Australia I
Australia is a very haunted continent!
Important cases from New South Wales include:
- The Old Government House in Parramatta
- The Quarantine Station in North Head
- The Rookwood Cemetery.
For Australian
ghost tours, email: enquiries@ghost-tours.com.au
You can also visit their "gravesite" at on the web at
www.ghost-tours.com.au
Brisbane
Brisbane in Queensland is the most haunted city in Australia and locations covered from
that city will include the Old Government House, the Parliament House, and the Brisbane
Arcade, and City Hall, where at least three ghosts haunt the hallways. One is an elegant
woman, another a maintenance man who continually rides the elevator that killed him in a
freak accident, and the last is an American sailor stabbed to death in a fight with
another sailor in the downstairs tearoom. Brisbane cemeteries are also hot spots of
paranormal activity.
Brisbane City Hall
Brisbane City Hall is probably the last place you would think of being haunted,
although many who have worked there and have visited have seen things they cannot explain.
The Hall is reported to be the home to at least 3 ghosts. One is of a lady dressed in
period clothes who is usually seen on the main staircase or at the top of the stairs
overlooking the foyer. The second is of a workman who occasionally rides the lift after
being killed while installing it back in the 1930's. The third resides in the Red Cross
Tearoom, and is the ghost of an American sailor killed by
another sailor after a fight over an Australian girl. Apparently, every now and then
people in the rooms nearby can here the sounds of an argument, the sound of a knife being
drawn and the gruesome sounds of the sailor being murdered.
Brisbane Arcade
Brisbane Arcade is a beautifully restored shopping arcade in the city. It
runs from the Queen Street Mall through to Adelaide Street and has two floors. The ground
floor cuts between the two streets, however the second floor consists of a balcony that
runs its way around the walls of the building with the centre cut out to look back down
onto the first floor.
Quite a bit of work has been done on the restoration process, with a wood finish and
beautiful cast iron latticework on the second floor. Rumour has it that the ghost of a
shopkeeper still walks the arcade on the second level, and has been seen by the arcade
security guards on numerous
occasions. After her death, her shop was closed, however she decided to remain and keep a
watchful eye on the place!
The Plough Inn
The Plough Inn near
Southbank at East Brisbane may seem like
a very innocent pub, although it has its fair share of ghostly stories too.
Built in the late 1800's, the Plough Inn has been one of Brisbane's favourite historical
nightspots for many years. The owners of the Inn believe the ghost to be that of a girl
who was strangled in the building in the 1920's when the area was still fairly rough.
Nobody has actually seen her, although many have heard her voice around the building. Her
favourite part of the Inn is around guestroom 7, although she has been heard in other
parts of the Inn.
Newstead House
This historic house was built in 1846 on the banks of the Brisbane River. It is a restored period
homestead with formal gardens, large verandas, antique furniture and
period exhibits. Most occurrences here are fairly low key, with strange
sounds such as doors opening and closing and at times footsteps can be
heard in various parts of the house. The main ghostly presence is
believed to be that of a woman, most probably a maid, who would have
worked in the house some time ago. She is harmless, being responsible
for moving items about the house. If specific items are placed somewhere
before closing, at times they are found relocated to different sections
of the house at opening time.
DUNWICH
Until replaced by Boggo Road Jail in 1932, St Helena Island in
Moreton Bay was Brisbane's main prison. At some time after its closure one of
the cottages from the old penal
settlement was relocated to Peel Island (another spot with a gruesome history, a
one-time leper colony), and from there to Dunwich on North Stradbroke Island.
At Dunwich it was named Marie Rose Cottage and served as
living quarters for ambulance officers seconded from the mainland. Its innocuous
appearance, however, was deceiving; something evil out of the building’s past
had travelled with it.
