ALCOHOL POISONING -

When the ship 'Europa' (also known as 'the grog ship' due to the cargo it carried) was wrecked near Jurien in 1897, local water puller, Ned Broomhall, salvaged part of the cargo and stored it in a nearby cave (Whiskey Cave).

One day Ned became so drunk that he somehow contaminated some of the booze with strychnine and arsenic that he wound up drinking himself.

Passing drovers noticed his condition and sent a rider to the nearby Grigson homestead to fetch help.

John Grigson and his son Ed rode out and found Ned in a drunken stupor babbling about putting 'hot stuff' in the whiskey.

Luckily for Ned, the alcohol, food and poison in his stomach brought on such an intense bout of vomiting that all the poison was emptied out before it could cause him any harm.

Although it appears that Ned did no harm to anyone but himself, he was charged with attempted murder and served 6 months before being released and returning to work for John Grigson.

(It was later found that Ned's real name was Edwin Owen.)

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