How William Coakley aka ‘Billy Spencer’ became a Mackay founding father

William Croakley aka Billy Spencer drove the first bullock team into a young Mackay, and his death in the 1918 cyclone left his new home without ‘one of the district’s oldest identities’.

Portrait of Billy Spencer aka William Coakley, possibly taken in the 1870's. (Jubilee of Mackay 1912)

The devastating 1918 cyclone killed 30 people and left its mark on a young Mackay.

One of those killed was a former West Indian, William Coakley.

He was buried at Mount Pleasant where the Mackay Private Hospital in Norris Rd is presently located.

William Coakley was born in Orange Bay, Jamaica in the West Indies in 1841.

He was the son of Harry Chambers Coakley and Letitia Mick.

Little is known about his early life; however he would have worked on one of the sugar plantations in the West Indies.

It is not known when he arrived in Australia or what work he was doing at the time.

The first we hear of him is that James Ready and “Billy Spencer” drove the first bullock team into Mackay in July 1861.

Portrait of Billy Spencer aka William Coakley, possibly taken in the 1870s. (Jubilee of Mackay 1912)

William was wrongly identified as Aboriginal, clearly because the colour of his skin.

There would not have been many West Indians in Australia back then.

A 1931 Daily Mercury article said William Coakley, known as “Billy Spencer”, was a trooper in the New South Wales Police Force.

He was named Spencer after the Mount Spencer cattle station.

In 1881, he married the former Bridget Barrett.

She was born in Mallow, Cork Ireland in 1858.

At the time it was unusual for interracial marriages however it presumably was a happy union that resulted in the birth of 14 children.

Grandson of William "Billy" Coakley, Harry Chambers Coakley, checks his grandfather’s grave. (Daily Mercury, October 24, 1966)

An obituary in the Brisbane Courier dated January 31, 1918, and apologies for the racist language of the day, provided the following:

“An American Negro Named William Coakley.

“Among the victims of the great cyclone that has just wrecked Mackay the above.

“He is reported as having been drowned at Farleigh on Monday night (21st.)

“With his death one of the district’s oldest identities passes away.

“A native of Jamaica, ‘Bill’ Coakley came to Mackay in the early ‘70s.

“Typically negro, with a shining black face, erect carriage, tall, strongly built, of a happy disposition, he was known and respected by all.

“In the early days he punted sugar from Foulden to the town wharves.

“At different times his occupations varied from sugar growing to wood hauling.

“For many years he lived at ‘Bassett Hall’ at Mount Bassett, on the north side.

“He was a hard worker and age sat slightly on his strong frame.

“The ‘old hands’ particularly, will regret to hear of his tragic end.

“He is survived by a large family.”

William’s grave and headstone were on the site of Norris Rd in North Mackay until 1971 when the landowners applied to have the grave moved as it was located in the corner of one of the canefields and was hard to work around.

The Pioneer Shire Council approved the removal and William’s grave was relocated to Walkerston Cemetery and re-interred.

His wife Bridget died in 1928 and is interred in the Old Mackay Cemetery.