I found very little on this man, and nothing about his enlisting. Newspaper reports couldn't even agree on where he was buried.
_____________
THE FIFTH QUEENSLAND CONTINGENT.
....A telegram has been received by the Acting Premier from the Premier of Tasmania, stating that Private Joseph O'Callaghan (N. 494), of the draft of the contingent, has been left at Hobart for treatment in the hospital, suffering from pneumonia. Private O'Callaghan was one of the passengers by the transport Chicago.
The Brisbane Courier, Friday 29th March 1901
HOBART, April 2......
....Private Joseph O'Callaghan, of Queensland, who was admitted to the General Hospital from the transport Chicago on March 24, has died from pneumonia. He came from Gympie. [Deceased's brother on Gympie received a message yesterday from the secretary of the Hobert Hospital confirming the sad news. The deceased was a member of the Defence Force contingent which was sent to the Central district during the shearers' strike in 1891. - G.T.]
The Gympie Times, Thursday 4th April 1901
....The remains of the Queensland trooper (Joseph O'Callaghan), who died from pneumonia, were accorded a military funeral at Cornelian Bay cemetery, Tasmania, on Wednesday. The cortege was in charge of Lieutenant-colonel Reid, and Captain George Stewart represented the Government.
The Gympie Times, Saturday 6th April 1901
....MILITARY FUNERAL. - On Wednesday afternoon, the deceased Queensland trooper, Joseph O'Callaghan, whose death from pneumonia occurred in the Hobart General Hospital on Monday last, was accorded a military funeral. The coffin, which was draped with the Union Jack, and bore some floral tributes, was placed on a gun-carriage, drawn by two black horses. The firing party comprised members of "A" Company, First Battalion, Rifle Regiment. As the cortege, in charge of Lieut.-Colonel Reid, moved away from the hospital for the Queenborough cemetery, Chopin's "Dead March" was played by the Headquarters Band. Captain G. Steward, as representing the Government, attended the funeral. A party of police, under sub-Inspector Connor also attended. The burial service was impressively performed by the Rev. A. G. Taylor. Deceased was 29 years of age, and had been a resident of Gympie. He was proceeding to South Africa in the transport Chicago when he was severely attacked with pneumonia, and was admitted to the Hobart Hospital on March 24, where every attention was paid him. - Hobart Paper.
The Gympie Times, Tuesday 16th April 1901
_____________
All but one report said that he was buried in Queenborough Cemetery, Hobart City, Tasmania. That cemetery closed in 1934 and was dismantled in 1961 - some of the headstones remain there in a memorial garden, others were moved to Cornelian Bay Cemetery.
www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2205740/queenborough-cemetery
The mention of him being in the "Defence Force contingent which was sent to the Central district during the shearers' strike in 1891" turned up something interesting, although I can't prove that this was the same Joseph O'Callaghan.
EXCITEMENT AT BARCALDINE.
[BY TELEGRAPH FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]
Barcaldine, April 29......
....Intense excitement prevails in town this evening, caused by what appears to be a deliberate attempt to poison a private in the Gympie Mounted Infantry by administering strychnine contained in an apple.
....A man, whose name is Joseph O'Callaghan, a private in B Company of the Gympie Infantry, was accosted in the street by a man who asked for a match, with which he lighted his pipe. He then took from his pocket an apple and gave it to O'Callaghan, who ate it. He was then joined by some of the Brisbane Volunteer corps, and they went into the Springsure Hotel, which place the men were in the habit of frequenting for music and singing. Some drinks were ordered, but before they were brought from the bar O'Callaghan complained of a dreadful pain in his abdomen and said " It's that apple the unionist chap gave me." Immediately after he was seized with convulsions and rolled on the floor in great agony. Two constables came in, and messengers were sent for surgeons. The poor fellow was in great agony, and cried out "I'm poisoned; I'm done for." An emetic was administered, and after a lapse of twenty minutes Dr. Cumming arrived, followed by Staff-surgeon Garde. They immediately detected signs of strychnine poisoning, and injected nicotine, and subsequently chloral. The ambulance bearers were soon at the place, and carried the man upon a stretcher to the camp hospital. He was better this evening, and the surgeons say the danger is past. O'Callaghan was conscious most of the time, and declared that he could identify the man who gave him the apple. Subsequently the police, from the description given, brought a man to the hospital, but O'Callaghan exonerated him. The police are making a strict search for the miscreant, and there is no doubt the leaders of the unions will assist them.
The Queenslander, Saturday 2nd May 1891 1891 Australian shearers' strike - Wikipedia
Rumours started up, first that in the past O'Callaghan had been bitten by a snake and had reacted to it in the same way as he did to the apple, and also that he'd had an epileptic fit. His father wrote a letter to the press confirming that he had been bitten by a snake in the past, and giving his name as R. F. O'Callaghan.
The O'Callaghan Case.
No Strychnine Found.
Government Analyst's Report.
....The matter contained in the stomach of Private O'Callaghan, of the Gympie Mounted Infantry, who was said to have been poisoned by means of strychnine plaoed in an apple and given to him by a unionist at Barcaldlne, was forwarded to the Government analyst for examination. His report has been forwarded to the Commissioner for Police. The report states that the matter oontained no trace of strychnine or of any poison which could produce the effects described.
The Telegraph [Brisbane], Friday 15th May 1891
....There seems to have been no further mention of this incident in the press, so we can only speculate on what actually happened.
....His father, R. F. O'Callaghan, may well have been Robert Francis O'Callaghan, died August 1898, and buried in Gympie Cemetery. Find A Grave has ten O'Callaghans interred in a family plot in Gympie Cemetery - the deaths range from 1899 to 1953; a Robert Francis O'Callaghan is also mentioned, but not as being specifically in the same plot.
....The 1891 shearers' strike in Queensland was a labor dispute resulting from union shearers refusing to work with non-union shearers. Armed soldiers were brought in to protect the non-union workers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1891_Australian_shearers%27_strike
