HGB Ep. 535 - Berrima Courthouse and Haunts

Moment in Oddity - Crawfordsville Monster

In the fall of 1891 in Crawfordsville, Indiana there was an unidentified specter that brought dread and horror upon the town. The incident took place in the wee hours of the morning on the 5th of September. Two men were preparing their ice delivery wagon when they witnessed something unexplainable to them. The creature appeared to be about 18 feet long by 8 feet wide moving through the air with several pairs of fins. It was white in color and had no distinct shape or form. They reported there was a single flaming eye and that the creature made a plaintive wheezing sound. It is said that the men observed the entity for nearly an hour hovering three to four hundred feet in the sky before they left the area. Even a pastor and his wife reported observing the phenomenon. Shortly after the Pastor's experience was shared, the Keeley Institute for Inebriates reached out to the pastor and his wife suggesting they visit and receive treatment. There were multiple newspaper articles regarding the encounters, with the Crawfordsville Journal, the Indianapolis Journal and the Brooklyn Eagle reporting on the sightings. The local postmaster was deluged with letters, some of which stated that Judgement Day was near. Thankfully two eyewitnesses tracked the beast and discovered it was actually a flock of several hundred killdeer birds. It was determined that due to foggy conditions and newly installed electric city lights, the birds became disoriented, causing them to fly in a different manner than usual. However, there was also an alternative explanation for the apparition. This entailed a 'balloon parachute craze' caused by boys in the city, some of which supposedly sent cats up in the balloons. Many of us in our podcast group are avid bird watchers, but a story that is still publicized today about a large spectral entity comprised of a flock of birds, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The Birth of Edward Everett

In the month of April, on the 11th, in  1794, orator Edward Everett was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He was a gifted young man with an insatiable appetite for knowledge. Everett graduated Harvard University after four years of study at just 17 years of age. He then served as a pastor in Boston and from there continued pursuing academic goals. Everett received his Ph.D. in Germany, becoming the first American to earn a German doctoral degree. Other career achievements included time spent as the President of Harvard, the Governor of Massachusetts, he was elected a United States Congressman and Senator as well as Ambassador to Great Britain and Secretary of State. One of his most memorable achievements however, was personally raising more than $69,000 for the Mount Vernon Ladies Association to purchase Mount Vernon. His lectures spanned from March 1856 until spring of 1861 and raised a third of the monies needed for the purchase of what he spoke of as "his Washington". Everett sent all the money earned from those audience filled lecture halls to the Ladies Association without keeping anything to cover his own travel expenses. Although his lifetime achievements were great, he is best remembered as the man who lectured at Gettysburg for two hours while Abraham Lincoln's speech was two minutes in length.

Berrima Courthouse and Haunts (Suggested by: Julie Burton)

The Berrima Courthouse in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales in Australia is a great example of colonial architecture. The courthouse was a necessity as the colony was built on convicts and many continued their wayward deeds. The village of Berrima itself was an important stop on the path from Sydney to Victoria and there were several hotels in the area. Many historic structures still remain and spirits just may be inhabiting them, including the ghost of Australia's first serial killer. Join us as we explore the history and haunts of Berrima, Australia!

Berrima is a small historic village in the heart of the Southern Highlands. The Highlands sit 68 miles southwest of Sydney and feature a luscious wine region. Berrima had once been the main town here and was initially meant to be the capital of the Southern Highlands. The Dharawal aboriginal people had lived along the coastal area here for centuries as hunter-fisher-gatherers. European settlers arrived in the early 1800s. Two of these people were James Harper and his wife Mary. James had been the police chief constable at Sutton Forest and he was the son of convicts. Mary herself was a convict. They bought a block of land in Berrima in 1832 and built the Surveyor General Inn in 1834 in the Georgian style. The inn remains today and is the oldest continuously licensed hotel in all of Australia. The name was a nod to Thomas Mitchell who was the Surveyor General of the colony of New South Wales from 1828 until his death in 1855. He was a larger-than-life character from Scotland. 

Despite nearly 20 other licensed inns opening up in Berrima, The Surveyor General Inn did very well and clearly outlasted all of them despite a downturn in travel when the railway caused Berrima to be bypassed. Motor cars brought the tourists back in the 1930s. By the 1960s, the place was fairly neglected and rundown and would have been demolished had it not been for residents making a push to get Parliament to pass a special Act to preserve the Inn and maintain it's historic license. Restoration was difficult as the inn had been built from sandstone that was badly weathered. The current owners are the Durney family and in 1997 they added an extension at the back of the inn to house a bistro. People claim that the inn is haunted. James Harper retired from the pub in 1839 and leased the business to recently widowed Ann Richards who owned a brewery at Goulburn and a general store in Berrima. She only hosted at the inn until 1840 when a Ralph Hush leased the place and he was replaced by William Taylor and his wife Mary in 1841. William had been a convict shipped to Australia after stealing sheep in 1832 and his wife Mary and daughter Lucy joined him the following year. Mary died in 1842 and William remarried to a woman named Bridget in 1844 and they would open the Crown Inn in 1844, which remains open in Berrima as Taylor's Crown Inn.

The ghost story featuring the Surveyor General Inn is connected to the Taylors. The Sydney Herald reported on June 13th 1842, "A considerable sensation has been felt by the inhabitants of this town, owing to the sudden death of Mrs. Taylor, landlady of the Surveyor General Inn. Mrs. Taylor was in apparent good health on the evening of the 7th-and was observed passing to and fro underneath the verandah of the inn-however about two am. Mr.  Taylor was awakened by her restlessness, and   asked her, " What was the matter," she replied, " Eh !" and never spoke afterwards having departed this life at 9 a.m. Mr. and   Mrs. Taylor had been married 30 years, and her sudden decease has been doubly felt by him-being nearly inconsolable ; it is to be hoped, the sympathy and attentions shewn to him by his friends and acquaintances, will so far succeed as to ameliorate his sorrows, for this lamented, but premature bereavement." The staff claims that Mary Taylor has returned to the Surveyor General in the afterlife. Her full-bodied apparition has been seen.

In 1835, James Harper built Harper's Mansion, which still sits on a hill overlooking the town and features one of the largest hedge mazes in the country. This was designed in the Georgian style and built from bricks made on site. The exterior was three bricks thick and the interior was two bricks thick. More than likely, the workforce was the same as those building the Berrima Courthouse and Gaol at the same time. The Harpers had six children with only three of them living into adulthood. One of the boys was only 2.5 years old when he walked into one of the immense fireplaces in the house. The other two more than likely passed from an illness like small pox at the ages of six and seven. Harper owned much of the land in Berrima and he died in 1845 heavily in debt. He had big hopes for Berrima and while many blocks of land had been sold to speculators, not much had been developed. The house is said to be haunted.

Dodger52 wrote on TripAdvisor, "The friend I was with had to quickly rush outside as she felt something strange that made her feel ill. Once outside she was OK, but was not prepared to go back in. She said she is very sensitive to phenomena. Apparently 3 children had died in the house over 100 yeas ago and 1 particularly gruesome death with a child dying when he fell into an open fire. So, the place is very interesting and worth a visit during their open days. It is historic over 135 years old and well restored and looked after." And there are indeed reports of haunting activity at the mansion. A Lady in White has made occasional appearances and psychics claim there are other spirits.

Governor Bourke visited Berrima in 1834 and he chose the site for the building of the courthouse. He laid the foundation stone in March of 1835 and sandstone was quarried from Church Hill. The roof was made from timber shingles, which was later replaced by slate. Immediate issues developed with the original architect and contractors and so construction was stalled until Mortimer Lewis was appointed as the Colonial Architect. He designed the courthouse in the Regency style with four Doric columns across the front. The interior had decorative plasterwork cornices and cedar mouldings and the courtroom was topped by a vast "greenhouse" type structure that allowed natural light to fill the interior. This was later replaced by skylights. The front entrance was bigger than it needed to be to inspire awe in all those who entered. Juror rooms were in both wings of the courthouse. There were also Housekeeper’s rooms, a dressing room for the staff, judge’s retiring room or chambers, an office for the Clerk of the Court and a Witness Room. Even with this new architect, issues continued and construction took until 1839 to be completed. Sub-standard workmanship left the roof leaking and water seeping into the foundation and major repairs were needed over the next 20 years. 

The courthouse opened with a salaried Police Magistrate and nine police constables. It served as a Court of Assizes from 1839 to 1846. Assize courts dealt with civil matters and criminal matters that were less serious. Although here in Berrima, murder cases were tried at the courthouse. The first trial by jury in Australia took place here. This was also where all public administration was handled, like the licenses for taverns and people selling wares. Convicts also got their assignments here. Community events like dances and concerts were also held in the building, along with meetings. During World War I, German officers were kept in cells in the courthouse as prisoners-of-war. The School of the Arts used the building in the 1930s. They would be followed by other organizations until the courthouse was closed in 1972. The Department of Public Works restored the building after that and tried to bring it back to its original state and that work was finished in 1976. The Berrima Courthouse opened as a museum that is owned by the New South Wales government and managed by a trust made up of local residents.

