippsland.

    According to Richard Shears in his book Swamp: Who killed Margaret Clement?, he got a tip to buy shares in the Long Tunnel Mine and struck deals with people who had not settled their accounts to pay with their shares. He became rich.

    Ms Clement, her three sisters and two brothers were born into wealth.

    The girls went to Methodist Ladies? College while their brothers attended Scotch.

    Ms Clement and sister Jeanie bought Tullaree in 1907 with the proceeds from their father?s will.

    In his history of Tarwin Lower, researcher J.R. Charles wrote: ?It is said the Clement girls did not know the common people.

    ?They attended garden parties and entertained people in high places both in Melbourne and on their property.

    ?When going out, a liveryman rode ahead of the buggy and opened and closed gates.?

    Their brother, Peter, managed the property and no expense was spared by the sisters, who employed a household of two cooks, three maids, two manservants, a butler, a groom and two gardeners.

    They were social butterflies, travelling the world and purchasing expensive furnishings for Tullaree, where they were Edwardian society hostesses to lavish gatherings, serving gourmet food to guests from Melbourne.

    A letter from Margaret to her brothers said they had been to Buckingham Palace and were presented at court to King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, according to Richard Shears? book Swamp - Who Killed Margaret Clement?


    Margaret Clement (left), Jeannie (right) and other members of her once wealthy family.

    But when brother Peter went away to fight in World War I, the fortunes of the extravagant heiresses began to decline.

    The women knew little about running of the farm.

    In Peter?s absence, unscrupulous farm managers began selling off the good cattle and replacing them with inferior stock.

    Rustlers moved in and broke down fences.

    As Shears says in his book, word got out that the Clement sisters were ripe for the picking.

    The once glorious pastures which had once been kept in check by prime cattle were let go and the drainage was neglected.

    But still the sisters maintained their extravagant lifestyle.

    Shears wrote that the first sign of the sudden fall in their wealth came with a bank statement in 1916.



    They were seriously in debt, their staff had to be sacked and the paddocks were flooding.

    Their world fell apart.

    The sisters sold off some of the land and took out several mortgages over the years.

    One of the mortgage holders was Melbourne solicitor and sporting identity Ross Grey-Smith.

    Mr Grey-Smith paid about $27,000 for the mortgage, but Margaret Clement retained a caveat that prevented transfer of the title without her approval. The sisters waged a long-running legal battle over the mortgage, determined not to let Tullaree go.

    Jeanie and Margaret continued to live in the house as recluses.

    The roof leaked, windows were smashed and the house was surrounded by swamp. The sisters had no choice but to wear their finery until it became tattered and patched.

    The garden, once the best in the region, became buried in blackberry scrub as high as the house in some parts. The scrub even entered in through the broken windows.

    Up to three times a week Margaret trudged into the nearest town, Buffalo, where she would get her supplies.



    When Jeanie died in 1950, an undertaker and his three assistants had to wade through 1km of waist-high swamp water to get to the mansion and then another 1km to carry her body out by stretcher.

    And Margaret gained some notoriety, with media making the arduous journey out to Tullaree to interview the Lady of the Swamp.

    ?I will stay in my house with my books and my dog for the rest of my life,? Ms Clement told a reporter, who waded through the ?icy, rank? water to interview her.

    ?We were happy in our loneliness. We bothered nobody and nobody bothered us.

    ?I am alone now, except for my dog Dingo.?

    She said she planned to live out her days reading detective thrillers.

    ?Maybe I will be lonely now my sister is done, I have no regrets and no fears,? she told another journalist.


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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Continued ...


    A Buffalo policeman tried to persuade Margaret to leave Tullaree after Jeanne’s death but the old lady refused.

    “A person has but one life and I am living and enjoying mine,’ she reportedly said. “It is the way I want to live. Whether other people agree with it or not doesn’t matter.’

    Ms Clement continued to live alone in the decaying home without gas, electricity or even proper tank water.

    When her sister died, neighbour Esme Livingstone befriended the eccentric woman.

    Her husband was Stanley Livingstone, a former Footscray and Melbourne footballer.

    Esme and Ms Clement would visit together and take shopping trips. Ms Clement even stayed overnight with the Livingstones.


    Esme and Stanley Livingstone.

    In a will made in 1925, Ms Clement had bequeathed Tullaree to her nephew Clement Carnaghan and three nieces.

