Lightning Strikes - Bagot's Head Station

On November 22^nd, 1860, a thunderstorm blew through the Kapunda region in South Australia’s mid-north. Three young men were cutting grass at Bagot’s Head Station (Koonunga). At about 11am the thunderstorm grew in intensity. The three young men, Rody Young, his younger brother James and Thomas Ryan were all killed by lightning.[1]
Thomas Ryan was 26 years old, he was married with three children. Rody Young was aged 22 years old, and married with two children. James Young was aged just 14. Thomas Ryan had married a sister of the Young brothers; the family lost three men that day.[2]

 John Hill delivered the sad news to the people of Kapunda. He reported that the men's clothes were stripped from their bodies by a lightning bolt. Hill had been standing near the men at the time of the lightning strike and had been thrown to the ground by the force of the lightning strike.
  According to the South Australian Weekly Chronicle, when the bodies were recovered, they were ‘found to be quite black, and all the clothes were burnt to cinders.’[3] Rody Young and James Young were almost naked, with just strips of clothing covering their burned bodies. The men’s beards had been burned from their faces, and James’s boot had a small hole where the lightning exited into the ground through his boot nails.
Dr Blood gave his opinion that the death was caused by lightning. An inquest stated that ‘Death by the visitation of God, through lightning,’ was the official cause of death![4]

© 2025 Allen Tiller

---

[1] 'DEATH BY LIGHTNING AT KAPUNDA.', South Australian Register, (23 November 1860), p. 3.

[2] 'CORONER'S INQUEST AT KAPUNDA.', South Australian Register, (24 November 1860) p. 3.

[3] 'KAPUNDA.', South Australian Weekly Chronicle, (24 November 1860), p. 2.

[4] 'CORONER'S INQUEST AT KAPUNDA.', South Australian Register, (24 November 1860) p. 3.