One of the most famous cases tried here was for Lucretia Dunkley and Martin Beech in 1843. The brutality of their crime shocked the entire colony. Lucretia had arrived in Australia as a convict who had been found guilty of serious crimes and sentenced to life in prison. She married Henry Dunkley in 1834 and the two had a farm near Gunning. In 1842, Henry hired paroled convict Martin Beech to work on the farm. Martin and Lucretia soon started an affair. In September of 1842, Henry went missing. Neighbors reported the behavior of Beech and Lucretia to the local magistrate and they were arrested with a paper reporting that Dunkley's disappearance "has turned out to be one of those deep laid preconcerted acts of human butchery, which occasionally take place to the disgrace of human nature."

Lucretia had confessed that Beech entered her and her husband's bedroom with a candle and axe and hit Henry in the forehead with the axe as he slept. Beech struck Henry two more times. The force was so great that it broke Henry's back. The two then put Henry's body in a sack and buried him in a hole and then cleaned the house. Despite the confession, the couple plead not guilty and were tried and found guilty and sentenced to hang.The judge said of Lucretia, "You, Lucretia - a name ill assorted with the adulteress and the murderer! - exhibited on your trial, a tone and manner, accompanied by language, which might well excite doubt of your kindred with the human species, and lead to the conviction that the Devil himself had, for a time, assumed the female form."

The pair were quickly executed. When Lucretia was hanged, her body ejected a fetus that she had apparently been impregnated with by Beech when the two shared a cell at the Berrima Gaol. Lucretia and Beech had their heads cut off after they were hanged and the bodies were buried standing up, so that they would never know any rest. Their skulls were sent off for scientific study in phrenology. Eleven years after that, the skulls were donated to the Australian Museum where they were put in boxes and still remain. The fetal skull had also been with them, but is believed to have disintegrated. This story is told in the courthouse with an audio and light show and creepy looking mannequins.

The old Berrima Gaol was built in 1835 by a pardoned convict named James Gough and John Richards. Convicts in leg irons did the work under the watchful eyes of red coated British garrisons. The gaol had walls of stone three feet thick and thirty feet high and three wings that were two-stories high. There was a central watchtower and 34 cells. This wasn't a place anyone wanted to be with harsh conditions. Cells were dark with solid cedar doors and prisoners were confined to them nearly all day. An underground floor had three solitary confinement cells and every prisoner had to spend time in them. Eventually, a larger gaol was built in another town and this became a place for mainly older and sick prisoners. The gaol closed in 1909 and then reopened in 1949 as the Berrima Training Center after extensive rebuilding. During World War I, this was an internment camp for German prisoners. The gaol was minimum security until 1970 when it was upgraded to medium security and remained that way until 2001. In 2001, the name was changed to Berrima Correctional Center and with that came a major change. For 166 years it had just been a gaol for men and now this would be a women's gaol. It closed again in 2011, but was reopened in 2016, finally closing for good in 2020.

There were two successful escape attempts from the gaol. Bushranger Larry Oummins crawled 400 yards down a drainpipe to the river. At the end he found a grate blocking his way and managed to break it out. The other escapee was named Mad Tom Can of Careoar. He had been sentenced to the gaol after stealing a horse. He made it over the gaol wall by making a hook out of a horseshoe and tying it to a homemade rope composed of strips of a chaff bag and throwing the hook up to the edge of the wall when the guard wasn't looking. Both men were recaptured.

The courthouse features history tours and ghost tours because the place is reputedly haunted. The APPI has experienced a variety of activity while conducting tours. They've heard disembodied footsteps, had doors unlatch themselves and creak open, seen full-bodied apparitions and even had doppelgangers. There has also been piano music heard and poltergeist activity moves objects around the property. During an investigation, APPI captured an EVP that said, "Free them all cops." (EVP Berrima) A police prosecutor was attacked in the male holding cell once when APPI was investigating. They have a video on their website and it really looks like something got this guy. Perhaps a spirit that knew he was a law man and wasn't happy about it. Johnny commented, "I spent a lot of time at this location. Had footsteps walk right up to and past me. Another time loud exhaling sounds. Also a tapping sound that use codes to communicate and it was always correct." 

They conducted a sensory deprivation experiment. A guest named Liz took part and she felt the air around her become very heavy and dense and then towards the end she ducked her head quickly and she explained that even though she had headphones on, she thought she heard a loud bang. And then she felt like something was on top of her. She shook uncontrollably for about 5 minutes after the experiment. The group also conducted a table tipping session in a cell and a guest named Helen started to feel her chair being tipped forward even though no one was behind her. And then she heard heavy breathing and felt very cold. Then she thought she heard someone say the name James or John and it seemed angry. She herself felt overcome with anger and had to leave the cell. Another guest named Andrea had visited the courthouse many time and she had the following experience. She was standing next to a basin in the Judge's quarters and she had her back to the door. The doorknob started rattling. And then the door opened, but everybody who was in the building was inside the room, so who opened the door? A short time later, the door to the vanity under the basin opened by itself.

There are thought to be several spirits here. One is referred to as Pale-faced Paddy Curran. Patrick Curran had been indicted for raping a woman named Mary Wilmore in 1841. Her husband had been away and Curran accosted her when she went out for some wood and he held a knife to her throat. The jury found him guilty. He was also indicted for being an accomplice to a Patrick Berry who shot a constable named Patrick McGuire. They both beat him too. The jury deliberated for about a quarter of an hour and found Curran guilty of that crime as well. He was sentenced to death. He is seen flitting through the pine trees on dark nights.

Another ghost is referred to as the abominable John Lynch, who was said to be the most callous murderer in Australia's history. And he was a horrible man. He would go from simple thievery to serial killer. Lynch was born in Ireland in 1812. When he was nineteen-years-old, he was tried and convicted of "obtaining goods under false pretences" in 1831. He was sent the colony of New South Wales and arrived in October 1832. Lynch was assigned to work at the Oldbury Farm and by 1836, he and another man named John Williamson were tried for the murder of another assigned servant on the farm named Thomas Smith. That man's body was found in the hollow of a fallen tree about a mile from the convict huts at the farm. There were two heavy pieces of wood nearby covered in blood and human hair. The case rested on a witness who wasn't found to be credible and Lynch was found not guilty. Lynch later confessed that he did kill the man. He was put on a chain gang and later turns up in 1839 having reported being stabbed by three other convicts who were sentenced to death. Those sentences were commuted to being sent to a penal settlement. It later came out that Lynch was bragging about how he got three men transported from the colony, but in actuality he had stabbed himself to get revenge on them for something. 

Lynch escaped and committed the Razorback murders in which he killed a young aboriginal boy and a man named Edmund Ireland with a tomahawk. He stole their stuff and headed towards Berrima where he committed the Fraser murders. This was a father and son and Lynch again used the tomahawk and stole their stuff. In Berrima, he hit the Mulligan Farm and killed John Mulligan and his de facto wife Bridget Macnamara and her two children. One of them was Mary who was only 13 and Lynch violated her before murdering her. He then piled the bodies up and burned them and then squatted on the property for six months. As papers related, the sickest thing about this guy was that "he -always prayed to the Almighty for aid before committing his killings."

His final murder would be his undoing. He met a 27-year-old man named Kearns Landregan along the road in February 1842. He asked the young man to come with him to Berrima to do some fencing and so they traveled together. They camped near the Ironstone Bridge about seven miles from Berrima. The morning of February 20th, Lynch hit Landregan on the back of the head with the tomahawk twice. He dragged the body into the brush and decided to come back later to bury it. The next day, a labourer was passing by and found the body and reported it in Berrima. A publican named John Chalker told the authorities that he had seen the dead man in the company of John Lynch. The two had dinner at his establishment. He later went with the police to identify John Lynch. Lynch was arrested and indicted for Landregan's murder. And then more people came forward and before long, the authorities realized they had a multi-murderer on their hands. The Sydney Herald said of Lynch, "We doubt whether there ever existed in this Colony a man so deep in crime as this man, and yet his appearance is not in the least such as would lead one to suppose he was a murderer." Lynch was a good-looking guy who only stood 5 foot 3 inches tall. Lynch was tried in the Berrima Courthouse on March 21, 1842 and found guilty of Landregan's murder. He was sentenced to hang. Lynch had killed at least ten people, so this was justice for all of them. Before the trap door swung down ending Lynch's life, he did a little step-dance for the crowd.

