Constable Nathaniel ROBERTS Connemara Station, via Jundah

2025

Constable Nathaniel Roberts (Registered No 454) was born in Ireland. At age 23 he joined the Queensland Police on 1 December 1882 and shortly after was posted to the one officer station at Windorah. Constable Roberts had been directed to travel to Connemara Station via Jundah to pick up a witness required in a murder trial. Leaving Windorah on 2 January 1884, he travelled to Jundah and after an overnight stay he then travelled west towards Connemara and camped at Corrikie Waterhole. The following morning, he woke to find his horses had slipped their tether. In his search for the horses, he became lost on what must have been a very hot summer day.

A search party was raised, and his body was found on 8 January, at which time it is estimated he had died on 5 January. Constable Roberts was buried on Connemara Station, however while no permanent marker had been placed on the grave its location has always been known to the property owners. In 2021 with the assistance of the officers in charge of Windorah and Jundah Police Stations and the support of the current owners of Connemara, the FQPM had the grave identified and a headstone and permanent grave constructed on the site.

Because of the remote location of the grave on private property, the Management Committee, supported the property owners, agreed to a publicly accessible memorial placed on the monumental rock in the centre of Albert Street in the nearby town of Windorah. This site already has a memorial plaque placed by former Commissioner Jim O’Sullivan commemorating Constable Thomas Callaghan of Windorah Police who perished while on patrol near Whitula Station about 40km west of Windorah in November 1888.