    It was not long before Ms Clement had disinherited her nephew.

    And, in a move which shocked Ms Clement’s family, Mr Livingstone took over the mortgage on Tullaree in 1951 for $25,000 and convinced the ageing woman to waive the caveat for $6000.

    In exchange, he was to build her a small cottage on the property.

    The cottage was being built when Ms Clement, 71, disappeared during a particularly wet and wild period. She was last seen alive on May 21, 1952 — a week after her dog had been found with its throat slit.

    In the days after the disappearance, Mr Carnaghan told The Herald he believed his aunt had been murdered. The Livingstones similarly told The Sun that they believed their neighbour had been killed or was being held captive.

    Her walking stick was found at the dilapidated mansion and her bed had not been slept in.

    Police, volunteers and blacktrackers searched through waist-high swamp-water looking for Ms Clement.

    They found nothing and the speculation continued.


    Searchers faced an uphill battle trying to find clues in the difficult conditions at Tullaree. Picture: The Sun, May 27, 1952.

    There were stories that stolen gold buried on the property before Ms Clement bought it was behind her disappearance.

    Mr Carnaghan went to court to contest his aunt’s will, claiming that she was not of a sound mental state and was under undue from the Livingstones. The claim was rejected.

    Then in 1978 skeletal remains were discovered 4km from Tullaree at Venus Bay.

    Eight months later, a couple found a 1940s-style handbag, a decaying lace shawl and coins predating Ms Clement’s disappearance.




    A coronial inquiry was announced.

    Det-Sen-Sgt Bill Townsend, who headed the investigation from 1978, told former Herald Sun reporter Russell Robinson in 2007 that he believed Mr Livingstone, who raised the alarm about the missing pauper, murdered Margaret Clement in a fit of rage. Mr Livingstone was renowned for his feats of strength.

    “He had everything to gain from her being off the scene. He wanted her house,” Sen-Sgt Townsend said.

    “Just look at the type of man he was — rough and very violent.”

    Four people who came forward independently and told of separate conversations with Esme Livingstone in which she told of her suspicion that her husband had killed Margaret Clement.

    In a statement to coroner Kevin Mason, Yarra Glen woman Jean Sharp said she had become friends with Mrs Livingstone in 1971.

    “One day Esme came to see me. I could see she had been drinking, and she said something similar to: `Stan’s going to get rid of me and I don’t know what to do’,” Ms Sharp said.

    “She said that at Tullaree, Stan used to leave her and sleep with the old lady and this had upset Esme greatly.

    “She said that Stan had been standing over the old lady, until she would sign some document.

    “Esme said she finally signed under threats of being shot, and then suddenly disappeared.

    “Esme said Stan paid two men from Melbourne the sum of $1000 to get rid of her body. She did not indicate how Margaret Clement was actually killed, but it seemed to point at Stan, having got the property, now wanted her out of the way.”

    Mrs Sharp said Mr Livingstone was prone to violent outbursts and “would not hesitate in beating Esme”.

    “I have seen him holding her arm up her back and pulling her hair.

    “Another time I saw him holding her on the floor by his foot on her head.”

    Esme Livingstone told the coroner she could not recall discussing her husband’s violence with any of the witnesses.

    Under oath, Stanley Livingstone admitted having “slapped” his wife, but denied killing Ms Clement.

    Coroner Mr Mason was not convinced by the Livingstones.

    ``I think they were, in their answers, in a number of ways, far from frank with the court,” Mr Mason said, according to Shears.


    Reservist Les Vick holds the bones found at Tarwin Lower, the bones were believed to belong to Margaret Clement.

    But expert opinion was divided on the bones.

    Dental forensic scientist Gerald Dalitz believed they were from an elderly Aboriginal woman.

    Dr Dalitz has since passed away but University of Melbourne chair of forensic odontology professor John Clement said he certain he was correct.

    Professor Clement said Dr Dalitz had shown him photos of the bones.

    “The photos he showed me were clearly someone who had enormous amounts of tooth wear that you never see in a European person,” Prof Clement said.

    “I have looked at a lot of bones and Gerry was right in my opinion.”

    He said the person had died before European settlement.

    “(The bones belonged to) someone who had lived in a stone age was and had stone age wear on their teeth.”


    Professor John Clement with an image of the remains. Picture: David Geraghty

    Mr Mason at inquest returned an open finding, unable to positively identify the bones.