A third spirit here is said to be Lucretia Dunkley and she appears as a headless apparition. Martin Beech's spirit is here as well, missing his head too. Paranormal investigator Judy Kemme and psychic June Cleeland are part of Southern Highlands Ghost Hunts and Investigations. Kemme told The Sydney Morning Herald, "You can never guarantee paranormal activity is going to happen, but I've never had it not happen in here. We've heard doors slamming, voices, and you'll probably feel the presence as you go in." She pointed to the jail next door and said, "People were hanged just over there, and the bodies were buried standing up just inside that wall. So you never know who's going to be hanging around." Cleeland definitely feels like Lucretia is haunting the courthouse. She told the paper, "This is one of the most haunted places I've been in. Some of them, like Lucretia, are not really aware most of time. She's lost in her own anger, bitterness and resentment. But there are others that will stand giggling, watching you, and they want to do things, make noises. Others are sort of passing through."

Berrima has a long history in Australia and many firsts for the colony happened in this little village. Are there spirits of killers walking the streets and hanging out in the buildings? Are these locations in Berrima haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 487 - Haunted New South Wales

Moment in Oddity - Beatle Wigs

If you've never heard of a band called the Beatles, you must be living under a rock somewhere on a remote island. In 1963, the United Kingdom embraced the Beatles with rave reviews. When the band's first single released stateside, "Please Please Me" it was a resounding flop initially. While Beatlemania was well on its way in the UK, even the drop of the bands third and fourth singles still had an almost non existent fan base in the US. The manner in which the band overcame America's lack-luster response is intriguing. In December of 1963 the single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" debuted with a more favorable reaction than the prior singles. The Beatles were set to begin their first American tour in February, 1964. In a tactical campaign move to increase their popularity, the Beatles went all out. An onslaught of band merchandise consisting of buttons, bumper stickers and even Beatle styled wigs arrived in America. By the time of their tour, more than 1,000 pounds of wigs had been shipped into the United States. On February 9th, 1964, the Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show with over 70 million viewers tuning in. As the British Invasion swept the United States the band contributed countless chart topping hits. It's tough now, to imagine a time in America when the Beatles were not popular, however, the fact that over 1,000 pounds of bowl-cut wigs contributed to turning the tide of popular opinion, certainly is odd. 

This Month in History - Transcontinental Railroad

In the month of May, on the 10th, in 1869, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways were first linked at Promontory Point, Utah. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in the history of the United States. On the celebrated date, the presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads drove a gold ceremonial spike joining the two railroad tracks. As far back as 1832, both Eastern government and frontier statesmen knew that the two sides of the nation needed to be connected. Although Congress allocated funding for the inspection of possible routes for the transcontinental railroad in 1853, the building would need to wait much longer. One of the reasons for this was the mounting tensions between the North and the South, preventing an agreement regarding the railroad's starting point. In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act, giving public land grants and loans to the two railroads chosen to undertake the task. Interestingly, in the rush to complete the transcontinental connection, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific built their two separate lines right past each other. This caused the final connection point to be renegotiated. In 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed ahead of schedule after laying almost 2,000 miles of track and coming in under budget. The rapid growth of the United States was greatly improved due to the speed and convenience of travel that the railroad delivered.

Haunted New South Wales 

New South Wales in Australia seems to be the most haunted state in the country and for good reason. This was the first place colonized in Australia. Not only is there a long history here that features a country built by convicts, but there is the displacement of the indigenous people who had been here for thousands of years. We've covered some of the more well known haunted locations in New South Wales on previous episodes, so on this one we are going to explore the lesser known haunts. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of New South Wales!

New South Wales is the oldest state in Australia and was the site of the landing by the First Fleet from Britain. This fleet included eleven ships arrived in 1788. Captain James Cook took possession of New South Wales in 1770 and named it for King George III. Of course, in saying that, we all realize that the land was already being lived upon by indigenous people. The group of convicts and jailers that arrived on the First Fleet set up a small settlement on the foreshores of Sydney Harbor. There were about 1,000 of them, but this number would grow extensively over the next five decades. And to be fair, the definition of a criminal back then is different then our modern era. Some of these people were political prisoners and some had committed lesser offenses. As New South Wales grew, it would break apart into the different states that now make up Australia. We covered the haunted Quarantine Station in Manly on Ep. 17, the Monte Cristo Homestead on Ep. 51 and Maitland Gaol on Ep. 68, all locations in New South Wales. These are some of the bigger, more well known places. Now let's look at some of the lesser known places.

Old Helensburgh Railway Tunnel

Old Helensburgh Railway Tunnel in Helensburgh, New South Wales is surrounded by a beautiful green landscape. Many people who visit this location claim that it is scary as hell. The legend here is that a miner named Robert Hales was walking through the tunnel on his way home when a steam train came down the line, into the tunnel and hit and killed him. His body was severed in two. People feel as though they are being followed in the tunnel and worse, they see only half of an apparition. Sometimes the top and sometimes the bottom.

Wakehurst Parkway

Wakehurst Parkway has a hitchhiking ghost. This is a road running from North Narrabeen through to Seaforth in New South Wales. The story goes that on a section of road near Oxford Falls a young girl - or nun in some stories - appears and accepts rides. One story we read claims the girl's name is Kelly. Drivers then tell stories of being tormented by the woman's piercing green eyes when they look at her in the rear view mirror. The drivers then crash their cars as the woman disappears. And there really are a lot of crashes on this stretch of raod. People are encouraged to not drive on it at night. Car headlights randomly fail or cars break down for no reason. There is no cell service in the area making it even more dangerous. 

Redbank Range Railway Tunnel

Redbank Range Railway Tunnel is located in Picton, New South Wales and is also sometimes called The Mushroom Tunnel because it was used for a time to grow mushrooms. Picton is said to be one of Australia's most haunted towns. The tunnel runs 592 feet in length and was used between 1867-1919 as a  corridor to and from Melbourne. The tunnel was used during World War II to store weapons and mustard gas spray tanks. A woman named Emily Bollard was struck by a train in the tunnels in 1916 and her spirit is said to haunt the tunnel. She may be at unrest because no one is sure if it was an accident or if she jumped in front of the train on purpose. The spirit of Emily usually appears without her face. Stories claim that a young girl was assaulted and killed in the tunnel and that she too haunts the place. Visitors report lights floating above people's heads, seeing shadow figures, sudden drops in temperature and the apparitions of children.

Mrs Me wrote in 2015, "I was there in 2009 and i filmed a female face in the tunnel on my phone i did send it to people, but i think its been lost now.The female seemed young with dark hair it was towards the end of the tunnel the face would appear on my phone, and this happened in broad daylights." And Tracey said, "I have investigated that tunnel numerous times in the past ( not in a tour) & with fellow investigators, using scientific equipment. It was common to see the coloured lights & hear rocks being thrown around you when no other person was in there. We even captured that on IR video which we still have. We also witnessed one of those lights becoming large and forming into a whitish figure that was floating off the ground and looked like a holagram. I have numerous EVP taken on a voice recorder and also on a ghostbox."

Gladesville Mental Hospital (Suggested by: Kathy Bergin) 

Gladesville Mental Hospital is one of those asylums that started with a cruel history that lends itself to hauntings later. This began as the Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum in 1838 just outside of Sydney, Australia. Care of the mentally ill would change and get better through the decades. And yet, a creepy essence has been left behind. The keepers in asylums were once called wardens, which reflects the early treatment of the mentally ill. The ill were referred to as lunatics and inmates and they were considered dangerous and needed to be locked away from society. On previous asylum episodes, we have mentioned Bedlam, the first asylum opened in London, England back in 1247. This was the model that many institutions followed, so patients weren't treated for their ailments and they weren't cared for either. Many were left in their own waste and vomit and were chained to beds and walls. Wealthy people with mental illness were usually kept at home and locked in rooms or separate wings, or they would be moved to private homes set up for their care. Doctors who cared for them were called alienists. This term started to be used in the mid-nineteenth century. Most people probably haven't heard of this term, but it was resurrected by a television series that launched in 2018. The mentally ill were thought to have mental alienation and alienists were tasked with studying, understanding and caring for the afflicted.

Now let's flip to the 19th century in Sydney, Australia. When the First Fleet arrived in Australia in 1788, many of the first 750 convicts brought here were mentally ill. Anybody that was a risk to the community was locked up and criminals, the mentally disabled and the mentally ill were all imprisoned at the Town Gaol in Parramatta. The first mental asylum was built in 1811 at Castle Hill in New South Wales. The first purpose built psychiatric hospital would be Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum, which opened in 1838 in Sydney. Twelve more asylums would be built in New South Wales in the 1800s. Treatment was horrendous until The Lunacy Act was introduced in 1843, but improvements really wouldn't be made until 1852 when the government started investigating violence, corruption, mistreatment and mismanagement. Moral treatment began along with work schemes as asylums became more like farms. Treatment would improve even more over the decades with medication. Deinstitutionalization began in Australia in 1992.

Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum was built on the banks of the Parramatta River in a town named Gladesville. Before the convicts made their way to this area, the Wallumettagal people of the Eora nation lived here. They left behind their rock carvings. Gladesville was named for John Glade who bought the land here in 1836. And it's a good thing they changed the name because before that it was called Doody's Bay. Okay, so we'll put aside our thirteen-year-old boy senses of humor and reveal that it was named for the guy who got the first land grant, John Doody. Construction on the asylum began in 1836 under the design of Colonial Architect, Mortimer Lewis. That construction was completed in 1838. This initial design consisted of two wards, one for each gender, and could accommodate sixty patients in separate cells. There was also a central Keeper's House.

