If you’d told me a year ago that our Maungatapu Murders self‑guided 4WD transport adventure would become one of Scottish Express Adventure Transport’s most popular and accessible trips, I wouldn’t have believed you.
As a local to Nelson, New Zealand, I knew the Murders were a grim chapter in the region’s history. But I hadn’t really looked under the surface until I experienced MakeShift Spaces’ “A Bridge Too Far” Maungatapu Murders PickPath audio trail on Bridge Street. That’s when I saw how powerful it is to walk the story, not just read it—and how strong the pull of the Maungatapu Track really is.
Setting the Scene: Maungatapu in the 1860s
The murders didn’t happen in a vacuum. They grew out of the Victorian era in Britain: a time of colonial expansion, the industrial revolution, and crushing poverty for the working class.
That poverty created a huge underclass of people pushed into crime. In response, the British state launched a kind of “war on crime,” often by shipping offenders to penal colonies in Australia.
The Maungatapu gang were a direct product of that system—career criminals who saw crime as the only way to stay afloat in the turbulent Victorian world.
Meet the Gang: From Otago to the Maungatapu Trail
The four men—Richard Burgess, Thomas Kelly, Philip Levy, and Joseph Sullivan—weren’t random thugs; they were seasoned offenders with histories stretching back to England and the Australian goldfields
Burgess and Kelly had already met on the Australian goldfields, then linked up again in Dunedin and continued their criminal activities on the Otago goldfields. They were arrested in Otago for an armed robbery and spent time in the Dunedin jail, after which they decided it was safer to stay ahead of the law than locked away in a cell.
From there they drifted to the West Coast, where they teamed up with Levy and Sullivan, already known as bush‑ranging‑style offenders moving between gold‑rush towns.
In the 1860s, colonial police presence was thin and communications over mountainous terrain were slow and patchy. That let criminals like Burgess and his crew commit crimes, vanish, then reappear somewhere else—exactly what they did as they moved toward the Maungatapu Track and Nelson.
From Canvastown to the Murder site
After burning their bridges on the West Coast, the gang arrived in Nelson, scouting for opportunities. At first they thought about a bank heist, but then they heard about the booming Wakamarina gold rush and the people carrying money along the rough tracks between the goldfields and the town.
They made their way to Canvastown, a small settlement near the Maungatapu Trail, and started asking locals what was moving along the road. It was there they learned of a party planning to carry gold and cash over the Maungatapu Track to Nelson—the only real road at the time linking Nelson with the Marlborough district.
That was the moment their plan hardened: ambush, rob, and kill on the Maungatapu Trail, then slip back into town before anyone could track them down.
A Mystery That Still Hangs over the Valley
The deeper I dug, the more the Maungatapu Murders became a whodunnit story rather than a simple history lesson.
There was clear dissent within the ranks of the convicted men, and from that came a tangled story of betrayal, testimony for leniency, and possible wrongful conviction. There’s no doubt they were all criminals—but the question of exactly who did what, and who carried out the killings on the Maungatapu Track, is still debated
Nelson hosted one of the most prolific newspapers of the day, The Nelson Examiner, so the case became a kind of 19th‑century “viral” news story. A quick search quickly drops you knee‑deep in old newspaper clippings and retellings, which is exactly what I did before I started planning this Maungatapu‑linked Transport tour.
From Bridge Street to the Maungatapu Track
Inspired by the story, I reached out to MakeShift Spaces, the team behind “A Bridge Too Far”, the PickPath podcast that walks you along Bridge Street and into the events that led to the gang’s arrest.
I pitched the idea of a 4WD shuttle from the end of their audio trail up to Maungatapu Saddle, where people could then walk the historic Maungatapu Track down into the Pelorus Valley, passing Murderers’ Rock—the spot where the gang waited in hiding.
We teamed up and created a full‑day, immersive Maungatapu Murders experience: history in the ears, forest on the feet, and hillside views all around. It first ran as part of Nelson City Council’s Tuku Whakatu cultural festival, and it was a hit—not just because it gets people outdoors, but because it drags them into a real, local story that still sparks questions over what really happened on the Maungatapu Track in 1866.
How the Maungatapu Tour Unfolds
Here’s how the day usually rolls out for our guests:
- Start with the Maungatapu audio trail: Pick up the “A Bridge Too Far” experience at The Red Gallery (a great spot for a morning coffee) and wander down Bridge Street, where the Maungatapu Murders story first trips into real‑world events.
- Meet Scottish Express Adventure Transport: We’ll be waiting with the 4WD near the Nelson Police Station in Albion Square. From there it’s about an hour’s drive up to Maungatapu Saddle (around 750 m), through Mount Richmond Forest Park, heading toward the head of the Maungatapu Track.
- Walk the historic Maungatapu Track: You’ll hike downhill from the saddle, passing Murderers’ Rock—the gang’s hiding spot on the Maungatapu Trail—before descending through fern‑lined valleys and open ridges towards the Pelorus Valley.
- Pick‑up and return: We’ll meet you in the valley, then shuttle you back toward Nelson. But the Maungatapu story doesn’t end there.
- Victorian era life:We also pause briefly at the Rai Cottage, a small 1860s‑era house that gives a quiet snapshot of everyday life in Victorian times
- Victims and gaol sites: We visit Wakapuaka Cemetery to see the monument and graves of the victims of the Maungatapu Murders, then head to Hallowell Cemetery—Nelson’s oldest cemetery—where we stand near the site of the old Nelson Gaol, where the murderers were imprisoned, publicly hanged, and buried just outside the wall.
Why the Maungatapu Murders Still Fascinate
What we’ve really loved about this Maungatapu‑linked tour is the mix of history, landscape, and conversation. The Maungatapu Murders story is fascinating, and it’s full of loose ends that naturally spark debate on the walk: who really killed whom, who was coerced, and who ended up paying the highest price on the Maungatapu Track.
The characters are more complex than the usual “evil gang” trope. Some people dismiss the murderers as not very smart, but once you dive into the full story, you realise a few of them were clever, calculating, and staggeringly reckless.
Richard Burgess’s 46‑page autobiographical confession, written in his cell before his execution, is a key part of that. It’s said that Mark Twain read it in 1895 and described it as “without peer in the literature of murder”—a line that still echoes whenever people talk about this chapter in Nelson’s history.
So… What Do You Think Really Happened on the Maungatapu Track?
Right now, the question I leave with most of our guests is: What’s your take on the Maungatapu Murders?
Was it as cut‑and‑dried as the gallows verdicts suggested, or is there a darker, more tangled truth in the evidence and the testimony on the Maungatapu Trail?
The best way to find out is to walk the track yourself. Let the hills and the quiet forest tell you what they know.
If you’re an Nelson local, a visiting tramper (hiker), or an international adventurer curious about New Zealand’s colonial history, our Maungatapu Murders 4WD shuttle and walking tour is a great way to get outdoors, get into the history, and leave with a story that sticks.
👉 Want to walk the Maungatapu Murders track with us?
Check availability and book your spot at scottish‑express.nz/product/maungatapu‑murders‑track‑shuttle and join us on one of these immersive days out in Nelson’s backyard
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