‘Teen boy was shot dead in my vintage FJ Holden ute in 1965’
When Sunday Telegraph picture editor Jeff Darmanin bought a 1955 Holden FJ ute to restore, he was shocked to discover a teen boy had been shot dead in the vehicle in 1965. The ute was then buried deep in a Gundagai barn for decades before being resold.
A gunshot, the tragic death of an only child and a heartbreak that was hidden away in a Gundagai barn for almost 30 years.
It sounds like the plot from a crime novel but this true story came into my life when I bought a rare 1955 Holden FJ ute.
The FJ is part of Australian motoring history and something I’d always wanted to own. For me it symbolised the Australian dream, freedom and the coming of age in Australian manufacturing.
And, of course, it’s a damn cool car.
I bought it from Peter Prentice, who told me the vehicle was from a farm in the Gundagai area and had been kept in a shed for 30-odd years. He had bought the car with plans to restore it but it remained in his own farm shed for another 15 years.
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The day we brought it home on a trailer was a special one for me. Just days later we connected some makeshift parts and had it running. I would spend the next three years hand- restoring this legendary Australian car and thought it would be great to track down some of its history.
Reaching out to the community of Gundagai I was surprised to receive a late-night call from Larry Foster. He remembered the green Holden ute being owned by the Gundagai Shire president, Owen Edward Hume Vincent.
Mr Vincent was a proud, well-respected, hardworking man whose family name has connections within the community, including a local sports oval dedicated to him. He and his wife Adeline also ran the Post Office and telephone exchange from their 1850s family-built home called “Stonelea” in Wambidgee, 30km from Gundagai.
The family would use the ute to collect the mail from the train station and return home so locals could come and collect it. The trusty FJ served the family well while also working on the family farm for 10 years. Mr Foster told me one day the ute was mysteriously parked in a farm shed and left for decades.
He told me Mr Vincent’s only son Geoffrey, then 19, took the ute for a drive with a friend and the farm dogs. He often took the ute out to check the farm and always had a rifle ready for shooting foxes.
At some stage during the day’s adventure a gun was knocked over in the rear of the car and a shot rang out. Geoffrey was hit and died in the cabin.
Mr Foster told me of the family’s overwhelming grief, which led them to park the ute in a hay shed, where it was totally surrounded by bales. But it was a memory and heartbreak that would haunt Geoffrey’s parents for the rest of their lives.
“So if your ute is the one previously owned by the Vincent family it would have a bullet hole through the rear of the cab on the driver’s side,” Larry suggested.
It had been four years since I began restoring the vehicle but I do remember picking up bullet shell casings out of the rear tray area and repairing what I thought was a bullet hole with a flexible filler. Bullets and holes were nothing unusual for farm utes of that era as many were used as paddock bashers, only to finish their lives as target practice under a tree somewhere as they finally rusted their way back into the earth.
The moment I finished my late night call with Mr Foster, I raced out to the garage, flipped back the covers and looked behind the drivers seat. The bullet hole was there! I dug at my repair with a knife and revealed a perfect bullet hole, no doubt about it.
I messaged Mr Foster a picture of the hole and the ute. He replied with a surprised emoji! Had I really bought a car in which a young man had died in tragic circumstances? Could this car really be significant in the history of a town and the Vincent family? Mr Foster sent me an image of what he believed was the ute outside The Coolac hotel in 1965, parked under a tree with shearers drinking on the veranda.
I flicked him pictures of the words: “Coolac/Gundagai” that can be seen under the original paint on the driver side.
My resolve to dig further into the history only deepened and, with the help of friends, I managed to track down many locals and family members who confirmed the same story. Gundagai mayor Abb McCalister, Ian Bone, the current owner of Stonelea and others confirmed the story while Peter Coggan, another friend of Geoffrey’s, also remembers riding and shooting in the ute.
I eventually connected with John Vincent, the first cousin of Geoffrey.
Bizarrely I had worked with his wife Liz while I had been a cadet photographer at the local paper. John Vincent moved from Gundagai in 1959 and now lives only minutes from my home.
He and I met and he added even more detail to the story.
“Geoffrey was the apple of his father’s eye, the Vincent child destined to continue the family name and inherit the property. He ate tomato sauce sandwiches and loved shooting. It may have been the familiarity with these weapons that saw it loaded on a bipod in the rear of the vehicle,” he said.
“The boys, Geoffrey and a friend, did indeed take the ute out with the dogs on the 23rd of January 1965 and it was late in the afternoon, they were stopped when the incident happened.
“Geoff’s friend was standing on the passenger side as Geoffrey whistled the dogs back into the ute. Geoffrey was halfway into the driver’s door as the dogs knocked over the gun and the rifle fired through the back of the seat and into Geoffrey’s kidney or lower chest region.”
This happened about 2km from the family home, which was itself a considerable distance from expert medical help. Poor Geoffrey had died in the front seat.
This happened more than 50 years ago but the accident is still raw to some family members, so I’ve decided not to reveal the friend’s name out of respect.
John Vincent confirmed the ute was buried deep inside the hay shed after Geoffrey’s death. He believes it’s highly likely it may have gone for decades without the new property owners even knowing the vehicle was behind those bales.
Mr Prentice, who bought the car from Gundagai, agreed, saying the family he purchased the ute from had no idea the vehicle was there until a month or so before it was sold.
Local librarian Cindy Smith helped uncover police and local media reports. Two days after the accident the Gundagai Independent’s front page reported: “Tragic death of Gundagai shire president’s son: Geoff Vincent victim of shooting accident.”
The article suggested the accident happened at 7.30pm as the boys were returning from fox shooting and the dogs did trigger the loaded gun, which had its muzzle pointing towards the driver’s cabin.
As if this scenario wasn’t tragic enough, Owen Vincent was fighting his own medical battle and was a patient at Gundagai hospital. His only son Geoffrey was pronounced dead and the devastating news was delivered to him in his hospital bed.
The death report prepared by then coroner Ian Hickson said: “Geoffrey died from a bullet wound to the right lung received when a rifle in the rear of the utility accidentally discharged.”
Media reports went on to detail how Geoff was a likeable young lad who enjoyed his cricket and shooting. A game scheduled to be played that weekend was abandoned as a sign of respect.
I think things happen for a reason.
Why had I resisted doing a full restoration of the vehicle’s exterior?
Why had I not welded up the bullet hole in the driver’s cabin?
How fortuitous is finding the closest surviving relative only 10km from where I live?
For me every bump, dent and rusty scratch on the exterior of the FJ will serve as a reminder of a tragedy and a family’s pain.
I’m glad the ute was hidden and protected from the weather, surrounded by hay in the shed, and I will endeavour to drive it with the pride and respect it deserves, hopefully handing it onto my own son where it can begin to write another family story all over again.
I will get the FJ back to Gundagai and Coolac soon, revisit the pubs and places it had worked and share the yarn about the less famous Gundagai dog that created history over a beer or three with locals.
* The car will be on display at the 34th All Holden day today at Hawkesbury Showground, Clarendon opposite the RAAF base with more than 850 examples of early and current Holden vehicles. Entry $5 with kids under 15 years free. This event has returned more than $1 million to charities. It is a family-friendly event.
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