John Thomas Digby was the first supervisor and his wife Susannah served as matron. Patients were brought in from Liverpool and the Female Factory at Parramatta. In 1848, Dr. Francis Campbell became the Medical Supervisor, but Digby would remain until 1850 when he was dismissed. Frederick Norton Manning was the next supervisor and he came on board in 1867. He had just returned from a trip overseas to study methods of patient care. Upon his first inspection of the asylum, he was disturbed to see the isolation of the patients and how gloomy and prison-like the asylum was with a monotonuous and deficient diet. The name of the asylum was changed in 1869 to the Hospital for the Insane, Gladesville. This change was made to indicate that people would be cared for and no longer locked away. Manning ordered that restraints be used at a minimum. The hospital was expanded and modernized and new workshops and workrooms were constructed.

One of the older buildings on the grounds was made from stone, brick and timber and was dubbed "The Priory." This was built in the late 1840s by Thomas Stubbs as designed by William Weaver and Henry Hardie Kemp in the Georgian style and had a west face with a gable and painted sundial. This sundial was considered a relic and was the only vertical sundial in Australia. This portion of The Priory was later demolished and the sundial lost. There is a Catholic religious organization in Australia known as the Society of Mary and members are called the Marist Fathers, who model their lives after the Virgin Mary. They used The Priory in the early days and then it was acquired by the hospital in 1888 as part of its expansion. This land had already been set up as a farm and vineyard, so the patients just continued that work, harvesting the crops for use at the hospital. They did this farming for more than 60 years.

Colonial Architect James Barnet designed additional buildings in the hospital grounds precinct. One of these buildings was a two-story plus basement stone and slate building with verandah, timber framed awning and corrugated iron verandah roof with a stone chimney. This was completed in 1878 and served as the Medical Superintendent's residence. Other buildings added to the property included the wash house, the dead house and gate keeper's quarters. A cemetery was also added to the property at a distance from buildings and consecrated. Eric Sinclair headed up the asylum from 1882 to 1925. He oversaw gas lighting being added to the property and water issues that had continued for decades would finally be rectified. Gladesville would be the only mental hospital with industrial workshops in New South Wales. The name was changed to Gladesville Mental Hospital in 1915.

Horace Henry Nowland became supervisor in 1926 and he stayed on until 1950. He laid the foundation at the hospital for an enlightened approach to the treatment of the mentally ill. Despite his efforts, the 1930s to 1950s were considered a period of decline in mental health treatment. Gladesville Mental Hospital was used as an air raid shelter during World War II. The main shelter was cut into the terrace alongside the Weaver wing's main front. In the 1960s, the headstones were removed from the cemetery and taken to the Field of Mars Cemetery. There was no indication that bodies were moved as well. The number of patients at the the hospital declined greatly by the 1970s when services were decentralized. Gladesville Hospital was combined with Macquarie Hospital to form the Gladesville Macquarie Hospital in 1993. The last inpatient services were closed down in 1997.

As we know, the kind of care and numbers of deaths at these facilities lends itself to haunting activity. Patients were abused and restrained for hours at a time. Female patients were assaulted by fellow male patients and staff. Staff were also assaulted by patients, one of them dying 1884 after being kicked in the stomach by a patient. Even with modern advances, it was reported in a newspaper in 1954 that a female patient's head was left burnt after she received electric shock treatments. Mass graves are believed to be on the property, possibly holding up to 1200 people. Because of all of this, the hospital is said to be the most haunted place in New South Wales. Now we could believe that, but there aren't many stories to back that up because this is an abandoned property left to neglect and vandalism. A picture taken by Yvette Worboys in 2011 seemed to reveal a presence standing in a doorway. Psychics claim there are spirits here and several people have written in blogs that walking the property gives them the creeps. A writer on leftrightcreative.org wrote, "I can attest to the eerie and unsettling feeling that cloaks you as you make your way through Gladesville Mental Hospital." 

King George V Avenue

King George V Avenue in Tamworth was created as a tribute to King George V. This is an avenue of English Oaks planted in 1936 at the Paradise Tourist Park. The trees form an interlocking cathedral like effect that is today a protected site. There are many reports of a phantom set of headlights appearing to people driving toward the city on the Avenue. Cars have random electrical problems like fuses blowing. A ghost car is also seen.

Jenolan Caves

The Jenolan Caves are located in the World Heritage Blue Mountains and are the largest cave system in Australia. The Gundungurra People have been the traditional custodians of the caves with the Burra Burra being the main clan here. Each clan has its own special totem animal and they are not allowed to injure, kill or eat this animal. The totem for the Burra Burra is the Gunyunggalong Biggiewan. We think this is a lizard. The totems come down from the Dreamtime, which is an explanation of how the Earth and everything in it was created. This is a religious belief system. The Jenolan Caves receive more than a quarter million visitors every year. There are many creepy tales connected to the caves, which is not surprising based on what we have shared about caves in Kentucky. Staff and visitors claim to see phantom figures, lights turn on and off b y themselves and security gates rattle. One of the spirits here is believed to belong to James Wiburd, who was Jenolan’s third caretaker around 1903. He loved the place so much, they think he never left. One visitor claimed to have seen someone in the shadows watching the tour group and that this appeared to be an old man in a suit. The Jenolan Caves embrace their spirits and share these stories on their website:

"The Orient Scream

One evening, cave guide, Geoff Melbourne, was taking a small family through the Orient Cave.  It was very quiet. They were in a chamber known as ‘The Well’, looking up at the natural dome far above them.  Geoff was describing their surroundings, when he heard a loud, piercing scream, that made him jump. It came from the chamber that they had just left. The man said, “What was that noise?”  Geoff said, “What did you hear?”  “Sounded like a woman screaming,” the man said. Geoff said, ‘Yep, that’s what it sounded like to me.” The children started to cry, and they all decided to leave the cave without finishing the tour.

Why didn’t he check it out?  He said that he was absolutely certain there was no one else in the cave. They had just been in the chamber from which the sound had come. It’s impossible for visitors to get into a cave unaccompanied, and there was no reason for any staff to be there at night.  Could it have been a Sooty Owl?  Although it is quite uncommon to see or hear one, there are Sooty Owls at Jenolan. They have only ever been seen in the Nettle Cave, where they have roosted for literally thousands of years.  Sooty Owls make a short, descending screech, which is often called the ‘falling bomb whistle’.  Did they hear a Sooty Owl that night?  Geoff doesn’t believe so, as there is no way that an owl could have got into the Orient Cave, because of the solid doors, and in the Orient, it is impossible to hear any external noises, no matter how loud, even if a real bomb fell!

The Laughing Children

The Jubilee Cave is currently closed for tours, but a few years ago, cave guide, Geoff Melbourne, was showing a group of adults through.  The big chamber called the ‘Water Cavern’ marked the furthest reaches of the Jubilee, where tour groups always turn around to go back. The group had stopped to photograph the unusual chocolate-coloured stalactites and gaze into the enormous Water Cavern, before turning around to return the way they came.  Out of the darkness of the cavern, Geoff clearly heard the noise of a group of small children giggling and laughing.  He asked his group, “Did you hear that?  They all heard it too.  There was no explanation.  They could not leave quickly enough.

The Shoulder Tap

Some cave guides, while underground, have been tapped on their shoulder. They look around, but no one is there. It seems to happen to the female guides more often.  Some guides speculate it is the ‘ghost’ of James Wiburd, who worked at Jenolan for nearly 50 years, from 1885 to 1932, and was devoted to the place.  He and his colleagues explored the cave system thoroughly, discovering several of Jenolan’s most spectacular caves.  It is even rumoured that his ashes are hidden in the caves.

Visitors have sometimes told stories of seeing a tall, thin old man on their tour, sporting a big moustache and dark suit, but when they looked again he was gone. The description matches Wiburd.  He was a gentleman.  Maybe when he taps female guides on the shoulder, he’s really trying to say, “Young lady, you are doing a better job than I ever did.” We hope that’s it, anyway.

The Children in the Hallway

Caves House staff have repeatedly reported that at night they hear children loudly running up and down the hallway in the Vernon Wing, which was the first section of Caves House to be built, in 1897. (The Vernon Wing is currently staff accommodation.) The noise is loud enough to keep staff awake at night, but no children are ever seen.

The Lady’s Arm

In March 2014, cave guide, Geoff Molesworth, was conducting the ‘Legends, Mysteries & Ghost’ tour, in the Mud Tunnels near the River Cave. The discussion of belief came up. One of the visitors asked whether he believed the caves really are haunted, or if it was just made up. A lady decided to share her story of what had happened in Caves House just the night before, when she was staying in room 211. To her horror, she saw a ghostly arm coming through the door of her room - no body - just an arm, wearing a lace cuff.