    Mr Livingstone died a millionaire in 1993. He had drained the swamp at Tullaree and returned it to profitability, selling it for $250,000 in 1964 — 10 times what he paid for it. He went on to own most of Curtis Island, near Gladstone. He died of a heart attack.

    His wife died a year after her husband.

    And with them died possibly the last chance to solve the mystery of the Lady of the Swamp.

    In the eyes of former Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner and ex-homicide squad head Paul Delianis, what happened to Ms Clement is no mystery.

    During the inquest he said he strongly suggested that Mr Livingstone was behind Ms Clement’s disappearance.

    “I’m quite convinced that he was the culprit. He had the motive to do it — he wanted to take over the property. There was a lot of argument and legal cases going on involving Ms Clement,” Mr Delianis said.

    “We obviously didn’t have concrete evidence because we would have charged him.”

    And, Mr Delianis claims, Ms Livingstone knew, but did not reveal the truth.


    Stanley Livingstone

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    Senior Member hamdinger125's Avatar
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    You find the most interesting cases to post! I think I may have to add "Swamp" to my reading list.

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    Wow! He sounds like he was a gem of a guy

    I share a birthday with The Lady of the Swamp.

    Super interesting story Blighted! Thanks for posting it.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
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    You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass



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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    I'm trying to find the blog that put me onto the story yesterday. There were lots of comments from people with connections to either the Clements or the Livingstone's including a story that Esme was performing illegal abortions out there - which is possible, my maternal grandmother came from a well-to-do Melbourne family of that time & once whispered to me that I musn't tell my mother, but that she supported the pro-choice movement because as a teen she lost her best friend to a backyard abortion.


    I just can't believe I've never heard of this before now - it's possible it was an unmentionable in our family given my grandmother's origins though. (ETA just realised, that's probably exactly the reason, my grandmother's parents were of the same generation as the Clement sisters, & just like them were the children of poor Scottish immigrants who became wealthy & settled in Melbourne. There's no way they didn't have some connection socially).

    There's a huge amount of Tullaree/Clement info on the net so now that I'm obsessed I'm going to have to read through all of it. I found this - they went a little overboard but it has some cool old footage & pix (some that you'll recognise)




    ETA - I found the blog with the comment thread

    http://www.castironbalcony.com/2012/...psland-gothic/


    Also, for those outside Victoria (like me) who like to know where you're reading about

    This is Gippsland, Victoria, on Bass Strait & much closer to Antarctica than I prefer to be




    (this is a geographic map so the borders don't identify states)
    Last edited by blighted star; 06-21-2014 at 11:40 PM.

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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    http://www.curtisisland.com.au/curti...cret-to-grave/


    Wife Takes Swamp Lady Secret To Grave THE SUNDAY AGE SaturdayOctober 9,1993 John Silvester


    ONE Of Australia's greatest crime mysteries, the Lady of the Swamp murder, seems destined to remain unsolved following the death of the last person who could identify the killer.

    Police recently reopened the case and were preparing to make one final appeal to Mrs Esme Millicent Livingstone to help them solve the crime.

    But two weeks ago she died in a Morwell nursing home, before she could be interviewed.

    Detectives believe she knew the identity of the killer of Miss Margaret Clement, the elderly lady who disappeared 41 years ago from her once-magnificent homestead in South Gippsland.

    Miss Clement, then 72 and a virtual recluse, went missing in suspicious circumstances from her 810-hectare property, Tullaree, on 21 May 1952.

    Police believe she was murdered but have never been able to find sufficient evidence to lay charges. They are convinced they know who killed her, and had hoped Mrs Livingstone would finally tell them what she knew about the death.

    Detective Senior Sergeant Bill Townsend, the police officer in charge of the Lady of The Swamp murder investigation since 1978, told `The Sunday Age' that the death of Mrs Livingstone meant the case would almost certainly never be solved.

    ``I believe that she has taken the secret to the grave with her," he said.

    Senior Sergeant Townsend said he had interviewed Mrs Livingstone in 1978 and believed she knew what had happened to Miss Clement but was too frightened to speak. He said he thought Mrs Livingstone's husband, Stanley, was the killer.

    ``When I spoke to her she said: `I'd like to help but I'm too frightened.' I am sure she was frightened of what her husband would do if she talked," Senior Sergeant Townsend said.

