Albert Stewart

DETAILS OF DEATH

McColl joined the Northern Territory Police on 25 May 1929 and served on the South West Patrol from Alice Springs and in Darwin. Mounted Constable McColl was a member of a patrol into Arnhem Land following the murder of several fishermen in July 1933. He was left in charge of five aboriginal women witnesses at a camp on Woodah Island while the rest of the party went to investigate a group of men approaching the camp. When they returned they could not find McColl. His body was found the next morning a short distance away from the camp with a gaping wound in the chest and a shovel nosed spear nearby. He was buried on Woodah Island his remains later transferred back to Darwin and reinterred in the Gardens Cemetery. An Aboriginal Tuckiar was arrested for McColl’s murder. He was tried found guilty and sentenced to death on 6 August 1934. An appeal was upheld by the High Court of Australia on 8 November 1934 the conviction quashed and Tuckiar was released immediately. He was never heard of again.