The Shared Dream

A family came to visit Jenolan when their 2 daughters were young.  They stayed on the 2nd floor of Caves House. The girls pestered their mother to go up to the 3rd floor, but the mother insisted that there was nothing to see there, as it was just the same as the 2nd floor, so they never went. 15 years later they visited Jenolan again, and reminisced about their previous visit. One of the girls told her sister and mother that 15 years before, after they had not been allowed to visit the 3rd floor, she dreamed she went to the 3rd floor anyway, and she and her sister were floating around the room. In the dream, their mother came upstairs, and saw the girls, as well as an older lady in a rocking chair. The mother beckoned the girls to come down, and the lady in the rocking chair calmly told the mother that the girls were only playing. The mother and the sister both said, “No, that was my dream”. All three had the same dream, but none of them spoke about it until their return to Jenolan Caves 15 years later."

Hill End Pub

Hill End Pub is also known as The Royal Hotel and is located in the village of Hill End. Hill End started in the Tambaroora area and was named Bald Hills, which changed to Forbes and then Hill End. The hotel was built in 1872 as one of over two dozen hotels built during the gold rush era between the 1850s and 1870s. The gold take in 1872 alone equals out to $40 million today. The boom brought thousands of people to the area, but after everything went bust, the place was practically deserted. As a matter of fact, The Royal Hotel is the only hotel still standing in Hill End. People claim that the hotel is haunted. A paranormal investigator stayed for  two nights in room 6 and had his camcorder recording in the hallway as well as having a digital voice recorder going both nights. He managed to capture some EVPs, one of which is a female voice saying "Help me," and he got what looked like the reflection of a woman and little boy in the museum, which had once served as a hospital. There was also a shadow figure captured on video.

Jo wrote in 2016, "We just spent New Years at the Royal Hotel, Hill End. Brilliant old place! We were in Room 12. During the first night (undisturbed) my husband’s cigarette lighter which he had placed in his packet of tobacco went missing. The next night (again undisturbed) I had put the room key in my handbag and locked the door behind us when we turned in. In the morning, the room key was sitting on the bedside table and the door wide open. The locals said that this room is reputedly haunted by a lady but no-one seems to know the story behind the haunting, only that it was probably back in the gold-rush heyday. It was a brave ghost to go into my handbag (known in our household as ‘The Bermuda Triangle’) and get the key out! The cigarette lighter never showed up. Does anyone know anything behind this particular story?"

Meg McLennan wrote in 2018 about Hill End, "Several years ago I stayed in what was known as the old post office. It was a privately owned cottage that was extremely haunted. During the night I heard people talking and laughing and actually thought there was a party going on up the road. The sounds were on the roof. I heard someone chopping and cutting up vegetables in the little old kitchen and there was a very strong smell of onions in the morning. I had a very restless night but my partner slept through everything. We went back in 2016 and the house was no longer available to rent/ stay in."

Brae Lossie

Jo also wrote about this in 2016, "Another place to def’ check out is a holiday cottage near Oberon, called Brae Lossie. We went there several times with no incidents then one weekend, the weird business started at full volume. We were informed by a very well respected psychic that in the late 1890s an itinerant had asked for a bed for the night from the then-owner, an aboriginal man. The itinerant murdered him and buried him on the property but since the place was so isolated then (still is) and people moved around a lot usually in search of gold then, no one really noticed that the property had changed hands. So the itinerant was still trying to protect his secret. Apparently because we had kept going back, it decided to try and scare us off. Most people don’t return for a holiday or weekend there but they aren’t sure why. There have been other incidents there due to this haunting: fights, quarrels, at least two stabbings, one of them fatal. If you do go, get yourself plenty of psychic protection."

It appeared that this property had fallen into disrepair and was going to be demolished, so we're not sure if it still stands.

Sydney University

The University of Sydney was founded in 1850 and has been ranked in the top 10 of the world's most beautiful universities. The Anderson Stuart Building is the Medical Sciences building and is one of the most well known buildings on campus. It's gorgeous and was built in the Gothic and Tudor Revival style of architecture.  

Eelboy wrote in 2015, "The Anderson Stuart Building @ Sydney University is supposedly haunted. My mother worked there for 25 years; she used to type student essays after hours in the old days before laptops. I would pick her up & take her to Redfern station for the trip home often well after sundown when the building was locked up & all was in darkness (I had a side door key). One night she asked a PhD student whose thesis she was finishing off to make her a cup of tea.The student returned minutes later absolutely terror-struck. When she regained a degree of composure, she claimed she had been groped by an unseen assailant & absolutely refused to leave my mother’s office by herself. The story goes that this was the ghost of a randy old professor. My mother had several such stories. The place was certainly pretty creepy. It contained an anatomy museum with prosecuted bodies in glass tanks of formaldehyde. The long high central hall had a marble floor and busts of famous medical people placed at regular intervals on rails along both walls. One winter night c1976 about 8pm, I entered through the caretakers side door & was walking down this corridor in darkness with only the dim outlines of the busts visible. My footsteps echoed on the stone floor. All of a sudden I got the feeling that I wasn’t alone & so I stopped. The sound of footsteps trailed off down the corridor for about another 8 or 9 paces. My mother was seated at her typewriter as usual & asked me to get her a cuppa when I entered her office. No she hadn’t left her office for any reason since telling the caretaker she would lock up as she hadn’t finished – @ 7.00pm when he’d finished work & left for the night. The student for whom she was typing she had just phoned to clarify the spelling of a couple of words. We were alone in the building."

Zac's Story

"Hi I’m Zac, I am a twelve year old boy and here is my story from Vintage Lakes, South Tweed, NSW, Australia. The weather was beautiful as it always is in Australia. It was a sunny day, the large colorful variety of wonderful birds were chirping and the sky was cloudless. That’s when everything went terribly wrong, I turned my little bike into the dark forest grove where the large and menacing trees blotted out the sky and the only exits were the two small openings at the front and back as the sides were covered by large wooden fences. I rode to the middle and stopped realizng the birds were silent and the wind was unusually strong. That’s when I saw it, a large non-human humanoid figure which was only red, my heart started pounding and I felt only fear for what it might be. It walked forward taking no notice of me. Suddenly, being the headstrong 10-year-old I was, I rushed at it . I neared it as it turned a bend in the path but, by the time I was there, it had disappeared. This figure had somehow managed to escape a place with no reachable exits and disappear without a trace. As I biked out of that dark grove, the small passageway the length of a house felt like a mile of land that was inescapable and would trap me there forever. I was always a believer in other beings, whether you call them spirits, energy beings or ghosts, I believed in them. But now, my perspective had become something more. I had a face-to-face encounter with something that was not a living being. I never forgot that day and I never will feel such fright as I did."

Carolyn's Story

Carolyn Palmer wrote in January of 2023 about a location in Glen Innes in NSW, "I was attending a dinner at a radio station at Glen Innes with my husband and children when I felt a hand touch me on the shoulder. I looked up expecting to see someone, but there was nobody there. Then I noticed my give year old daughter looking behind me and saying “Oh mummy! I thought there was someone standing beside you!” I told the people at the station but they did not seem to be interested. Almost as though it was a bit of sensitive issue. I never mentioned it again and we never went back. I think the station is in an old church and the dinner was being held in what used to be the reception hall. I was pregnant at the time and the whole thing gave me a very bad feeling."

New South Wales has a rich history, particularly since this is where Australia got its start. Are these locations we shared haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 353 - Boggo Road Gaol

Moment in Oddity - Rapunzel Syndrome

We imagine that most of you have never heard of the rare illness known as Rapunzel Syndrome. No, this is not a disease that makes you burst into song as a man climbs up your hair to rescue you from your tower prison. This also is not a sickness that causes your hair to grow and grow and grow...you get the picture. This is an illness that causes a person to excessively chew on their hair over years, which wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that they then swallow a bunch of that hair and it tends to build-up inside the body. In August of 2020, a seventeen-year-old named Sweety Kumari underwent surgery in India. The doctors had found a mass in the teenager's stomach and thought it was a tumor. Imagine their shock when they found a 15 pound ball of hair in her stomach! The doctor said he had never seen that kind of accumulation of hair in the body in his forty years of practicing medicine. Many people chew on their hair when they are nervous, but ingesting the hair into a ball that one couldn't cough up if they tried, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Jesse Owens Born

In the month of September, on the 12th in 1913, Jesse Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama. He was the youngest of ten children born to a sharecropper. His birth name was James, but he would be knon as Jesse from an early age for an interesting reason. His family moved from the south to Ohio and when Jesse told his teacher what his name was he said J.C. and she thought he said Jesse. He developed a passion for running when he was young. Owens first came to national attention when he equaled the world record in the 100 yard dash. He did this while still in high school. Owens took part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. He won four medals in track and field there, defeating Nazi athletes which really angered Adolf Hitler. His world record in the long jump stood for 25 years. While Owens was clearly a gifted athlete, Hitler's Nazi minister Albert Speer wrote that Hitler "was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games." Owens said his success came from letting his feet "spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up." Unfortunately, he took up smoking and lung cancer would take him at the age of 66 in 1980.

