[2] Governor's life and crimes formed the basis for Thomas Keneally's 1972 novel The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, which explored themes of Aboriginal dispossession and racism.

[5] In 1887, while mending a dam east of Dunedoo, Tommy found "samples of metal-bearing ore" which he showed to George Stewart, manager of 'Pine Ridge' station.

In 1888, "the original promoters of the Mount Stewart and Grosvenor leases" presented Tommy, on his departure with his family to the Paterson River district, "with a purse of sovereigns to help the old fellow on his journey".

Increasingly, the family were drawn into the Aboriginal reserve system which sought to confine and control indigenous people by separating them from the white population.

In January 1890, family members participated in a community event at Gresford,[7] but by the following July they were living under canvas on the St. Clair reserve north of Singleton.

[10] He was subsequently tried and convicted on a charge of malicious wounding in the Singleton Quarter Sessions, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment with hard labour in Maitland Gaol.

[11] Following his release, Tommy moved his family westwards back to the Gulgong district, where they set up camp on the Aboriginal reserve in the police paddock, across the creek from Wollar township.

Jimmy, the eldest, attended school at Denison Town and Wollar, and possibly also at Gulgong, Coonabarabran and Allynbrook (in the Paterson River district).

[15] This precedent determined subsequent public education policy in New South Wales whereby local objections were sufficient to preclude Aboriginal children attending a specific school.

Later he and his brother Joe worked along the Allyn River and in the Singleton district, doing a variety of jobs including fencing, mustering stock and breaking horses.

The pair married in December in the rectory of St. Luke's Anglican church at Gulgong, with Jimmy wearing a borrowed white cricket suit for the occasion.

The writer added a further comment: "One naturally wonders what manner of woman the mother was who insisted on uniting her daughter for life to a low-bred savage aboriginal".

The two traveled to the Redbank Mission near Coonamble to visit family members, then returned nine days later with 80-year-old Jack Porter and the Governor brothers' young nephew, Peter.

[28] Another grievance arose in early July when Mr. Mawbey rejected about a hundred of the posts that had been split; after negotiation he agreed to pay half-price as "they will do for a cross fence".

The only family members who remained unscathed were Bert, his cousin George (who had hidden under the bed) and the two youngest children (who had been sleeping in a separate kitchen behind the house).

[36] Jimmy and his party gathered back at their campsite before leaving as a group in "a general and desperate flight" (including Porter and the boy Peter, caught up in the panicked situation).

[43][30] Ethel walked through the bush until she found the Dubbo road and was intercepted soon afterwards by a group of armed men riding to Gilgandra to join the hunt for the Breelong murderers.

[30][35][41][43] During the day following the murders, the Governor brothers and Underwood, travelling southeast, reached 'Gramby' station and narrowly avoided discovery by a party of armed men.

Now, as a notorious murderer on the run, with the initial police response in relative disarray, Jimmy systematically sought out victims to settle old scores.

She staggered from the kitchen after her assailants had left and found Michael O'Brien, who walked to a neighbouring selection to send a rider to alert police in Merriwa.

It was reported that business "on the farms or in the shops is practically at a standstill, and those who are not engaged in the active work of search and pursuit spend their time in speculation and discussion of the tragedies and their perpetrators".

A visitor in late July noted: "When we rode into the town we met men armed to the teeth, riding round looking out sharply for any sign of the blacks".

[64] A visitor to the Merriwa and Cassilis district in late July recounted that "the people are terror-stricken for miles around, and nearly every person is carrying firearms in fear of meeting the blacks".

[67][68] By this time large numbers of police and civilian volunteers had joined the search, including six black trackers from Queensland under the charge of Sub-inspector Galbraith of Ipswich.

[78] On the evening of Tuesday 16 October, ten miles from where Jimmy had been wounded, the Governors stuck up 19-year-old William Coombes as he was chopping wood on his family's selection on the Forbes River.

The house was being guarded by a Constable Dolman and others, and the policeman "prevented young Coombes returning to the murderers with food" and also made the decision not to search for the brothers in the dark.

Suspecting he had been robbed by one of the Governors, Wallace caught his horse and returned to Bobin, after which he walked back through the scrub on the opposite bank of the creek and lay concealed, watching his campsite from a distance of about 60 yards.

[88] On the night of Tuesday 30 October, John Wilkinson of 'Glenrock' on Talbrook Creek was walking across his paddock towards his brother George's residence when he noticed a fire burning in a nearby gully.

While his brother withdrew to the top of a hill to keep watch, Wilkinson, with the rifle, worked his way forward taking advantage of available cover as day began to break.

Jimmy "grasped the iron railings of the dock as he stood and shook his head"; after drinking water from a pannikin handed to him by an attendant constable, he "said in a weak voice, 'No, nothing'".