The only person charged over a brutal outback triple murder admitted riding a victim's motorbike 24 hours after he was last seen alive, a court has been told.

Bruce John Preston, 70, today returned to testify at the two-week inquest into the 1978 murders of Karen Edwards, 23, Tim Thomson, 31, and Gordon Twaddle, 21, in outback Queensland.

The three friends were travelling on motorbikes on their way home to Melbourne for the Christmas holidays.

They were last seen alive at the Moondarra Caravan Park in Mount Isa on October 5 in the company of a man driving a brown and white Toyota LandCruiser.

The trio's decomposing bodies were discovered in bushland at nearby Spear Creek on October 24.

All three had been shot in the head and their motorbikes, camping equipment, gear and keys were miss

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