Boggo Road Gaol (Suggested by: Danika Ehlers and Natalie)

(Kelly, are you a crim or a screw?)

The history of Boggo Road Gaol is both interesting and troubling. This history goes all the way back to the late 1800s when Brisbane was finally moving from a penal colony to a free community. Many violent offenders came to their ends at the gaol. Punishment was dealt out in the black hole. Conditions became so poor that reforms were necessary. Today, the gaol is a museum offering tours and there are stories of ghosts on the grounds. Join us as we share the history and hauntings of the Boggo Road Gaol!

Brisbane was originally inhabited by the aboriginal tribes, Turrbal, Quandamooka and Yugara. In 1825, the Moreton Penal Colony was established for Sydney to have somewhere to send its British convicts. By 1839, the colony was free and many settlers came to partake of the fishing, farming and timber. The town, which was named for the Governor of New South Wales Sir Thomas Brisbane, grew and in 1859 it became the colonial capital. Queensland separated from New South Wales and Brisbane became the official capitol of the state in 1901. In 1924, Brisbane became an official city. The first jail here was established in Redcliffe, but was eventually moved to the center of Brisbane next to a bend in the river that provided a good natural barrier. There would be another gaol built after this and that is the one we are featuring.

Boggo Road Gaol had not been known by that name officially. In 1883, it was Hay Chim Gaol South Brisbane, then it was Brisbane Prison and in the early 1970s it was changed to the Brisbane Prison Complex and then finally the Brisbane Correctional Center at the end of its time after reforms were put in place. So how did it come to be known to everyone by this name? When it rained in this area, the track that had been dug out for the road would flood and get very muddy, similar to the quagmire of a bog. The area around this came to be known as Boggo and thus the track was given the name Boggo Road. These names started in the 1850s. There are some who believe that the name actually was derived from an Aboriginal word, Bloggo, that meant "two leaning trees." Whatever the case, the name stuck, even when the track became a street that was named Annerly Road in 1903.

The hill upon which the gaol was built was originally an indigineous camp. This would be the third gaol to be built in Brisbane. The land here was already a government reserve, but it would not be set aside specifically for building a jail until 1880. Robert Porter built the first cell block and it opened in July of 1883. Some time later it would officially be known as Number 1 Division. There were 57 cells originally and it held only men, but eventually a place for women would be required. A new prison was begun in 1903 for that purpose. There will be other buildings added onto the complex, but this one built for the women was known as the Number 2 Division and would be the only building to remain standing.

This was a hanging jail and forty-two people would be hanged on the grounds, which included one woman and two teenagers. The final hanging would occur in 1913 and this would be Queensland's last execution. Ernest Austin was the criminal to have that final honor. Austin had been a child killer. Ernest Austin was sentenced to death in 1913 for the vicious murder and sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl named Ivy Mitchell. This was a heinous crime as he slit the poor little girl's throat. A legend claims that Austin was lead to the scaffold and when he got to the top, he shouted that he was proud of his crime. He then gave a creepy laugh and mocked the people there to watch and he swore that he would return from the grave. What actually happened is that Austin had been sorry for his crime and even tried to kill himself before his trial. Several reporters and officials witnessed the hanging when the day came for him to be put to death and he was administered morphine and he said to the group, "I ask you all to forgive me. I ask the people of Samford to forgive me. I ask my mother to forgive me. May you all live long and die happy. God save the King! God save the King! God be with you all! Send a wire to my mother and tell her I died happy, won’t you. Yes tell her I died happy with no fear. Goodbye all! Goodbye all!" One newspaper proclaimed in a headline that "The State Slays its Own Creation." It was thought that Austin had been institutionalized for most of his life moving from a home for neglected children and then eventually onto jail.

George Silva was hanged the year before in 1912. He was a mass murderer. Silva worked for a man named Charles Ching. On November 16, 1911, Ching told Silva that he needed to go to ton for supplies. Silva had taken an interest in Ching's eldest daughter. He made advances towards her on this day and when she rejected him he killed the entire Ching family except for Charles who was away. This was six people. Four of the bodies were in the house. The son Hugh and baby Winnie had their skulls smashed and the mother named Agnes and the eldest daughter Maud had been shot by a revolver and a muzzle-loading rifle. Two other bodies were found a mile and a half away with their skulls smashed and they had been shot. Silva eventually turned himself in because he feared a lynch mob.

Eventually in the 1920s, the women would be moved out of the jail and prisoners from the St Helena Island Prison in Moreton Bay were moved into Number Two Division. There would be a later building constructed to once again house female prisoners. Number Two Division became home for the worst of the worst offenders who had long sentences to serve. Three cell blocks were set aside specifically for Lifers. These cells seem horrible. The building is made from brick and there are doors with slits for each cell. So they seem very claustrophobic. In the 1960s it was decided that an update was needed to Number One Division and so a new building was constructed around its perimeter and then it was demolished. The open oval area left behind was turned into a recreational yard. The new jail building was updated with toilets and running cold water in each cell. Another new feature was the black hole, which was under the oval. This was used throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s for punishment.

The 1970s would feature a time of great unrest at the gaol as inmates started fighting back against the poor living conditions. They staged roof-top protests, hunger strikes and riots. This got the inmates a lot of attention and it was warranted as the Number Two Division had not been updated, so there was no sanitation. Inmates still had only buckets in their cells for toilets. The government of Queensland came in and did a survey and were appalled at what they found. They officially shut down the building in 1989. In the 1970s, there were four prisoners who formed some wire bound with rubber into these little crosses and they swallowed them. These crosses would spring open in the stomach and cause pain and bleeding. This was a way for the prisoners to get out of jail because they needed to have surgery to remove the crosses. The cross idea came from John Andrew Stuart who was serving a life term for being one of the Whiskey Au Go Go Killers. He underwent surgery five times to remove crosses.

The Whiskey Au Go Go Killers were John Andrew Stuart and James Richard Finch. Whiskey Au Go Go was a cabaret nightclub that was in Brisbane. The club was firebombed in the early hours of March 8, 1973. Two five-gallon drums of gas were placed in the club's foyer and lit with fire. Carbon monoxide fumes rushed into the main room and the club was soon a deathtrap. Vats of used cooking oil were lined against the only escape route and they were upended as people stampeded through and eventually it was hard for people to stay on their feet. When they did manage to get outside, they were met with a six-foot high fence in the alley. There were fifty people in the club and 15 of them would die. Those that survived jumped from broken windows onto an awning and then dropped the remaining 15 feet to the ground. There were also windows in the bathrooms that people squeezed through. John Stuart had warned the police that Whiskey Au Go Go was going to be firebombed, so he became their top suspect. An associate of Stuart's named James Richard Finch was arrested. He proclaimed he was innocent, but the police said that Stuart planned the crime and Finch lit the fires. Both men would claim during their trials that they had been pressured to give false confessions. Stuart not only swallowed metal objects, he also once sewed his lips shut with wire paperclips. Finch was a self-harmer too. He cut off one of his fingers during the trial. *Fun Fact: Inmates were photographed holding their open hands against their body to show that they had all their fingers upon entry into the jail.* Stuart died in jail in 1979 after a six day hunger strike. Finch was released in 1988 after serving fifteen years.

Number One Division would close in 1992 and all but the C5 guard tower were demolished in 1996. The women's prison, which was operated for 100 years, was used until 2000 and then torn down in 2006. The only section of Boggo Road Gaol that still remains is Number Two Division and it has been heritage listed. In December of 2012 it was reopened and serves as a museum offering tours and there are a variety of tours. These are conducted by Boggo Road Gaol Pty. There was redevelopment done as well and this lead to the construction of an urban village that was completed in 2010.

Another infamous convict at the jail was Patrick Kenniff who was Australia's last bushranger. He and his brother, James, were cattle thieves. They stole horses and robbed stores as well, but what got Kenniff thrown into Boggo Road Gaol was murder. A police posse had set off after the boys after they stole a pony. They managed to capture James, but the rest of the group got away. They later ambushed the two men who made up the posse and their remains were later found burned up in saddle bags of one of the men's horses. The brothers were sentenced to death, but James' sentence was later commuted to life. Patrick was hanged in 1903.

Florence MacDonald and her husband, Angus, were sentenced to death for murdering Grace MacDonald. This was later commuted to life imprisonment. She was the first woman sentenced to life imprisonment in Queensland. Florence was known as the stepmother of the "Longreach Cinderella." She and her husband kept Grace chained up under the family home and they deprived her of food. They worked the poor girl to death. Florence was released after serving twelve years.

