The Pearce family in Tasmania’s upper Derwent Valley has been the subject of mythology, but one fact is startling enough to need no embellishment. Between them six Pearce brothers claimed 75 government thylacine bounties (72 adults and 3 juveniles) in the period 1888–1909. No other family came close to emulating this record. They were sons of ex-convicts, Hamilton/Ouse stockkeeper John Pearce and Sarah Jones.[1] Like many bush farmers and labourers, the Pearce brothers took advantage of every opportunity to make a living, including tendering for government contract work. John, James and David Pearce erected the telegraph line between the Iron Store and Strahan 1891–92.[2] The odd pole can still be found over Mount Arrowsmith. The Pearces also built a government boat house, horse paddock and accommodation house at Lake St Clair 1894–95 and conducted road works then and in the period 1898–99.[3] Hunting was a significant part of their income, hence their 75 incidental tiger killings. Brief biographies of the six brothers follow.
James Pearce (c1854–1920)[4]
Bounties claimed: 50 adults – 2 juveniles [5] 1894, 1898, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1904, 1905 in the names of James Pearce, James Perce
Labourer, contractor, hawker and storekeeper, Ouse, Derwent Valley.[6] In 1887, when James Pearce and his partner Susan Brooks (1856–1940) bore their first child in Hobart, he gave his occupation as saw sharpener.[7] Two years later at the birth of their twins he was a machinist, and in 1893 he described himself as a labourer.[8] In 1898 James Pearce won a tender for roadwork in the Parishes of Hale and Kenmere, and tenders for work on the Marlborough and Ellendale Roads.[9] He was still an Ouse storekeeper in 1910, but later kept a shop at Glenorchy and had a property on Summerleas Road near Ferntree.[10] James Pearce’s 52 bounties probably represent the combined work of his brothers and perhaps reflect that he had the best opportunity of all of them to submit claims.
David Pearce (1856–98)
Bounties claimed: 14 adults – 1 juvenile[11] 1888, 1889, 1898 in the names of David Pearce, David Pierce, D Pearce
Shepherd or labourer, Ouse, Derwent Valley.[12] Born at Saggy Flats, Hamilton.[13] As a 24-year-old labourer he married seventeen-year-old shepherd’s daughter Selina Harrex by Anglican rites at the Church of St John the Baptist, Kenmere, Ouse They were both illiterate.[14]
David and Selina Pearce established the well-known Pearce farm along the Linda Track at the Clarence River. David lived only 42 years, but in the years up to her death in 1931 Selina and her children boarded and fed travellers. For example, ‘three wild eyed haggard bearded sun-downers’ (photographer Stephen Spurling III and his hiking mates) sat down to ‘a Lord Mayor’s banquet’ at ‘Mrs Pearces’s’ on their homeward trek from Lake St Clair to Launceston.[15] Another 1908 party availed themselves of the following Pearce supplies: two loaves of bread, a leg of mutton and four tins of jam.[16] In 1911 Harry Benjafield found Mrs Pearce ‘as jolly as ever’. His party slept there ‘amid the flowers, and hushed by the hum of flies and the murmuring river’.[17] The last house before Lake St Clair was an essential pit-stop up until the advent of the Lyell Highway.
near Osterley. JJ Cowburn photo from the Mercury,
1 September 1932, p.12. The Mercury caption
wrongly identifies it as James Pearce.
John Pearce (1860–1939)[18]
Bounties claimed: 1 adult[19] 1896 in the name of J Pearce[20]
Labourer, Ouse, Derwent Valley.[21] As a 23-year-old sawyer John Pearce married 22-year-old domestic servant Kate Simpson by Presbyterian rites at Chalmers’ Manse in Hobart in 1883. They were both illiterate.[22] He seems to have preferred tigers dead in the snare than as free operators, recalling a time when his life was ‘hanging by a thread’ during the 1891–92 telegraph line contract. The ‘close call’ happened on a ‘particularly rough’ section of the Linda Track near the Collingwood River:
I had just finished clearing out a section, and was walking back along the track to the camp when I encountered a savage-looking Tasmanian tiger. I had left my axe at the spot where I was working, and was therefore helpless. I stood staring at the snarling beast, which was about 10 yards away from me, and every minute I expected it to rush at me. I hardly think I was afraid, because I had caught many of these vicious animals in snares while hunting kangaroo, but at the same time I had never before come face to face with one in the bush. For several minutes the tiger kept his eye on me, and finally slid away quietly into the bush. Naturally I was very much relieved, and I can tell you I lost no time in getting to the camp. I passed the spot on a number of occasions after that, but never without taking an axe or a slash hook with me.
