The 65-year-old explained how the victims included his neighbours Mary and Peter Lockhart, and that he was ready to surrender.
“Just send the cops around here, all right? I should be put in jail.” He added an explanation for his killing spree: “They pushed, pushed, pushed and that’s it.”
After hanging up the phone, Jamieson put away his guns, locking them safely in the bedroom, and apologised to his wife, Janice, aware their retirement plan of moving to Tasmania was now destroyed. Then he telephoned friends, confessing to the murders.
He requested they look after his wife, adding, “Five years I’ve been putting up with shit from these bastards and I just snapped”.
It was later revealed that Jamieson had stabbed Greg Holmes more than 25 times using a large hunting knife. After making the short walk home he retrieved two shotguns and crossed the Logan-Wedderburn Road to his other neighbours’ property, where he shot and killed Holmes’ mother Mary, 75, and stepfather Peter, 78.
Nine months later Jamieson was sentenced to life imprisonment for the Lockhart murders and 25 years for the murder of Holmes. Eligible for parole when he is 92, it’s likely he’ll die in jail.
Author Maryrose Cuskelly explains in Wedderburn, A True Tale of Blood and Dust how Jamieson’s motives for killing his neighbours were a culmination of many factors. He was described by friends as being stressed out, a heavy drinker and struggling with marital problems. But above all else, his actions were seemingly prompted by an ongoing feud with his neighbours and an obsessive preoccupation with the dust that surrounded their properties.
By 2010, the relationship between neighbours was combative. Meticulous and finicky about order and cleanliness, Jamieson became increasingly antagonised when drought set in and the soil surrounding his house became dry and dusty.
The particular area of contention was a dirt track that ran alongside Jamieson’s land, which was used as an access road by Peter Lockhart to feed livestock. Jamieson became furious about the dust he complained was stirred up by Peter’s tractor and dirtied his house.
Peter didn’t do much to placate his neighbour and at one point the men even had a physical scuffle. Mary told friends she was worried by her neighbour’s behaviour and that he would often yell at them.
Jamieson set up lights and cameras at the front of his property and took photographs of Peter working. Occasionally, Jamieson would fire off his shotguns, apparently for no reason and often while he was drunk.
In March 2014, Mary’s son Greg Holmes – a 48-year-old former soldier – bought the property next to the Jamiesons’ place. The dust path now sat between them and Jamieson redirected his preoccupation from Peter to Holmes. Peter also began using the dirt road more frequently and, as a result, Jamieson’s dust obsession ramped up.
Jamieson told friends he was reaching breaking point and that he was trying to sell his property so he and Janice could move to Tasmania. He claimed Peter had threatened to shoot him.
In early October, Holmes reported Jamieson’s frequent shooting to the police. The following week, Jamieson murdered his three neighbours. While talking to one of the police detectives hours after the homicides, Jamieson said, “I’m not sorry for what I done, really. They didn’t give me any choice.”
Jamieson’s trial was filled with setbacks and delays caused by his frequent changing of legal representation and attempts to change his plea. Cuskelly, who attended the trial, says that Jamieson often appeared hostile and unwilling to accept any responsibility for his actions.
“He cast himself as the victim and was disrespectful to Justice Hollingworth and apparently immune to the distress of [Holmes’ partner] Lynne [Mordue] and the Holmes family,” Cuskelly tells WHO. “He appeared to hold the proceedings against him in contempt.”
While issuing Jamieson’s sentence on July 22, 2016, Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth explained how he had “consistently blamed” his victims for his actions.
“You intentionally took the lives of three other human beings fuelled by your anger,” she said.“You’ve not shown the slightest remorse for your appalling conduct.”Mary’s son and Greg’s brother Paul Holmes paid tribute to his slain family members outside court that day, explaining they were “people that enjoyed their lives and should still be here with us, enjoying new grandkids, new life”.
Holmes also gave his opinion of Jamieson, saying the neighbour had always seemed odd. “I don’t like to put a tag on people,” he said, “but to me he’s always struck me as a sociopath in his behaviour.”