"Slim" Halliday was nicknamed the "Houdini of Boggo Road." He escaped from the jail twice, once in 1940 and again in 1946. He tried four other times, but failed. Slim was exactly that, tall and thin. He was a thief and enjoyed breaking into houses. He eventually was caught and convicted in 1939. He was sentenced to five years of hard labor. Slim tried his first jailbreak in 1939 and was busted using a drill to drive out the rivets that held the bolt. Halliday made his first jail break on January 28, 1940. He slipped out of line and climbed over a wall and ran for the prison workshop where he had his escape kit. Over several months he put together a grappling hook that was made out of two wooden hammock sticks and he attached 30 feet of rope to it that was knotted every 18 inches. There was a spot on the outer wall that could not be seen from the towers. He worked his way over with the grappling hook. It took hours before he was missed and he was long gone. He was recaptured a week later. His next escape in 1946 was with two other men using a grappling hook again. They were recaptured four days later. Eventually he was released, but he returned to jail in 1952 a murderer.

We came across a website while searching for ghost stories that denied that the gaol was haunted. The author said something along the lines of, even if ghosts were real why would they be any more prevalent in a jail than other places? Of course, they may not, but we all understand that the higher the levels of trauma, the more likely it is that a location will be haunted. The author wrote, "The recent television-inspired fad for 'ghost hunts' - based on the use of obviously fake 'ghostometer gadgets' - has also proved problematic. Such activities have not only been scientifically discredited, but they are clearly disrespectful in a place where people have committed suicide or been murdered within living memory. Relatives of the deceased have strongly expressed their opposition to commercial 'paranormal industry' activities inside Boggo Road. This led to the Queensland Government taking the welcome step of banning ghost hunts at the heritage prison in 2015." And that really is disappointing because many investigators just want the spirits to tell their stories. Ghosts are at these locations for a reason and we believe that is because they have a story they need to tell. So let's look at these non-existent ghosts at Boggo Road Gaol.

Ghost tours are hosted by Brisbane Ghost Tours. The child killer Ernest Austin is said to haunt Number Two Division even though he was hanged in Number One Division. Prisoners claimed to see his face appear outside their cell door. His eyes were filled with darkness and prisoners claimed that they knew when they looked in those eyes that he had made a deal with Satan. That deal was that he would snatch their souls in exchange for his own. Then the apparition of Austin would come through the door and try to strangle them. This was said to drive a few of them crazy. Haunting Australia investigated the jail in 2015 and they got some interesting evidence. The most evidence came through the spirit box. There were a lot of angry responses and choice words we cannot share here.

Jack Sim is a dark historian, writer and Director of Boggo Road Gaol. He shared some ghost stories with the ladies from Haunted Down Under. Jack himself had seen one of the ghosts that old prison guards used to talk about experiencing. This was the ghost of a former guard who was killed in the jail workshop in the late 1960s known as Birdie. Sadly, he was not supposed to be on duty that day, but he had switched shifts with another guard. An inmate who was incarcerated after being found guilty of multiple murders killed him. Most guards who reported seeing his apparition were working the graveyard shift. It was as though he were still on duty patrolling the place. His disembodied footsteps would be heard many times. Jack saw him standing outside one day and at first he thought he was some member of the state government security detail named Steve. So he said, "Hey Steve, I'll be right out in a second." And then he did a double take because he realized it wasn't Steve and then the man in the uniform just disappeared. 

The back track that runs the perimeter of the jail property is a type of no man's land and this is reputed to be the most haunted area of the jail. Most prisoners knew that the gaol was haunted and they knew which specific cells were haunted. They would place bets with each other when a new prisoner would be placed inside one of these cells as to how long it would take before they were begging to be moved. There was only one prisoner to each cell and Jack was told by a former inmate that one rainy night he awakened and felt as though someone were watching him. He looked to the end of his cell and there sitting on the floor was a young man. Then he disappeared. 

Jack related a really scary experience for himself. The doors to the cells are heavy and Jack had gone into one of the cells that was reputedly haunted one day and the door slammed shut. He turned and watched the slide bolt move by itself and he was locked inside. He was all alone. His cell phone and keys were on the lower floor and no one was expected at the jail until two days later. He started to panic thinking that he would be locked in there for two days. Then suddenly, the slide bolt moved again and unlocked the door. The ghost or ghosts were clearly playing with Jack and trying to scare him and they certainly did!

Many visitors to the jail have seen the apparition of an older woman in a high necked dress. Some people think that this spirit belongs to Ellen Thompson, the only woman legally hanged in Queensland. She was tried, along with her younger lover, for the murder of her husband. The Judge, Justice Pope Cooper, said the following as he sentenced the two, "Prisoner Ellen Thompson and you prisoner John Harrison, have been found guilty of the crime of murder on evidence which I must say to my mind is quite sufficient. One of the jury has thought to make a recommendation of mercy on the grounds that he is of the opinion that there may have been a quarrel between the murdered man and Harrison immediately preceding the murder. I will, of course, forward that recommendation to the proper authorities. I can give you no more hope than that. That you, Harrison killed the old man Thompson, I have no doubt whatever. The jury have found that you did so, and I confidently believe that Thompson's wife was present at the time aiding and abetting you. You committed a most cruel murder, and you did it, in my opinion, for sake of gain. Nothing now remains for me but to pass upon you both, the sentence of the law. I have no option in the matter. The sentence that I have to pass on you, Ellen Thompson, is, that you be taken to the place whence you came, and thence to the Brisbane gaol; and thence on the date to be appointed by the Governor-in-Council, you be led to the place of execution, and that you be hanged by the neck until your body be dead." When people describe seeing Ellen, they say that she is wearing the clothes that she was photographed wearing before she was hanged. Visitors will go into the section of the museum with the gallows displays and swear that they have just seen the woman that is in the pictures there. Female guards did have similar clothes, so it is possible that the spirit belongs to one of them, but we haven't heard of any of them dying at the gaol. 

Like all gaols, this one has a history of interesting characters and infamous inmates. Deaths by suicide and execution were plenty. The emotions that a jail spawns feed negative energy. Is the Boggo Road Gaol haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 338 - Old Tailem Town

Moment in Oddity - Solid Gold Buddha Discovered
Suggested by: Jannae McCabe

Buddhism is a religion that has been practiced all over the world for centuries. It is based on the teachings of Buddha who was actually a man born into royalty and wealth. He went off to find the meaning of life and ended up renouncing his former life and becoming a poor monk. To honor Buddha, many statues have been made and placed at various sites. Some are large and others are tiny. One of the largest is a 9 foot tall, 5.5 ton statue known as the Phra Phuttha Maha Suwan Patimakon. Today, it sits on an altar at the temple of Wat Traimit, Bangkok, Thailand. Scholars believe it was made in India and features an egg-shaped head that is the style from the 13th and 14th century and has long earlobes representing his royal birth. A flame at the top of its head represents spiritual energy. For many years before arriving at this temple, the statue, which was covered in stucco, sat outside underneath a tin roof. In 1955, it was decided to move the Buddha inside of a new building in Bangkok. Unfortunately, during the process, the Buddha was dropped and that is when an amazing discovery took place. The Buddha was not made from stucco. The stucco had been placed on the exterior probably to hide what the Buddha was actually crafted from and that was 18-karat solid gold. This all happened near the 2,500 year anniversary of Buddha's death and followers believed this was a miracle. Miracle or not, finding solid gold hidden beneath a stucco exterior, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - The Relief of Mafeking

In the month of May, on the 16th, in 1900, Mafeking was relieved. The Siege of Mafeking started in October of 1899 and lasted for 217 days. Mafeking was a town in South Africa and this battle took place during the Second Boer War. The Second Boer was fought between the British Empire and the independent Boer states of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. They wanted to break free of British influence in South Africa. The real fight was over diamonds and gold found in the Boer states. The son of the British prime minister was in the town during the siege, which made it even more prominent. The British commander was Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, whom everyone referred to as B-P, and he had 2,000 men under him. The Boers had the upper hand and cut off the railways lines into the town. They hoped to starve out the British troops and the 7,500 black Africans in the town. Many of the Africans tried to flee the town, but they were either shot or captured and flogged and sent back. By the beginning of May, word was received that a British flying column would be coming. The Boers made a final push to take the town on May 12th led by Officer Sarel Eloff. He pushed in, but had some of his men retreat whom he shot. He was overtaken and surrendered and remarkably, Colonel B-P invited Eloff to dinner. The British relief arrived on May 16th and the siege was ended. The British had been having a tough time during the Boer War and this lifted the spirits of the British and Colonel B-P was declared a hero.

Old Tailem Town (Suggested by: Jenni Watt)

South Australia is said to be the most haunted state in Australia and within that state is said to be one of the most haunted locations, Old Tailem Town Pioneer Village. This is a unique, man-made village in Tailem Bend that is a compilation of buildings, old cars, antiques and artifacts. There is so much history reflected in these elements, but there is something else as well. Spiritual energy radiates from the buildings and many visitors have stories of unexplained experiences. Add to this that this is a favorite spot for paranormal investigators and it's not hard to believe that there may be hauntings going on here. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Old Tailem Town.