    Mr Livingstone, aged in his late 70s, died on 13 October last year in Queensland after suffering a heart attack while fighting a small bushfire on one of his properties. He had owned most of Curtis Island, near Gladstone, had substantial rural property interests, and is believed to have died a millionaire.

    Senior Sergeant Townsend said he recently learnt of Mr Livingstone's death, and had hoped that Mrs Livingstone would be prepared to talk.

    ``Now that she has died I think that closes the last chapter of the mystery," he said.

    Miss Clement and her sister, Jeanne, inherited the beautiful and productive Gippsland pastoral property from their father, Peter Scott Clement, who died during World War 1.

    The former bullock driver made a fortune as a director of the Long Tunnel Mine in Walhalla, which was the richest gold mine in Victoria.

    He also left his daughters 50,000 each when he died. The two women, then in their 20s, spent the next 15 years travelling overseas, meeting royalty and becoming leading members of Victoria's squattocracy.

    But, while they were away, unscrupulous managers let the property run down, secretly selling prize cattle and replacing them with second- class stock.

    The drains on the property were allowed to silt over, and eventually most of the lush farm returned to swampland. The Clement sisters began to sell off large tracts of land to pay growing bills and in 1950 Jeanne died. The 12-room homestead had fallen into disrepair and was infested with bats, rats and snakes.

    In 1951 a neighbor, Stanley Russell Livingstone, persuaded Miss Clement to sell Tullaree to him for 16,000 pounds. Twelve years later, he sold it for 126,000.

    In 1978, human bones were found at Venus Bay, about four kilometres from the Clement property.

    The remains were found in a one-metre grave in an area where Mr Livingstone used to graze cattle. An old shawl, and a woman's purse containing four shillings and sixpence, were found near the grave site. A shovel and a hammer were also recovered.

    Senior Sergeant Townsend said he believed that Mr Livingstone killed Miss Clement in a fit of rage and then buried the body. ``He had a bad temper, I believe he hit her, and she may have fallen and possibly fractured her skull. He panicked, put the body in the four-wheel drive and later buried it.

    He said he believed Mr Livingstone then ran cattle over the grave to flatten the soil.

    Senior Sergeant Townsend said: ``Everything seemed to point to him as the killer." He said Mrs Livingstone had told at least four people at separate times that her husband was responsible for Miss Clement's murder.

    In 1980, the inquest into Miss Clement's death was told that Mrs Livingstone had confided to a friend that her husband had organised to have Miss Clement killed.

    Mrs Jean Lesley Sharp gave evidence that Mrs Livingstone said her husband had forced Miss Clement to sign documents at gunpoint, and later organised to have her killed.

    The inquest was told Mrs Livingstone said her husband paid two Melbourne men, Bradley and Bradshaw, 500 to get rid of the body. Mrs Livingstone denied the claims at the inquest.

    Mr Livingstone, who played 16 games for Footscray as a ruckman and was known for feats of strength, including lifting a full 44-gallon drum on to a truck, drained and improved the Clement property before selling it at a massive profit. He bought another property in Yea before buying the $1.5million, 3240-hectare property on Curtis Island.

    He was never charged over the Clement murder.

    He told the inquest he had nothing to do with the disappearance. ``I did not do anything to Miss Clement, I'll guarantee that." Mrs Livingstone also gave evidence denying any knowledge about the death.

    The coroner, Mr Kevin Mason, was unimpressed. He said the evidence of the Livingstones was not truthful. ``I think they were, in their answers, in a number of ways, far from frank with the court.

    But he concluded that the bones could not be positively identified as those of Miss Clement.

    Mrs Livingstone was confined to a wheelchair in recent years. She returned to Victoria shortly after her husband's death and died, aged 77, in St Hilary's nursing home on 28 September.

    Mr Ren Lanzon from Gladstone, said he remembered Mr Livingstone as a man with a strange sense of humor. ``He sometimes joked about killing someone. He said he was going to write a book called `How to Kill Your Wife'.

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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    This is a January, 1953 article written by the journalist who waded through the waters to interview Margaret at Tullaree after her sister died. He also took part in the searches in a few months before in 1952.

    http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/23224931



    "Swamp Lady" Hunt Is On Again

    ?By BARNEY PORTER

    The police are going to resume the search for Miss Margaret Clement - "the old lady of the swamp."