Pearce said that Richard Lord, a member of the telegraph line party, was feeding a tiger which visited his camp at night, treating it as a pet. He also claimed that in one season he and his brothers caught seventeen tigers, in ‘special neck snares’ set alongside their kangaroo snares.[23] Exactly how the tigers recognised the ‘special neck snares’ provided for their use is unclear. Presumably the height of the noose and the use of wire were the only differences between the tiger snares and the kangaroo snares set alongside each other.
William Pearce (1868–1929)[24]
Bounties claimed: 3 adults[25] 1888, 1892 in the name of William Pearce
Farmer, Ouse, upper Derwent River Valley.[26] He married Alma Triffett at St Peter’s Church, Hamilton, in 1903.[27] William Pearce was acquitted of receiving stolen sheep when his two brothers were gaoled in 1894.[28]
Charles Pearce (c1873–1935)[29]
Bounties claimed: 2 adults[30] 1888, 1893 in the name of Charles Pearce
Labourer, Native Tier, Victoria Valley, and at Black Bobs near Ouse. He might have caught more tigers had he and his brother Robert not been convicted of sheep stealing in October 1894, serving ten months in gaol and prompting mugshots and the recording of personal details for both of them. At the time of his conviction, Charles Pearce was 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighed 11 stone 2 lbs and was, like his brothers, illiterate. It was his first offence.[31] In March 1901 he married Sarah Louisa Parker by Anglican rites.[32] Later he was a farmer at Ouse.[33]
Edward Robert Pearce (c1877–1944)
Bounties claimed: 2[34] 1894, 1895 in the names of Robert Pearce, R Pearce
Labourer, Native Tier, Victoria Valley. Known as Robert Pearce, he was born at Saggy Flats, Hamilton. As above, in 1894 Charles and Robert Pearce serving ten months in gaol for sheep stealing, Robert being only about seventeen years old at time of conviction.[35] It was the first offence for either of them. At that time he was 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighed 9 stone 13 lbs and, like his brothers, was an illiterate labourer.[36] He married May Elizabeth Parker at Ouse in 1902, and had eleven children, including one who died in infancy in 1904.[37] Sadly, May was later killed in a lorry accident while he was driving.[38]
Robert Pearce was a lifelong hunter. In 1900 he reported £11-worth of kangaroo, wallaby, grey and black brush possum skins stolen from a hut at Buffers Marsh, although the police apparently didn’t believe him, noting ‘Report doubtful’.[39] In 1919 a hunting out-of-season prosecution failed against him. A trooper saw the defendant leaving a hut at the Guelph River, King William Plains, where he found two kangaroo skins, but since Pearce denied ownership of same the case was not proven.[40] In 1940, when he was living at Derwent Bridge, he was fined for lighting a fire near the King William Range, allegedly destroying ‘scenery’ when he was probably burning off his hunting grounds.[41] In 1943 he was acquitted on a hunting out of season charge after skins were found in a hut on the Navarre Plains near Lake St Clair. The only hole in the prosecution case was that the defendant was said to be in hospital at the time of the alleged offence![42]
[1] CON52/1/6; RGD37/12, 1853/6 (TA), https://linctas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=john&qu=pearce&rw=24, accessed 28 December 2017. John Pearce and Sarah Jones married at the Presbyterian Church, Bothwell, in 1853. He was a 35-year-old butcher, she an illiterate 28-year-old maid.