One ambulance officer still feels horror when he tells of his
encounter with a demon-like creature in the bedroom of the cottage in 1988. The
memory of the creature's face still haunts him: ‘It had a deeply furrowed
forehead, a sinister mouth with broken and filthy teeth and glowing, orange
eyes. From its mouth came a soft hissing sound and a putrid smell.’ It took all
the ambulance officer's strength, mental and physical, to escape its, powerful
grip and the struggle left him badly bruised. The stench remained in the room
for two days.
Too many others have had similar experiences in and around
this innocent- looking building to dismiss their stories. Whatever the
abomination is, it is not human and never was. Marie Rose Cottage was demolished
a couple of years ago to make way for a new ambulance station and the demon has
not been seen since, but perhaps it's too early to consign it to history just
yet.
HERSTON
Royal Brisbane Hospital, at Herston, is home to quite a number
of spirits, according to legend and newspaper reports. One story relates to a
theatre sister who was supposedly murdered many years ago and whose uniformed
figure, complete with stiff, triangular veil, has often been seen through
frosted glass windows.
A mischievous spirit resides in one ward which was once a
prison ward, pushing buzzers in the middle of the night and luring nurses into
darkened rooms.
Best known of the hospital's ghosts is a female figure dressed
in white who keeps vigil beside patients' beds. Staff have often been asked by
patients to thank the kind lady who sat with them during the night. Nurses,
orderlies, kitchen staff and cleaners have seen her, but most are reluctant to
talk about their experiences. No one knows who she is, or was in life, but
clearly she brings comfort, not fear, to those who encounter her.
Some people also believed that the Adelaide Billings Ward at
the adjacent Royal Children's Hospital was haunted by the nurse after whom it
was named. Matron Billings was greatly loved in her lifetime and after her death
the hospital authorities decided to honour her memory by naming the ward after
her but, it seems, she was not content to be remembered in name only. According
to one story a male nurse found her busily filling a burette from a tap one
night. He thought her face was vaguely familiar but did not recognise her at the
time. The nurse thought no more about it until he glanced at a photo of Matron
Billings hanging in the lobby, and the realisation that he had seen a ghost
struck him.
On many other occasions she was observed touring the ward at
night checking on her tiny patients, stroking foreheads, tucking in bedclothes
and straightening pillows. A few years ago the Adelaide Billings Ward was
demolished to make way for new buildings. Hopefully the tireless matron is now
having a well-deserved rest.
LANDSBOROUGH
The Little Rocky Creek Boy Scout’s Camp at Landsborough near
Glasshouse Mountains once contained an old timber slab and iron settler’s hut. A
bushfire destroyed it few years ago- but its tragic-comic story lives on.
The story goes that the settler who built it was found in the
bedroom one day, his head split with an axe. Top of the list of suspects was his
wife, who was a bad-tempered shrew, but she had vanished. The mystery was never
solved.
From time to time travellers camped in the abandoned hut,
until word got around that it was haunted by a ghostly female figure dressed in
a long nightgown. A teamster and his Irish-born wife, who were either ignorant
of the story or very brave, moved into the hut soon after. When the teamster was
away the wife stayed there alone, apparently untroubled by the ghost.
One cold winter evening a swagman (who knew the hut’s
reputation but fancied himself a match for any ghost) came to the hut and, not
knowing it was occupied, entered and settled down on his blanket. To his horror
a figure appeared at the bedroom door- a woman in a long nightgown. The swaggie
was terrified and his first reaction was to run, but his legs refused to move.
Then the figure spoke (with an Irish accent and barely disguised mirth): ‘I’ll
put no curse on you, man, if you go and chop all the wood that’s outside the
door’.
The swagman did as he was told. He had a large pile of wood
chopped before his courage returned and he decided he had had enough. He pitched
the axe into a hollow tree and headed back to the hut to get his belongings.
Inside, he looked over his shoulder and saw the night-gowned figure again, this
time standing in the doorway he had just entered. Something looked different
about it and when it spoke the Irish lilt was gone. ‘Where's the axe? Where's
the axe?’ the figure screamed at him.
‘What does it matter,’ the swagman replied, ‘I’ve chopped all
the bloody wood!’ He tossed a bottle at the figure- it passed straight through.
