Alias Muttony Bourke.
Native of Ballarat having worked a number of years at Broken Hill, New South Wales also spent some considerable time in Newcastle, New South Wales where it is said that his people moved to from Ballarat. Nothing was found on him that gave any clue as to his relations or their whereabouts.
The informant of the death was Louis I. Landaner, chemist, Kookynie.
It was the verdict of the Coroner's jury at an inquest held at Kookynie on 7 February 1900, that the deceased died of acute inflammation of the lungs, from which he had suffered for 24 hours.
Police Constable Crommelin, 419, of Kookynie Station, reported the deaths of Frederick Fenwick, alias Peacock, Joseph William McKelvie alias Jackson and John Bourke alias Muttony Bourke. 13.2.1900.
The men were gassed by foul air after an explosion at the Englishmen Gold Mine Lease at Kookynie.
Three men died as a result of the dynamite poisoning at Niagara. They were Joseph Jackson, John Bourke, who succumbed to the effects of the deadly fumes, and a third victim, Frederick Peacock [Fenwick] was added to the death roll. A fourth man, Llewellyn, was reported to be in a critical condition.
Witnesses at the burial were Thomas Campbell and Timothy Sullivan.