[2] ‘Strahan’, Tasmanian, 5 March 1892, p.31.
[3] ‘Tenders for public works’, Launceston Examiner, 19 March 1894, p.5; ‘Public works tender’, Tasmanian News, 5 October 1895, p.2; ‘Hamilton Road Trust’, Mercury, 17 October 1898, p.4; and 10 October 1899, p.4.
[4] ‘Deaths’, Mercury, 6 April 1920, p.1.
[5] Bounties no.247, 6 September 1894 (2 adults); no.293, 24 October 1898 (‘September’); no.263, 21 August 1900 (5 adults, ‘1 June/20 July’); no.359 (5 adults, ‘1 August/25 September’); no.210, 23 May 1901 (2 adults, ‘January/March’); no.380, 22 August 1901 (8 adults and 1 juvenile, ‘May/July’); no.545, 25 November 1901 (’14 March 1901’); no.656, 20 January 1902 (3adults and 1 juvenile, ‘December?/1901?’); no.1127, 10 October 1902 (7 adults, ‘3 October’); no.840, 13 January 1904 (6 adults); no.131, 21 September 1904 (3 adults); no.226, 22 November 1905 (7adults), LSD247/1/2 (TA).
[6] Wise’s Tasmanian Post Office directory, 1896–97, p.308; 1898, p.373; 1899, p.384; 1901, p.407; Commonwealth electoral roll, Division of Franklin, Subdivision of Ouse, 1903 (CD version); ‘Found’, Mercury, 26 January 1907, p.8;
[7] Birth record for Eva Pearce, 2 June 1887 (TA), https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=NI_NAME%3D%22Brooks%2C+Susan%22&isd=true#, accessed 6 May 2023.
[8] Birth records for David and Archibald Pearce, 26 July 1889 (TA), https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=NI_NAME%3D%22Brooks%2C+Susan%22&isd=true, accessed 6 May 2023; birth record for Annie Bertha Pearce, 14 October 1893 (TA), https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=NI_NAME%3D%22Brooks,%20Susan%22, accessed 6 May 2023.
[9] ‘Public works’, Launceston Examiner, 31 October 1898, p.6; ‘Hamilton Road Trust’, Mercury, 17 October 1898, p.4.
[10] ‘Public notices’, Mercury, 9 February 1910, p.3.
[11] Bounties no.479, 13 June 1888; no.234, 6 December 1888 (5 adults); no.235, 6 December 1888 (2 adults and 1 juvenile); no.444, 3 October 1889 (2 adults), LSD247/1/1; no.1, 22 January 1898 (4 adults, ’10 January’), LSD247/1/2 (TA). Tiger Skin Book: Municipality of Hamilton: Register of Transmission to Treasury of Vouchers in Connection with Claims for Bounty Payments on Thylacine Skins 10 Oct 1888–6 Mar 1894, MCC15/1/35 (TA).
[12] Death record, died 28 March 1898 of influenza and broncho pneumonia, death record no.395/1898, registered at Hamilton, RGD35/1/67 (TA), https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=david&qu=pearce, accessed 8 October 2023. His daughter Edith Maria Pearce described him as a shepherd when she married David Temple junior in 1898.
[13] Born 24 January 1856, birth record no.415/1856, registered at Hamilton, RGD33/1/34 (TA); https://linctas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=david&qu=pearce&qf=NI_INDEX%09Record+type%09Births%09Births, accessed 14 November 2026.
[14] Married 21 August 1876, marriage record no.133/1876, registered at Hamilton, RGD37/1/35 (TA), https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=david&qu=pearce#, accessed 29 March 2019.
[15] S Spurling, ‘Across the plateau’, p.6, manuscript held by the author.
[16] ‘Tramping across Tasmania’, Weekly Courier, 4 June 1908, p.35.
[17] H Benjafield MB, ‘Cost of our trip through the lakes’, Mercury, 4 January 1911, p.2.
