Lightning Strikes - Bagot's Head Station
On November 22nd, 1860, a thunderstorm blew throughthe Kapunda region in South Australia’s mid-north. Three young men were cuttinggrass at Bagot’s Head Station (Koonunga). At about 11am the thunderstorm grewin intensity. The three young men, Rody Young, his younger brother James andThomas Ryan were all killed by lightning.
Thomas Ryan was 26 years old, he was married with three children. RodyYoung was aged 22 years old, and married with two children. James Young wasaged just 14. Thomas Ryan had married a sister of the Young brothers; thefamily lost three men that day.
John Hill deliveredthe sad news to the people of Kapunda. He reported that the men's clothes were stripped from their bodies by a lightning bolt. Hill had been standing near the men at the time of the lightning strike and had been thrown to the ground by the force of thelightning strike.
According to the South AustralianWeekly Chronicle, when the bodies were recovered, they were ‘found to bequite black, and all the clothes were burnt to cinders.’Rody Young and James Young were almost naked, with just strips of clothingcovering their burned bodies. The men’s beards had been burned from theirfaces, and James’s boot had a small hole where the lightning exited into theground through his boot nails.
Dr Blood gave his opinion that the death was caused by lightning. An inqueststated that ‘Death by the visitation of God, through lightning,’ was theofficial cause of death!
'DEATH BY LIGHTNING AT KAPUNDA.', SouthAustralian Register, (23 November 1860), p. 3.
'CORONER'S INQUEST AT KAPUNDA.', SouthAustralian Register, (24 November 1860) p. 3.
'KAPUNDA.', South Australian Weekly Chronicle,(24 November 1860), p. 2.
'CORONER'S INQUEST AT KAPUNDA.', SouthAustralian Register, (24 November 1860) p. 3.