‘I put a curse on you for seven days,’ screamed the shrewish
spectre. That was too much for the swaggie, who fainted and fell to the floor.
He woke next morning to find the teamster’s wife bending over him.
‘Begorra,’ she said with her soft Irish burr, ‘what a fine job
you did with the firewood. Get up man and I'll make you a hearty breakfast.'
When the swagman stood up he felt something long, strange and hairy in his pants
leg. He felt inside and discovered the result of the ghost’s curse- he had grown
a tail.
The story goes that he took to the hills and was not seen for
the next seven days, after which he returned looking normal but swearing never
to go near Rocky Creek again in his life.
BUNDABERG
Bundaberg is notable as the birthplace of aviator Bert Hinkler
and singer Gladys Moncrieff. It also has two noteworthy ghost stories.
Gooburrum, on the outskirts of the city,
was home to a spectre the locals called the White Lady. Her haunt was a large
barn and stables erected in 1911 and since demolished. Farm workers who slept in
the loft often woke to see the transparent figure of a woman dressed in white
sitting on the end of their bunks. The brave tried to touch her but found their
hands passed straight through her.
No one knows what happened to the White Lady, after
the barn was demolished, but there are a couple of theories about who she might
once have been. Some believe it was Johanna Rackemann, wife of a one-time owner
of Gooburrum Station. Some old-timers suggested it was the original owner, Emile
Zahn, but if they had reason to believe Mr Zahn would choose to reappear in
women’s clothing after his death they kept it to themselves.
The Gooburrum area is also home to another of those mysterious
lights that appear all over Australia (e.g. Min Min). The Gooburrum light has
been variously described as looking like a torch without a beam, a bicycle lamp
or a very bright match. So many people have seen it that it is accepted as fact
but no one can explain it. All agree that the light only appears on moonless
nights. Some say it has followed them, and one fanciful soul claimed that he
watched it run round and round a telegraph pole like a snake until it reached
the top and then disappeared.
Western Queensland
Ghostly
guests add extra thrills
When
Glennis and Darryl Philbey moved into a historic
Queensland homestead, they didn't expect to share their
new house with ghosts.
Bed and breakfasting tourists can now hope for glimpses
of various ghostly personalities in the Cecil Plains
Homestead in western Queensland, including one gentleman
who the Philbeys are convinced is the ghost of Prussian
explorer Ludwig Leichhardt.
The three ghosts have been seen at the oddest times, says
Glennis Philbey. One is a lady, wearing a high-necked
dress, and there are two men, one in a suit, the other
more casually dressed.
Footsteps are often heard in the house. The most
memorable incident was when a ghostly figure rushed into
the kitchen, without opening the screen door, touched
Glennis on the shoulder and left through another door.
Cecil
Plains is a three-hour drive from Brisbane
Airport.
From Cecil Plains Homestead - email
cecilplainshomesteadau@yahoo.com.au
The Ghosts of Lady Elliot Island
There’s a popular resort on tiny Lady Elliot Island, 80
kilometres northeast of Bundaberg; not as glamorous (or expensive) as most
Barrier Reef resorts, it is richly endowed with natural attractions- and some
unnatural ones.
One of the conducted walks on the island takes guests up a
narrow track to the centre of the island after dark, to visit a tiny well-kept
graveyard. There are only two graves there but each headstone tells a tragic
story. One is the last resting place of 30-year-old Phoebe Jane Phillips,
daughter of lighthouse keeper James Phillips. Phoebe lived a sheltered life on
the island with only her parents for company before dying of pneumonia in 1896.
The other grave is that of Susannah McKee, wife of a later
lighthouse keeper. Susannah McKee came from Ballyganaway in Ireland and bore her
husband, Tom, four sons before accompanying him to Lady Elliot Island. Susannah
found living conditions on the island harsher than she expected. Supplies had to
be brought by ship and were invariably late. Meat and other perishables would
not keep. The living quarters were cramped and windswept. Medical attention was
unavailable. Loneliness, boredom and the sense of isolation weighed heavily on
her mind. After her youngest son went off to boarding school in Rockhampton,
Susannah decided she could stand the conditions no longer. On 23 April 1907 she
put on her best clothes, walked out onto the old guano-loading jetty below the
lighthouse and threw herself into the sea.
