Two blokes sit on the porch, each cradling a stubby of beer as the sun goes down, talking about times gone by.

John Cousins and Frank Fletcher live close to each other out near Pagans Flat.

“We were talking about graves,” John said.

Frank is 89 years old and lives at Ewingar. He has been pushing to preserve Peter Pagan’s grave at a property on Pagans Flat Road.

“They were ploughing over the top of him,” Frank said.

The circumstances around Pagan’s death are controversial.

Frank’s attachment to the grave is because he grew up on the property where the overgrown grave is and he didn’t want it to disappear forever.

Frank is one of 14 children in the Fletcher family who lived at the Pagan property, running the dairy farm for 32 years.

Frank never went to school, he never learnt to read and write but he knows how to milk a cow by hand. His father had the boys milking 172 cows twice a day instead of sending them to school. The Fletcher family worked at dairy farms at Woodburn, Caniaba and Pagans Flat.

It is reported through old newspaper articles from the Richmond River Herald that Pagan was speared by an Aboriginal man on April 22, 1841.

Pagan believed the tribe was stealing from his hut, so he grabbed his gun and followed them to the river.

Pagan was spotted by the tribe and speared several times. He died instantly. He was 24 years old.

The retribution was swift and in 1928, The Queenslander reported that an old Aboriginal man named Mundi who was a child at the time was hit by a bullet from the white men who tracked the tribe in the early hours of the morning after Pagan’s death.

After searching a camp, where one policeman shot left and right with a double-barrelled gun, all that was retrieved of Pagan’s was his hat. A massacre followed. How many Aboriginal people were killed was not reported.

Pagan was buried near the Clarence River and the original headstone was restored in 1982 by family members. That headstone has been moved to the top of the property and can be seen from the road.

The aging of the headstone has created a spooky image, if you squint your eyes when you look at there is a ghostly image. (see photo above)

Pagan’s controversial death did not deter Frank from honouring the history of Pagans Flat.

John organised donations and volunteers to restore the grave and he had a new plaque made by Frank McKey. Tabulam Rural Agents donated 10 bags of cement and Tabulam Sand & Gravel donated a tractor load of sand and gravel.

Frank said he’d like to see a fence around the grave to preserve it.

The men are back on Frank’s porch telling their grave story. They chug a beer.

“This had to be done while this fella was still alive,” John said.

Frank chuckles. His chooks race around the yard and a donkey in the paddock next door lets out a hee-haw.

This righting of history has been important to Frank. As the setting sun casts soft light across his timber home, Frank smiles. He reaches for another beer and clicks the bottle with John.

It has taken a long time, and many people to make it happen – the story of Pagans Flat will continue for generations to come.

This article appeared on indyNR.com on 7 September 2025.