[18] Born 25 July 1860, birth record no.1270/1860, registered at Hamilton, RGD33/1/38 (TA), https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=NI_NAME%3D%22Jones%2C+Sarah%22&qf=NI_INDEX%09Record+type%09Births%09Births, accessed 29 March 2019; died 7 January 1939 (‘Deaths’, Mercury, 9 January 1939, p.1). For John Pearce, see his conduct record, CON31/1/36, image28 (TA), https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-36$init=CON31-1-36p28, accessed 30 March 2019. He married Sarah Jones at Bothwell on 18 April 1853, marriage record no.6/1853, RGD37/1/12 (TA), https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=john&qu=pearce&qf=NI_INDEX%09Record+type%09Marriages%09Marriages, accessed 30 March 2019. She was an illiterate servant maid.
[19] Bounty no.58, 28 April 1896, LSD247/1/2 (TA).
[20] Ascribing this J Pearce bounty to John Pearce rather than James Pearce is simply a guess which enables me to examine the sixth brother who was involved in hunting.
[21] Occupation and place given in birth certificates for children of John Pearce and Catherine Simpson. See, for example, Charlotte Amy Pearce, born 1891, https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=NI_NAME%3D%22Simpson%2C%22&qu=NI_NAME%3D%22Catherine%22&rw=24&isd=true, accessed 8 October 2023.
[22] Married 9 May 1883, marriage record no.435/1883, registered at Hobart, RGD37/1/42 (TA), https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=john&qu=pearce&qf=NI_INDEX%09Record+type%09Marriages%09Marriages, accessed 8 October 2023.
[23] ‘Direct communication with the west coast initiated’, Mercury, 1 September 1932, p.12.
[24] Born 8 November 1868, birth record no.708/1868, registered at Hamilton, RGD33/1/46 (TA), https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=NI_NAME%3D%22Jones%2C+Sarah%22&qf=NI_INDEX%09Record+type%09Births%09Births&rw=12&isd=true#, accessed 29 March 2019; died 4 January 1929 (‘Deaths’, Mercury, 5 January 1929, p.10).
[25] Bounty no.534, 26 November 1889 (2 adults); no.264, 29 August 1892, LSD247/1/1 (TA).
[26] Wise’s Tasmanian Post Office directory, 1896–97, p.309.
[27] Married 13 January 1903, file 209/1903 (TA).
[28] ‘Sheep stealing at Hamilton’, Mercury, 6 October 1894, p.1.
[29] Died 23 August 1935, buried at the Ouse General Cemetery (TAMIOT).
[30] Bounty no.453, 22 May 1888, LSD247/1/1; no.84, 5 May 1893, LSD247/1/2 (TA).
[31] GD128/1/2, p.31 (TA), http://stors.tas.gov.au/GD128-1-2, accessed 28 December 2017.
[32] Birth record for Sarah Louisa Pearce, born 16 February 1901 at Cleveland, Ouse, file no.3865/1901; married 12 March 1901 at the Ouse Church, marriage file no.191/1901 (TA).
[33] Wise’s Tasmanian Post Office directory, 1907, p.449.
[34] Bounties no.253,10 September 1894; no.242, 10 December 1895, LSD247/1/2 (TA).
[35] ‘Sheep stealing at Hamilton’, Mercury, 6 October 1894, p.1.
[36] GD128/1/2, p.30 (TA), http://stors.tas.gov.au/GD128-1-2, accessed 28 December 2017.
[37] ‘Inquests on bodies’, Police Gazette Tasmania, 29 April 1904, vol.43, no.2336, p.68.
[38] ‘Derwent Valley Ouse road tragedy’, Mercury, 6 May 1940, p.9.
[39] ‘Hamilton district’, Police Gazette Tasmania, 17 August 1900, vol.39, no.2143, p.148.
[40] ‘A kangaroo tale’, World, 23 July 1919, p.8.
[41] ‘Lit fire in open’, Examiner, 5 June 1946, p.6.
[42] ‘Hamilton: case dismissed’, Mercury, 14 September 1943, p.5.