Queensland murder trial hears from workers who spent day of alleged shooting with accused

The trial of a Queensland cattle farmer, charged with murdering three people and attempting to murder a fourth has heard from workers who spent the day of the alleged shooting with the accused.

Darryl Valroy Young, 63, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder during the ongoing Supreme Court trial in Townsville.

He is charged with the murder of married couple Mervyn Schwarz and Maree Schwarz, and Mrs Schwarz's son Graham Tighe.

He is also charged with the attempted murder of Graham Tighe's brother Ross Tighe.

Mr Young's lawyer said his client never saw the family at the gate of his Bogie cattle station on the morning he was accused of shooting them.

On Friday, the court heard renewable energy workers Liam Parnell and Matt Garbutt estimated arriving at Mr Young's Bogie property in a ute at about 7:30am on August 4, 2022.

The trial has previously heard that Ross Tighe, who said he and his family were shot by Mr Young, estimated the incident occurred at the farmer's front gate after 8am.

Mr Parnell and Mr Garbutt told the court after meeting Mr Young, they left him at the gate and drove to the property homestead before splitting into separate vehicles.

Mr Parnell said he continued to scout a high-altitude location and saw Mr Young again after 8:30am.

Mr Garbutt was shown a video he had taken at 8:11am that morning.

He said he saw Mr Young more than 10 to 20 minutes after he had taken that video.

The colleagues said they learned there had been a shooting after 11am when they were installing equipment on a ridge with Darryl Young, his stepmother and son close-by.

Police asked group for 'selfie'

Mr Parnell said he was initially contacted by his boss, then police who advised the group to stay in place.

"We spent the whole day up there," Mr Parnell said.

The court was shown photos taken by Mr Parnell.

The group of people, including Darryl Young wearing a dark navy shirt, could be seen giving a thumbs up in one photo.

Earlier the trial heard Ross Tighe describe Darryl Young wore a fluorescent work shirt during the alleged shooting.

Another photo shown to the jury showed all in the group smiling except Darryl Young.

Mr Parnell said during the afternoon he saw Mr Young appearing "relaxed in the ATV" and said he noticed no change in his demeanour.

He and Mr Garbutt said police eventually told the group to travel in one car to the property gate.

Mr Parnell said he drove, and the group was met by a specialist policing unit.

Neighbour missing gun

The court heard from grazier Brett Stagg, a neighbour of both the Schwarz's and Tighe's Sutherland Station and Mr Young's Shannonvale Station.

Mr Stagg told the court he had an "up and down relationship" with Mr Young but would "keep the peace" as they were neighbours.

Crown prosecutor David Nardone asked Mr Stagg about a fire at his house on his property in 2011.

"During the time of the fire some guns went missing? A .30-30 and a .223?" Mr Nardone asked.

"Correct," Mr Stagg said.

The grazier confirmed that of the missing firearms the .223 was recovered but the .30-30 rifle never was.

Prosecutors have told the trial that .30-30 ammunition cartridges were found in Mr Young's kitchen and work shed and had the same markings as the spent cartridges found at the scene of the alleged triple murder.

"Those markings were '30.30 WIN RP'," Mr Nardone told the jury in his opening address on Monday.

"Darryl Young was licensed to possess six firearms — none of those were .30-30 rifles."

Mr Nardone said that in a search of Mr Young's dwellings, "no firearm capable of discharging .30-30 cartridges were found".

The trial continues.