Darryl Young is due to face court this morning after being charged with murder. Photo / Supplied
Darryl Young is due to face court this morning after being charged with murder. Photo / Supplied
The man accused of killing three Queensland farmers in an "execution-style" shooting and seriously injuring another claimed to have found gold on his property years before the alleged attack.
Darryl Young, 59, has been charged with murdering Mervyn Schwarz, 71, his wife Maree, 59, and her son Graham Tighe, 35, at the gates of his property in Bogie, which bordered the Schwarz's farm.
Graham Tighe's brother, Ross, was shot in the stomach, but miraculously survived after driving more than 40km to a neighbouring farm to raise an alarm.
It is alleged the neighbours met at the boundary of their properties on Thursday morning to discuss an ongoing fence line dispute.
Young remains in custody and is due to face Proserpine Court this morning.
The 59-year-old is a long-time Bogie resident, and it appears he also took a keen interest in the town's history with gold mining.
In October 2017, Young posted a picture of a large gold nugget and another of a series of smaller nuggets to his Facebook page.
"Some gold I found at Shannonvale this week since my exploration permits came threw (sic) won't be working for much longer if this keeps up," he wrote.
Young's name does not show in a search of publicly available data on the Queensland Government Department of Resources page.
There is a permit in place near Shannonvale Rd, the area near where the alleged shootings took place.
However, it was granted to mining company BGM Investments located in Artarmon NSW on August 22, 2017.
Young claimed to have found the gold after being granted exploration permits. Photo /Darryl Young/Facebook
Bogie, which has a population of just over 200 people, was founded during the gold rush in 1871.
By 1872 Normanby Goldfield, situated in the locality of Bogie, had attracted 300 miners to the area, resulting in a small settlement of three stores, a dairy, two butchers, a bakery, a blacksmith, and a hotel.
However, interest in the site waned over time due to the remoteness of the area and continued difficulties extracting gold.
This meant that more focus was given to more substantial gold mines in Queensland, with sporadic and unsuccessful attempts to revive mining in the field throughout the 1900s.
Long running boundary dispute
The Schwarzes and Graham Tighe purchased the 30,000ha farm bordering Young's for $10 million in 2021.
After buying the property, Mervyn Schwarz was reportedly warned about the ongoing boundary dispute with the neighbour but believed he "could handle it".
"He wasn't arrogant about it," one local, who asked not to be named, told the Courier Mail.
"He would have dealt with different neighbours and found different ways of handling these situations.
"He said `I've done my research … I think I can handle it'."
Speaking to Nine's Today show on Friday, Queensland Police Acting Superintendent Tom Armitt said there wasn't much information that could be revealed about the alleged dispute at this stage.
"There is not too much detail I can tell you right now. What we do know is that the parties involved are neighbours and some conversation has occurred between the parties and resulted in a meeting up of the parties at the boundary line in the early hours of yesterday morning when the incident occurred," he said.
Later on Friday, the Acting Superintendent provided some further insight on the layout of the properties in the area, revealing the scene of the shooting was an hour-and-a-half away from Collinsville in a very remote area.
"We are talking properties of the size of tens of thousands of acres and between the two properties in question it's actually a 45 minute drive between the neighbours," he explained.
"At the crime scene, which is at the front gate of one of the promises, it is a 3km drive between the gate and the house at that location."
Mike Brunker from the Whitsunday Regional Council told Sunrise the family moved to the area from out west, describing the situation as "absolutely tragic".
"The road leading up to that particular property, there's some small boutique rural residential areas and then, of course, at the end of the road is the cattle properties that we're talking about," he said.
"I think these people had only moved over here 12 months ago from out west."
Fundraiser launched for lone survivor
A fundraiser has been launched for Ross Tighe, the lone survivor after his mother, brother and stepfather were allegedly shot.
Mr Tighe suffered a gunshot wound to his stomach but managed to escape and drive 40km to another property in order to alert the police.
He was flown to Mackay hospital and underwent emergency surgery on Thursday night.
More than $10,300 has already been donated to the GoFundMe fundraiser since its creation two days ago.
"This tragedy will have forever changed the lives of Ross and his partner Kaity and their young daughter. We have created this fund to help them with the aftermath of suddenly having their worlds turned upside down," the description on the GoFundMe page read.
"Please help us lessen some of this burden and unforeseen future costs."
