The only person charged over an outback triple murder has been warned he is close to perjury after an inquest heard claims his father believed "the little bastard done it".

Bruce John Preston faced intense questioning when he took the stand in a wheelchair in the reopened inquest into the 1978 murders of Karen Edwards, 23, Tim Thomson, 31, and Gordon Twaddle, 21, in outback Queensland.

The three friends were on a motorbike adventure, on their way home to Melbourne for the Christmas holidays.

The trio's decomposing bodies were discovered in bushland at Spear Creek, 12km north of Mount Isa, in October 1978.

All three had been shot in the head.

For almost five decades, the crime has remained unsolved, but a new probe by Queensland coroner David O'Connell hopes to finally solve the myster

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