Thirty-five years ago, I was living at Taringa, a leafy inner-western suburb of Brisbane and playing for the Bullets (my second season) in the NBL competition. From memory, these were pretty good times. The state capital was humming with its post-Expo vibe – although slightly countered by the gloomy discoveries and subsequent decrees of the Fitzgerald Inquiry.
Early August each year I would work the official Bullets stand at the Royal Queensland Show aka “The Ekka”. Fair to say the team had an ardent following in the then emerging sports landscape. Sell-out crowds at Boondall home games were frequent. Hyped import-duo Derek “Pocket Rocket” Rucker and Andre “A-Train” Moore, the iconic “Leaping” Leroy Loggins as well as homegrown star Robert Sibley, had captured the imagination of local fans. Notably the Bullets matched the newly launched Brisbane Broncos in sales within the cavernous Showbag Pavillon, abutting Gregory Terrace. Basketball was doing solid business in the river city.
Down the main thoroughfare at 1990 show, the Queensland Police Force had a somewhat odd exhibit on display. It was curious in its presentation to the tens of thousands who passed through the RNA each day. A mannequin had been made up to the likeness of recently missing Ipswich woman Julie-Ann Gallon (from the evening of her disappearance) featuring long blond hair, a pink jacket with stud buttons, pink track pants and stylish black high-top boots. This “roadside recreation” highlighted the young lady holding a maroon and dark patterned handbag, alongside an actual late 70’s cream-coloured Holden Torana.
The circumstances of the disappearance of the 27-year-old, as reported in local media up to that point, went like this:
On Thursday 2nd August around 4.30pm, Julie-Ann, left work at the Queensland Museum and headed home to Karrabin – just west of Ipswich. At approximately 6.15pm, Julie-Ann was seen standing beside her Torana sedan on the side of Ipswich Road at Riverview – out front of the St Andrew’s Anglican Church. The boot to the car was open and looked to have broken down. The vehicle would be found to have flat tyre. Its doors were unlocked with one door suspiciously ajar.
A former applied Biology student, Julie-Ann spent her days working full-time in the arachnid department of the museum. She appeared as a budding “renaissance woman” – educated, stylishly attractive, respected by her work peers and loved deeply by family and friends. Ambition sparkled in her eyes. It shone through in the daily news reports that described her untimely vanishing. Police were somewhat perplexed by the disappearance and held real fears for the young woman’s safety. Her parents outright devastated and in an evolving state of shock.
Julie-Ann had only recently purchased a semi-rural 3.7ha property at Karrabin – where she kept her 18 horses. The small farm called “Namar”, was also home to three dogs, nine puppies, a cat – and her much-adored “Ratley”, a pet rat.
Lenore Gallon spoke emotionally to The Courier Mail describing her missing daughter “as a trusting young woman who took people as they found them”.
“She had everything to live for”, said Mrs Gallon.
“Recently she had been having issues with her boyfriend (Michael Jut). But it was not a serious problem”.
“She had boyfriends in the past and everyone has difficulties. It was nothing that she couldn’t handle”.
Mrs Gallon recalled when she spoke to Julie-Ann by phone on the Thursday morning “she sounded tired and strained” due to the recent stress with her boyfriend.
Jut, 28, was described as Julie-Ann’s “de facto husband” in stories released by the newspaper. The couple resided together at “Namar” and been in a committed relationship for approximately 18 months.
Law enforcement undertook extensive searches of the Gallon home and surrounding bushland utilising cadets from Oxley. Police divers also examined a dam on the property. During the same period, inspections of vacant land near to the Riverview railway station were commenced by volunteer SES workers. Water police scoured the Bremer and Brisbane Rivers for no positive result.
It wasn’t until December 1990 that detectives had a breakthrough in the case. Clothing worn by Julie-Ann and car keys to her Torana, were found under the Kholo Bridge, by youths snorkelling in the Brisbane River. Devastatingly, Julie-Ann would never be located, and police would suspect she was likely murdered. No person was ever charged by police in relation to this matter.
Links to the disappearance and suspected murder of shop assistant Sharron Phillips, 20, from the night of Thursday 8th May 1986 were speculated upon. Phillips vanished after her yellow Datsun Bluebird ran out of petrol on Ipswich Road at Wacol. Eyewitnesses placed her last near to a telephone box at Wacol Railway Station. Phillips’ purse and shoes discovered in a nearby drain. She too was never seen again.
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I will be writing more about the Julie-Ann Gallon matter in months to come at True Crime Spotlight. I’m sure there will be interested persons out there, particularly from the Ipswich and Brisbane regions, who may wish to share their memories and opinions of this tragic cold case.
MORE TO FOLLOW ….
Any member of the public with information which could assist police should contact the Homicide Investigation Group, Brisbane, Phone (07) 3364 6122 or Crime Stoppers, Phone 1800 333 000