In 1873, William Affleck was a big man in Gundaroo, the owner of the Caledonian Store, licensee of the Royal Hotel (now Grazing Restaurant, above) and son of Arthur Affleck, one of the JPs who'd sentenced George Faulkner to three months in Queanbeyan Gaol the previous year.
On 14 June, George Faulkner abused William Affleck on the main street: "You bloody Scotch bugger, I'll break your bloody door and smash your bloody machinery'".
What sort of machinery? Why smash it?
The Royal was a staging post for Cobb & Co. According to its National Trust plaque, the hotel's stone stables "once served as a blacksmith's shop for travellers enjoying the Royal's accommodation".
Was George Faulkner the blacksmith? Did Affleck owe him money? Had he sacked him?
The Yass Courier reported the outcome: "On Saturday last, George Faulkner, better known as Old Blocker, was brought up at the Police Court, before Messrs. Styles and Affleck, under the Vagrant Act, for using obscene language in a public place, and was sent to Queanbeyan Gaol for three months."
Yass Courier, Tuesday 24 June 1873
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