There were rumours at the time that Tom McKee had pushed his
wife off the jetty, but no one could prove murder. Tom recovered his wife’s body
and buried her beside Phoebe Phillips on the hilltop but, for some reason,
Susannah McKee did not rest easy in her grave. The first recorded sighting of a
woman fitting Susannah’s description dates from the late 1930s. The keeper at
that time, Arthur Brumpton, looked down from the lighthouse balcony one evening
and saw a female figure dressed in turn-of-the-century clothing walking between
the lighthouse and the three cottages behind it. His small daughter Margaret
also recalled, years later, that she had often felt the presence of a stranger
and heard ghostly footsteps in the lighthouse. She grew up fearing that one day
whatever it was would push her off the balcony. Fortunately that didn't happen,
but the Brumptons' story has a curious sequel. When the family were returning to
Brisbane in 1940 the captain of the ship they travelled on showed them some old
photos of people who had lived on Lady Elliot Island at different times. When he
produced a photograph of Susannah McKee, Arthur Brumpton recognised the woman he
had seen.
In 1985 the Lady Elliot lighthouse was automated and staff at
the newly established resort took over the few duties that were needed to
maintain it. The last lighthouse keeper handed over the three cottages to the
resort’s Operations Manager, Tali Birkmanis, and a multitude of strange things
have occurred ever since then.
Birkmanis was reported as saying that on the night of the
hand-over he and the lighthouse keeper heard strange footsteps in one of the
abandoned cottages. Two of the resort staff moved into the same cottage soon
after: Jeff Raynor, a groundsman, and Chris Lister, a chef. After they finished
moving their furniture in, the two men decided to take a break and sat on a
tractor parked in front of the cottage. It was an unusually still afternoon with
hardly enough wind to stir nearby trees. Suddenly an empty plastic ice-cream
container came flying out of the front door of the unoccupied cottage and landed
at their feet. At dinner that evening Jeff and Chris told their workmates about
the flying container and were told the story of the mysterious footsteps. Jeff
laughed and said he didn’t believe in ghosts. That night he was hurled bodily
from his bed and landed on the floor with a bone-shaking thud in the middle of
the cottage bedroom. After that Jeff slept on the verandah. A few nights later
the groundsman woke around 1 am and, to his horror, could clearly see the
transparent figure of a woman standing in the cottage doorway.
The ghost of Susannah McKee has also been seen peering out of
the cottage windows and striding across the island’s small airstrip- and not
always alone. On some occasions she has been accompanied by a young woman
(Phoebe Phillips?) and an old man wearing blue overalls. A boy wearing a stetson
hat has also been seen by staff and guests, leaning against an Indian almond
tree between two of the cottages. Mysterious bloodstains have appeared from time
to time on the fourth step of the staircase inside the lighthouse, and the
plaintive voice of a little girl calling for her mother has been heard- all of
which suggests that there are dark secrets, unrecorded, in the island's history.
Crank-started generators supply power to the resort and these
are housed in a locked room. Once they stopped suddenly, plunging the resort
into darkness, but before anyone reached the locked room they started up again.
Some old kerosene tins stored in the generator room were heard rattling and
crashing about. A team of painters contracted to repaint the old lighthouse
cottages found that every time they climbed their scaffolding it began to shake
violently, but when they got down the shaking stopped. A lady guest sleeping
alone in a tent one night woke to hear the zippers on the tent opening and
closing. She got up and looked around, but there was no one outside. As she
returned to the tent she realised, to her alarm, the zippers were on the inside.
