Dornville Hotel, Millmerran, 1907

Plan of the Dornville Hotel, Criminal Depositions, 1907, Queensland State Archives. In 1907, 47-year-old Patrick Keating was seen acting suspiciously in the hallway of the Dornville Hotel in Millmerran near Pittsworth. He was making his way from bedroom no 4 to bedroom no 6, occupied by heavy-set shearer John Conway, aged about 40.  Conway tried to assert that Keating had assaulted him. But the evidence suggests otherwise. Why had Conway decided to stay the night when he only lived a few miles away?  He was sober and aware of ‘certain rumours’ concerning Keating. Conway admitted that he had asked Keating to return to his room for a tube of lanoline. His apparent excuse: ‘I wanted to see how far ... [he] would go’.