    Miss Clement was last seen alive on Thursday, May 22, last year.

    Her subsequent disappearance from her derelict mansion home in the midst of the 1,800 acre Tullaree Swamp, in Gippsland, created one of the greatest Australian mysteries of recent years.

    Speculations and theories of foul play-extending to kidnapping and murder were made at the time to account for her disappearance. There has been more speculation, and the start of litigation since, over the disposal of her property.

    Weekly checks have been made by police in the hopes of finding some trace of her whereabouts, if alive, or of her remains if dead.

    But what happened to Miss Clement is as much a mystery today as it was when her disappearance was reported to the police by Mr. Stan Livingstone on May 26.


    Mr. LIVINGSTONE, a former Port Melbourne and Footscray ruckman, farmer, and contractor, with his attractive wife Esme. ex-Alfred Hospital trainee, were Miss Clement's closest neighbors and closest friends.

    They were more than ordinary friends. Mr. Livingstone had purchased the property from her, and, at the time she disappeared, he was building a comfortable, modern cottage on the property, but outside the swamp's area, where he had guaranteed her a home, free from worry, for the rest of her life.

    Tullaree has been in the news since 1877 when a thief who stole nearly 4,000 golden sovereigns from a ship travelling between Sydney' and Melbourne cached his booty on the property.

    He was caught and sent to gaol, and about 1,200 sovereigns were recovered from hollow logs and other hiding places. But the balance was never found.


    In those days Tullaree, on the banks of the Tarwin River, between Leongatha and Wonthaggi; was a rich grazing property. There were no swamps there then.

    Miss Clement's family bought the property and erected an 18-room mansion. They lived in magnificent style.

    There were trips to Europe and the East for Miss Margaret and her elder sister, Jenny, who died in July, 1950.

    As the years passed the family fortunes dwindled. The property deteriorated. One by one. the members of the family married and moved away, or died - all but Margaret and Jenny. They were the Tullaree "stay-puts."

    Drains silted, flood waters backed up and spread over the pastures, and for years now once proud Tullaree has been nothing but a desolate swamp haven for wildfowl, deer - and the two recluse sisters, living on their own in a world of memories.

    As the old mansion fell into disrepair they drew more within themselves. Their only contact with the world was when one of them would wade through the swamp to the home of Mr. Buckley, a couple of miles away, to collect their supplies once a week.

    Then Jenny died. The undertakers had to wade through the swamps to bring her body out for burial in the family vault in a Gippsland cemetery.

    That was when I made my first visit there, and Miss Margaret told me: "My sister and I were very happy; nobody bothered about us and we bothered nobody. Maybe the future will be lonely for me, but I have no regrets and no fears.

    "After all a person has only one life to live and I'm enjoying mine in my own way. I have my memories, my books (mostly thrillers), Dingo (a dog and her constant companion).... I'm just going to carry on until my time comes."

    HER time came last year.

    But meanwhile she had met the Livingstones. He had a Government contract to deepen Fish Creek drain, running through the property, as a swamp reclamation project.

    They lived in a portable shack that moved with the dragline he was operating,

    Mr. and Mrs. Stan Livingstone befriended the old lady . . . and gradually they became friends with the old lady.
    They used their bulldozer to aid the last search. Mrs. Livingstone pressed tor renewal of the search.



    They told me the story when I went to Tullaree last year after the old lady disappeared.

    They told me how she began to take a fresh interest in life, went on trips with them to Leongatha, Wonthaggi, and Cowes. And how, through his friendship, negotiations began which ended In Mr. Livingstone buying the property from her.

    The weekend she disappeared, May 24-25 last, she was to have gone on a shopping trip with Mrs. Livingstone.

    She did not keep her appointment. When Mr. Livingstone called at the homestead the place was empty.

    Supplies left a few days previously had not been put away. Miss Clement's bed was made and had not been slept In. The stick she always took when she went wading through the swamp was in its customary place beside the door.

    And that is the last seen, heard, or known of Margaret Clement.

    For more than a week up to 200 men, police and civilians, conducted an intensive search throughout the .whole area each day, but without result.

    On horseback and on foot, wading at times shoulder deep in the icy cold, muddy water, we searched every part of that swamp.

    With his bulldozer, Stan Livingstone cut regular swathes through the length and breadth of the impenetrable tea-tree scrub, that, on dry land, covers a large portion of the property.