In the bar of the resort a glass tumbler spontaneously imploded moments after a
guest finished drinking from it. The same guest had laughed as he swallowed the
last mouthful of his drink and declared loudly to the assembly in the bar that
he didn’t believe in ghosts. ‘Ghost stories are a load of bullshit,’ he said.
He, like many other skeptics who have stayed on the island, is now a convert.
Activities Department Head Annie McCarthy says that the ghost
walk to the hilltop cemetery is very popular with guests. Perhaps after a day
spent diving and snorkeling in the emerald waters, paddling across the colourful
reef flats that fringe the island or simply basking in the sun on the glorious
golden beach a ghost story or (for the lucky ones) an encounter with a harmless
ghost is the ideal way to round off a perfect day.
Tasmania
Cases from
Tasmania include the Theatre Royal ghost in Hobart and the floating apparitions of Royal
Hobart Hospital.
Many people have reported seeing apparitions or hearing voices in the old prison
settlement at Port Arthur.
Richmond: Grover and his Dog
Australia's
oldest bridge, in Richmond, Tasmania, is said to
be haunted by the ghost of George Grover, a
flagellator supposedly thrown off the bridge by
the convicts he tortured during its construction.
Grover was transported to Van Diemen’s Land in
1825 for stealing and by 1829 records show him as
the Flagellator at Richmond.
His death in early March 1832 resulted in an
inquest concluding that he had laid
down whilst drunk and "fallen or was
pushed" from the parapet of the bridge, 27
feet in height. "Grover’s ghost is said to appear on the
bridge at certain times."
The ghost of a large black and white dog,
sometimes called 'Grover's Dog', is also seen on
the bridge. One lady reports it appearing at her
side on several occasions as she walked the bridge
at night. It would walk alongside her from one end
to the other, and then disappear as quickly as it
had come.
From Peacefrog AFGS
Port Arthur
Port Arthur was established in 1830 as a convict timber station, the blood,
sweat and labour of the men confined there providing timber for the
new colonies at Sydney. It then became a prison settlement for male
convicts and was intended to provide the most severe punishment for
repeat offenders. The
settlement closed in 1877 and in the next 20 years
many of the buildings were torn down or gutted by
fires.
Ghosts, spectres, apparitions, voices from the
past have been seen and heard, in a variety of
places within the eerie complex.
The men who served their prison sentences in this
place of abject despair were lucky to survive the
tough times, the harsh conditions and the vicious
beatings handed out by the prison guards. It is indeed a place of sorrow.
Just down the road from the prison is the old
church built in 1836-7. It remained unconsecrated.
A ghostly chorus has been heard singing and balls
of light have been seen flying around. Now only
the walls and bell tower have been left standing
because of erosion and bushfires.
During it's construction, so the story goes, two
convicts working on the walls had a bit of an
argument, the resulting altercation seen one of
the two fall to his death. His head struck the
outside wall of the church. Soon after, ivy
started to grow along the walls of the church,
except for the spot where the hapless convict's
head struck the wall.
Stanley Cemetery
Stanley Cemetery is on the North West coast of Tasmania.
It's a peaceful, out of the way little
place, only the sounds of bird
song, rustling leaves and the sea
gently rolling onto a pebbled beach.
Or is
there be more to this little
cemetery?
Look closely at the headstone to your left. Can you see it?
Is this the face of a long dead sailor,
looking out to the sea he loves?
Or are the woodgrain/marks tricking the eyes?
Photograph presented here with the written permission of:
From Peacefrog © -
Victoria
Cases
from Victoria include the ghost of Frederick
Baker, who died of a heart attack while playing
Mephistopheles in Faust at the
Princess Theatre in Melbourne.
The spirits of the
Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail).
The Block Arcade,
which is haunted by three firemen who lost their
lives trying to put out a fire that erupted in a
grain storage warehouse that used to stand on the
spot. Another haunted spot in Melbourne is the
Victoria Market, which is built right on top of
Melbourne's first cemetery. Reports of ghostly
encounters at the market go back to the 1840s and
continue to this day.
