Miraculous escape of Queensland mass shooting sole survivor as slain cattle farmer’s reaction to alleged killer revealed

Cattle farmer Mervyn Schwarz had just three words to say when he was first warned about the neighbour who allegedly gunned him down alongside his wife and stepson.

Chilling details have surfaced of how one mass shooting victim made a miraculous escape after being shot in the stomach as he allegedly witnessed his loved ones being killed.

Police allege Ross Tighe watched his brother, mother and stepfather being shot as he ran into a bush at a property in Bogie – a small outback mining town in the Whitsundays near Collinsville Thursday morning.

Cattle farmer Mervyn Schwarz, his wife Maree and her 35-year-old son Graham Tighe were all shot dead at the front of neighbouring property, Shannonvale Station, where they had allegedly been invited to discuss a long-running boundary dispute.

Mr Schwarz had reportedly been warned about a feud with the neighbours after buying the 30,000ha farm for $10million but believed he “could handle it”.

“He wasn’t arrogant about it,” one local, who asked not to be named, told the Courier Mail.

“He would have dealt with different neighbours and found different ways of handling these situations.

“He said `I’ve done my research … I think I can handle it’.”

Ross Tighe was shot in the stomach before driving 40km to safety.

Sole survivor Ross, after being shot in the stomach, ran for his life away from the scene and hid in bushes before running and hiding again.

He then drove a red farm ute 40 kilometres and raised the alarm with people at another property.

“We believe that the male was able to extract himself from the area when he was spoken to by a police officer many, many kilometres away from the crime scene,” Queensland Police Acting Superintendent Tom Armitt said on Thursday.

“He was fleeing from the scene … he was able to tell police that he had been shot and three others (were) also shot.”

Police said he fled the scene in a red ute before contacting the authorities.

Bogie shooting victims Maree and Mervyn Schwarz. Picture: Supplied

Picture of police tape sealing off Shannonvale Rd about 3km from the crime scene.

Ross, who has two daughters, was flown to Mackay Base Hospital in a critical condition and rushed into emergency surgery.

He is now in a serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit.

Police were able to interview him Thursday night and were expected to speak with him again Friday.

His brother, Graham Tighe, had only spent three days with his newborn son before the shooting. The baby had just come home after three weeks in hospital in Brisbane.

Graham Tighe, who only just welcomed a newborn, was killed in the mass shooting.

A 59-year-old man, identified by Courier Mail as long-term Bogie resident Darryl Young, has been charged with three counts of murder and one charge of attempted murder.

He will appear in the Proserpine Magistrates Court on Monday.

Police allege the weapon used in the shooting was a rifle.

“It will be alleged that around 9am, police received a report that three people had been fatally shot at a property on Shannonvale Road and another man had suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen,” police said in a statement.