    As the riddle of her whereabouts deepened. Inspector A E. Dendle, of Morwell, who supervised the search with Det. Bryan Traynor, of Warragul C.I.B., considered these theories:

    That Miss Clement had had a fatal collapse, either in the scrub or the swamp (a few years ago she was found in a state of collapse in the scrub by a local lad who obtained help to get her back to the homestead).

    That she had been persuaded to hide herself away by someone Interested in her property.

    That, desperate with worry, she had wandered off got lost, and died from ex posure to the winter weather . That she had been murdered, and her body con cealed in the swamp waten or thrown into Fish Creek where it would flow into th< Tarwin River, and thence to the sea via Anderson's Inlet.

    "BUT, why foul play'

    Why murder the old lady? Who had anything to gain?

    Not the parties to any impending litigation, it would be to the advantage of any of them to have her alive.

    In her normal health and ' senses she could never have been lost on Tullaree. She knew that property. swamp, scrub, and grazing land, like the back of her hand

    But if she had suffered a collapse, and fell into Fish Creek, which could easily have happened if she were walking to the dragline, the current would have washed her away without a chance of her being seen-or found

    Mis Livingstone, who now lives with her husband about nine miles from the home-stead, is pressing for the re-sumption of the search

    "Most of the swamp water has been drained away or has

    evaporated now." she said last week

    Detectives sav they will resume the search "as soon as possible "

    BUT I THINK THAT TULLAREE SWAMP WILL ' KEEP TO ITSELF THE SECRET OF WHAT HAPPENED TO MARGARET CLEMENT.


    This is for anyone with more time on their hands & an interest in the backstory to Tullaree's still missing stash of stolen gold. It's quite a story even without the Clement connection

    Scroll down at this link to the section on Tarwin Lower, 1877 and Martin Wiberg for another twisted & tragic tale & yet another still unidentified skeleton of a Tullaree-related murder victim



    http://www.oddhistory.com.au/gippsla...ied-treasures/


    The Tarwin River

    This blog also has an amazing amount of detail on the Clement's, for instance

    http://www.oddhistory.com.au/gippsla...garet-clement/

    Tullaree became something of a family seat. Their youngest sister Anna came to live with them and joined them on their European trips. Peter remained their manager until 1912 when he married a divorcee named Alice Maude Hoggart and moved to South Yarra. With Peter gone, the girls employed a farm manager but a combination of mismanagement and dishonest employees began to take the toll on their fortune.

    Anna, the baby of the family, loved the high society lifestyle. An extremely wealthy young heiress, she was feted and spoiled. In 1910 she managed to delay two steamships when she refused to come on deck for an inspection. When told by the quarantine inspector that she was delaying both the Morea und the German mail steamer, she replied, ‘”Oh, the devil, I’ll come when I’m ready “. She was convicted for delaying the inspection by the Fremantle police. In 1913 Anna married John Edwin Carnaghan, a sailor in Melbourne. Shortly after, her husband went off to fight in the First World War and she gave birth to Clement Scott Carnaghan. The marriage didn’t last and Carnaghan eventually went to America where he became a radio announcer. In newspaper clippings after Margaret disappeared, Anna describes herself as a widow although her husband was alive and living in the U.S. Their son, Clement, played a part in this strange story.

    Jeannie and Margaret’s two brothers also have a part to play. It has been said that Peter Jnr. went off to fight in WW1 but I can find no evidence of this. It was widely thought that he suffered shell shock and came back a changed man. What I did find was that William signed up and went to war. When I searched for his records I found that the words DESERTER were stamped in purple ink across the top of his records. Today it is commonly believed that most deserters were suffering from shell shock.
    Last edited by blighted star; 06-22-2014 at 03:25 AM.

  8. #8
    Senior Member trepid's Avatar
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    Wow. What a truly bizarre story.

    I can't believe I have never heard of this one either..

    You would think this would be the treacherous stuff of Oz legends. It oozes dark scandals and mystery.

  9. #9
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    I asked my mum about this case last night seeing as she was born in Victoria in the 40's. She said she'd never heard of it either - until dad bought home one of the first issues of "Swamp"years ago.

    She's bringing it down from Sydney for me when she visits next week! I'll update with anything interesting I learn once I finish reading it . Stay tuned ..

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