Ballarat
The following story was sent to me in an email:
Recently I stayed at my friends house in
Ballarat, Victoria which is famous for being a gold field town in the
1860's. Their house is situated on a hill not far from the city
centre. The house is old an quite rickerty about 120 years old. Many
people have told stories about a ghost which inhabits that house but
I've never seen or heard it in the many visits I've made to the house.
My friends room is right next to the kitchen and looks like it may
have once been used as a food storage room or a cellar. One night I
stayed their after going out for dinner with the residences of the
house. My friend who lives in the room in question stayed at his
girlfriends that night but let me stay their as I live many miles out
of town.
After a cup of tea the rest of my friends turned in for the nite as
did I.
After being asleep for an hour or two I awoke to a splattering noise
right next to my head. I turned on the light to find a ball of puss
next to the bedhead.
I didn't think anything of it cause one of my friends is a bit of a
joker so I yelled "Nice one mate!" and went back to sleep.
The next morning I awoke and helped myself to breakfast in the kitchen
my house mates joker friend Craig came down to join me and I expressed
my disapproval at having what I thought was an egg thrown at me in the
middle of the night. He denied it outright and we started to get into
a bit of an argument about it. As the argument heated up we both heard
a cluttering noise in his room. We both turned our heads and looked
into the friends room that I stayed in the night before. What we saw
scared the life out of me. Clothes were being tossed in the same area
as the goo was tossed.
Me and Craig both gripped each other and looked into the room. As we
did this the clothes being thrown stopped and standing next to the bed
head, where the goo was located the night before was a tall
skinny man with a beard and period miners clothing he was hollow but
held an evil cheaky grin which I will never forget.
We didn't hang around to see him dissapear we just ran outside and to
this day I haven't been back to the house.
Everytime I bring up the topic with my friend he refuses to talk
about it and to this day he still lives in that room (which it think
is crazy).
Since then my sister and and one of her friends who visited the house
said that they had seen a figure, when I asked for a description they
gave me an accurate description of the man that I had seen.
I know this story is a bit long winded but I swear it is true. There
are several other house and properties which I have heard stories
about and I believe them all. It is my opinion that the hard times
endured by many of the old diggers from the 1800's makes Ballarat
Australia's most haunted city.
North Keppel Island
An unexpected experience! The following story came from an email:
I went for a weekend to North Keppel Island just recently. There were
33 of us all together. It was my third visit to the island in about
20yrs or so. I had known the island has a tragic history of aboriginal
and islander slaughter.
I was walking back to my cabin late in the
day, when an apparition passed me. I almost walked in to it. I thought
at first she was another camper and I looked again, she had
disappeared. She had no feet. I decided to keep this to myself, as I
did not want to frighten anyone. It was not until the next day, that
the grounds man took us through the grounds, and just casually said the
grounds are haunted. He promptly described what I saw--a white woman.
I
was not frightened by her, but she has frightened other campers in the
past. Some have said she is in a long flowing gown, one person was able
to track her. Unknown to me I had photographed 3 huts previously
mainly because they are the oldest fishing huts there, and are ear-marked for demolition. She
disappears into the last
hut I photographed.
By this time I had drunk no wine or beer, and was very sober. Three to
four other people who were tiddly heard digerdoos on the beach. It made
them sober up. I chose to tell one person in my hut, because I felt she truly believed in ghosts, and I did not speak
about it until we were on the way home. The ones who heard the
digerdoos were telling other travellers, and I shared my experience.
There may be an investigation into the history of that island into
what happened. I am wondering if she could of seen me as a link, because
I found out that my grandmother slightly knew her. She either died in
childbirth or was murdered. I am only just waiting when I put the
photos in to see what is developed, as after all that I took a photo of
where she enters the grounds! I will only let the grounds man know if a
photo shows her presence.
I have put this on to other sites, but will
only give out more details of her, when one willingly accepts the
story. Waiting for a Brisbane ghost hunt society to answer back.
Thanks,
Lolly
From Lolly -
next page
