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There was once a man who sailed from King George Sound to the west where he found some headless bodies buried in a sand dune beside the inlet. But more about that later. Firstly, duelling in colonial Western Australia. The practice of back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other was still going on here, a decade after the overlords had banned duelling in the home country. It was seen as a gentleman’s recourse to insult, slander or cuckoldry, and long before being called ‘gentleman’ meant a drooling old man in a lazy-boy and a dressing gown.

So it was that in 1832 in Fremantle, a rather wealthy merchant and a handsome Scottish firebrand who seemed to get away with a bit fought a duel for the favour of a woman. George Johnson was in love with Anne Lockyer. He had bucketloads of money but he was decades older than the 17-year-old girl. She in turn was in love with William Nairn Clarke, who returned her feelings. The spurned merchant set out to ruin his rival (because that’s what you do when some uppity bint wants to sleep with someone other than you) by buying all of Nairn Clarke’s debts. He intended to subject Nairn Clarke to a credit squeeze so that he would be gaoled for his debts.

In court Nairn Clarke claimed he had some money coming from England (because gentleman) and won a reprieve. So now Johnson had less money, more debts and no girl. Some ugly scenes occurred between the two men on the streets of Fremantle over the next few weeks and finally Johnson challenged Nairn Clarke to a duel. On the evening of August 16, Johnson’s second visited Nairn Clarke to work out the fine details. Dawn the next morning at the grounds of Richmond House.

At dawn, the two men, their seconds and a doctor gathered at the spacious residence. Johnson and Nairn Clarke chose their weapons. Apparently, the pistols were of poor quality and probably bought specifically for the occasion. The men loaded their guns and then walked away from each other, guns at the ready. When one of the seconds gave a shout, they turned and fired at each other.

Johnson died 24 hours later in Richmond House, attended by the same doctor. Nairn Clarke and the two seconds turned themselves into a Justice of the Peace and they were all tried for murder. Nairn Clarke, with not a scratch on him, was acquitted, along with the seconds. Three weeks later he married Anne Lockyer. It was called Australia’s most romantic duel, as much as a rich old man and a dashing solicitor slugging it out over a woman is romantic.

Coming up next - headless bodies.