Convicted murderer Darryl Young shot three neighbours dead in 2022 Queensland cattle dispute

This is where convicted murderer Darryl Valroy Young shot dead his three new neighbours and almost killed another on an August morning in 2022.

The entrance to Shannonvale Station, at Bogie in north Queensland, is at the end of a corrugated dirt road through eucalypt and hardwood timber forest.

Passing over cattle grids and through a steep dip into a creek bed, there's a climb up a hill to the property entrance.

Three padlocks on a thick chain keep unwanted visitors out and a large "no trespassing" sign warns that admittance is by invitation only.

The text on the "legal notice" sign is a template from the sovereign citizen movement proclaiming an "exclusion notice" applies to council officers, police, sheriffs and bailiffs with a minimum financial penalty of $10,000.

A fading yellow "smile you're on camera" sign is to the right of two trail cameras strapped to the fence; a reminder that you are being watched.

It was here, in front of the gates, where the bodies of Mervyn, 71, and Maree Schwarz, 59, and her 35-year-old son, Graham Tighe, were found.

They had been shot in the head with a .30-30 calibre rifle. The casings were found in the dirt.

Graham's brother, Ross Tighe, was also shot, but escaped and raised the alarm.

An 'angry' call

Darryl Young was found guilty in the Supreme Court in Townsville on Friday of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

During the course of the trial, the jury heard Young's anger towards his neighbours escalated over missing cattle.

A phone call Graham Tighe received over a knock-off beer was recounted to the court by his best mate and cattle contract musterer Shane Dendle.

He heard Young speak on his phone on loudspeaker and accuse the neighbours of stealing his calves, as he had found some of his cows with full udders of milk but no calves.

"He was angry," Mr Dendle said of Young's tone.

"[Graham] said he's not pinching the calves, he has got enough on."

Then partner of Ross Tighe, Caitlin Jordan, said Young then demanded they meet.

"Darryl said, 'I'm sick of all this,'" she recalled.

"He said, 'No, you will meet me at the border of Shannonvale at the front.' Graham said, 'What time?' Darryl said, '8am and it will be you, your brother, Merv and Maree, you will all be present.'"

"He reiterated that about three times."

The gate meeting

The crime scene is near the boundary of the Schwarz's and Tighe's Sutherland Station and Young's Shannonvale Station, which was a 20-minute drive for the victims.

Ross Tighe said the family — amid a cattle muster — set off the following morning in two vehicles headed for Young's Shannonvale Station gate.

Riding with his brother, Ross Tighe said he fixed the clock in the LandCruiser ute and they arrived at the gate just before 8am on August 4, 2022, to find Young, already sitting in his Nissan Navara waiting, inside his property.

Ross Tighe said Young told Graham to hang a Shannonvale Station key on the gate — which he did before he and his brother sat in silence for 10 minutes awaiting their mother and stepfather.

When they arrived, Mervyn Schwarz approached Young for a handshake.

"Darryl said, 'I won't shake your f***ing hand'," Ross Tighe said.

"He said that he saw cows of his with full udders of milk — implying that we were pinching his calves. He said it made him feel sick.

"He said he would give us two weeks to give them back or he would do something about it."

Family gunned down

Ross Tighe said the family denied the accusation then Young walked to the back driver's side door of his Navara.

"He didn't say anything he just walked to his car, just casually, and pulled out a gun," Mr Tighe said.

"He said, 'I'll end this once and for all.'

"He shot Merv in the face, and I turned around to start running."

He said he ran to take cover behind the family's two parked vehicles but was shot in the stomach before he reached them.

"I saw Graham had been shot as well, he was on the ground, we made eye contact and he was making a noise like he was in pain," he said.

"I could see [Mum] from under the car, she had been shot, she was on her knees and holding her stomach area."

Ross Tighe said he ran, covered himself in long grass and hid for about 10 minutes.

He said during that time he heard two more gunshots before he made his way back up the slope he had run down while hiding behind trees.

He said Young and his Navara were gone and he could see his mother and Graham Tighe had both suffered gunshots to the head.

"I was telling myself on the way back they are all going to be dead. I didn't look for Mum, and then I opened the car door because it was already running, and I saw her in there," Ross Tighe said.

"She was f***ing shot in the head — through the window."

Call for help

He said he took the family's other car from the gate and drove about 7 kilometres, puncturing a tyre in the process, towards Sutherland Station and saw Shane Dendle driving a truck.

Mr Dendle described the moment to the trial through tears.

"I met Rosco on the road, he was in the old Toyota, he was coming in pretty hot," he said.

"You could tell he was hurt, he was holding his guts."

Mr Dendle and Ms Jordan called emergency services and eventually Ross Tighe was transported via helicopter to Mackay Base Hospital where surgeons ultimately decided not to remove a projectile from his hip bone.

A 'miracle' survivor was found

What the jury did not hear was that Darryl Young and his mother had been convicted and sentenced for stealing cattle from neighbouring properties and selling them in 2003.

It is almost impossible to get anyone to talk about the long-running conflict over fences and allegations of cattle theft that led to the murders.

People say they have to live in the community and interact with other members and connections of the Young family.

One who will talk is former Bowen mayor Mike Brunker, who says it's a miracle Ross Tighe was found alive.

Mr Brunker said if Mr Tighe had not survived, justice might never have prevailed.

He said Young, now 63, was frequently in conflict with previous neighbours before the Schwarz family bought Sutherland Station a year prior to the attack on their family.

"The big joke was when he [Darryl Young] said he got on well with his neighbours … that was a fabrication," Mr Brunker said.

He said the previous owner of Sutherland Station sold it due to "constant heartache and battles with the Youngs".

"Everyone in town knew what sort of person he was. The jury's decision won't be a surprise," he said.

"They know what has been done in the past, what he's like."

Remote community

Bogie is home to just over 200 people who live on large cattle properties, according to the 2021 Census.

It is roughly 32 kilometres from the small mining town of Collinsville and about 55km south-west of coastal Bowen.

After passing paddocks of green tomato plants on the Bowen Development Road, a dirt turn-off marks the start of the two-and-a-half-hour drive to the Young's property.

It is hard to get above 60km/h on Normanby Road once you leave the bitumen.

At first, the country is fenced with star pickets and barbed wire, which eventually gives way to unfenced properties where fat cattle graze on either side of the road.

Red-tailed black cockatoos take flight and wallabies bounce off as vehicles approach.

Bush orchids are high in the trees and the white trunks of gums contrast with the dark hardwood trees.

Large granite boulders, grass trees and a trickle of water is all that is left in some creeks after summer rain.

In the wet season, the three crossings of the Bogie River and other seasonal creeks run a banker; a displaced concrete culvert is evidence of the torrent that can arise.

Such is the remoteness of these parts, Mr Brunker is thankful Ross Tighe survived to tell the tale.

"Had he not, they might never have found their bodies. It's a very remote part of the country, it's rough and there are mining shafts," he said.

"For what he's gone through and for the defence to say he did it to put doubt in the jury's mind … he should rot in hell."

Mr Brunker said Mr Tighe should hold his head high after not only being shot, but having to relive the experience in court.

"To be shot in the guts and thinking he [Young] would come after him, it was superhuman what he did."

A sentencing hearing will be held for Darryl Young in Townsville on Monday.