South Australia wasn't colonized until 1836 and when it was founded, it was the first area not settled as a penal colony. This was a free state. We featured Kangaroo Island on a previous episode and this was the first area in South Australia settled by Europeans and it was the Dutch who first mapped the coastal area. But indigineous people had been here for over 20,000 years and the Kaurna people were here when the settlers came. They had called this Tarndanyangga, which means "place of the red kangaroo." Tailem Bend is about an hour east of Adelaide and is thought to have gotten its name from the Ngarrindjeri word "Thealem," which means bend. Donald Gollan was one of the first settlers here and he had name his property "Taleam" probably inspired by the Aboriginal word. The town of Tailem Bend grew once the south line railway was laid through the area in 1886. The town was incorporated in 1887. This became a heavily agricultural area. It would be here that the Old Tailem Town Pioneer Village would be set up.

Old Tailem Town is Australia's largest pioneer village and was founded in 1982. Now you might be wondering how a village could be described as "pioneer" when it was founded fairly recently. That would be because many of the 116 buildings here date back to pioneer times and the town is supposed to reflect life in the mid-1800s through to the mid-1900s. This really does have an old feel with dirt streets and posts for tying off your horse. Similar to Old Town Spring in Texas that we featured in Ep. 254, these buildings were moved to this one location from many different places. A man named Peter Squires wanted to build a ghost town, but he wanted it to be authentic with REAL old buildings. Many of these buildings are over 100 years old, with the oldest dating back to 1895, and they are filled with antiques. Many people claim that they are full of ghosts as well. There are stories of people being touched by things they cannot see and sometimes people do see these things and they appear as shadow figures. As if spirits don't make things creepy enough, these buildings are full of mannequins too. We should also point out since we like to start by researching the actual land, that there were seven deaths on the property before it became the pioneer village.

Wonderview Theater

Wonderview is the name of the old cinema in the town. It's built from yellow clapboard with a corrugated tin roof. And it's important to point out this distinction because the corrugated tin roof is an Australian icon. THIS is the number one indicator that you are looking at an Australia home or building...minus the whole actually being in Australia thing. And well, you know we need to dive down that rabbit hole! The corrugated metal roof was invented by British architect and engineer Henry Palmer. This material was made from hot-dipped galvanized iron that was then cold rolled to make the grooves. This gave the material more strength and obviously helps protect against wet weather as the water rolls off of it. It wouldn't be until the 1880s that Australia would start using it in home construction. Corrugated metal was easy, fast and cheap to fabricate. And resisted corrosion. The tin roof is said to be "the building material that made the bush." And now let's crawl out of the hole and check out this theater. This is a small theater with seating for maybe 50 people, an old film projector and a fairly small screen, about the size of some of your big screen smart televisions.

The Bent Elbow Hotel

The Bent Elbow Hotel not only has a corrugated roof, but the outer walls are also covered in the corrugated tin. This was originally a personal home that was fairly large. The bathroom has old fixtures and bear claw tub. There is a bar set-up inside and several dining areas. Alison has done some mirror scrying in this location and she said one time she was in here investigating with a girl and when she looked in the mirror, she saw a man that she described as having high cheek bones, a mustache and a part down the middle of his hair. She was so scared by seeing this face covering over her own reflection that she ran out of the hotel crying. Three weeks later, another group was investigating the Emporium and they saw a man look in the window that matched the description of this man perfectly. No one had told them of the mirror incident before that. The Emporium is right next door to the hotel. Children have been heard laughing in here, as well as the sound of disembodied footsteps.

The School

The school is fairly small as well with individual desks. Adelaide Haunted Horizons decided to do an experiment in here with a ghost box and it was really cool. Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/RSxGn9BVIl4 Alison and another guide named Ash decided to play teachers. They each help a small cane and they said they were going to ask some mathematical questions of the spirits. If they got the wrong answers, they were going to cane one of the guests on the hand. They asked what 1 + 1 equaled and the spirit box said five, so they gave the guest a little swat on the hand. They asked 2 + 2 and the box said four, then they asked 3 + 3 and it said six. Then they tried 4 + 4. This one took a little bit, but clear as day, the box says eight. Then they switched to the alphabet and asked for the fourth letter of the alphabet and they got the answer "D."

Bells Emporium

This place is creepy as hell, just full of old things and lots of mannequins. As a matter of fact, Alison claimed that she has had mannequins thrown at her when she is in the building. She told Amy's Crypt that it is her least favorite building on the property. She dislikes going inside to investigate. The Emporium is not just one long store brought from another property, it is actually three separate homes that Peter knocked the walls out of and put together, so they now make one long store. Alison believes that the hauntings going on with the Emporium are actually connected to one of the homes and not the property. That energy is negative and seems to have an abusive quality to it with the male spirit haunting the building and not liking women. Amy set up three EMF detectors in here and the middle lit up to red when she asked the spirit to light it up to red. It continued to go off several times, lighting up to red. Later, you could hear footsteps in a further room. You could hear them several times. And then there were many loud bangs and some tapping. Of course, there could have been an animal or something making those noises, but the footsteps were intriguing.

The Church

The Advertiser ran an article featuring an interview with Alison Oborn who is a paranormal researcher and co-founded South Australia's Paranormal Field Investigators team and runs Haunted Horizons Ghost Tours. Once when they were investigating Old Tailem Town she saw shadowy figures inside the church at the pioneer village and she saw a full-bodied apparition while giving a tour. The spirit came in through one of the doors and she watched it walk through the church. Alison says that this building is the most active on the property. On another tour, she had a woman take on the persona of a small child. Alison did some research on the property and found out that a small child, aged five, did drown on the property in 1919. Could this have been the child that this woman seemed to be possessed by? On another occasion, guests saw the figure of a small child in one of the doorways. Alison has taken to calling the child Ian.

This church is the Wolseley Methodist Church that was established in 1900. The inside is not very big and there are two rooms. There is the main sanctuary and then a back storage room. The pews are simple wooden slat pews and there is a small table that serves as an altar and a pulpit with a male mannequin standing in it. One issue that might be contributing to the hauntings here is that there is a cemetery next to the church, but it isn't real. Meaning no bodies are buried here. But the headstones are real and were moved from their former burials.

A local news station went on the tour one evening with a group and captured some interesting things on camera while in the church. Alison told the group that people have seen a male apparition in the church. Either this spirit or someone else messed with a couple people in the group. One was a woman with long blonde hair. She started to get visibly uncomfortable and claimed that she felt something touching her hair. Her boyfriend, who was sitting next to her, put his arm around her shoulders. And then there is a bang and the boyfriend moves his arm quickly as though something hit it or the chair behind them. A little after that, another guy in the group had something grab at his arm and he jumped back and said that he felt something very cold touching his arm forcibly. This guy had been a skeptic, but he said he wasn't skeptical after that.

Amy's Crypt set up some tools in the church during her investigation. One of them is a music box that gets triggered in a similar way as a REM pod and Amy describes it as being a motion sensor. The music box began to play and light up. She asked the spirit to step away from it and about 30 seconds after that it stopped for a moment and their ovelisk said the word "Students." The schoolhouse is right next to the church. Then the music box started up again, but it played in a stuttered kind of way, turning off and on repeatedly. For the music box to stutter in this way, it means that something is stepping in front of it and then back or crossing back and forth repeatedly. We envision a ghost being fascinated by this gadget and playing with it. Maybe a child? The group also had a REM pod that started going off after the music box. The ovelisk also said the word "pray," which seems relevant since this is a church. They placed a flashlight on the altar and it lit up about halfway through their investigation and stayed lit. There were some knocking and tappings too. One thing we definitely noticed was that the spirit or spirits were not what we would call interactive. They never responded to requests.

I watched another video recorded about eight years ago during a ghost tour that Alsion was leading. She was telling the group about a weird ball of light that had appeared and moved about the church. All of a sudden there a tiny light anomaly that appeared to be floating around Alison's head. It wasn't the kind of light that a flashlight would throw. It was misshapen and had a luminescent look to it. It lasted for just maybe 15 seconds. Another video made during a tour has several of the guests saying that they are feeling cold spots and then everyone gasps and jumps and looks to the back of the church indicating to us that they are having a shared, audible experience. It sounded like somebody was coming into the church. And then it happens again a few minutes later and it definitely sounds like somebody opening the door. Then someone felt their hair being touched. During another tour, a man in one of the pews is filmed jumping as though startled and when asked what happens, he claims that something hit his hand so that it bounced off the pew in front of him and when they replayed the tape, you would definitely see his hand that was just dangling, suddenly flinging forward and he seemed legitimately startled.

There are many other buildings here from a Blacksmith Shop to an Auto Repair Shop to a bank to undertaker and other out buildings. Not many of these buildings have haunts connected to them. There are spirits that seems to roam the streets all over like one that people have taken to calling Ted. There are incidents that happen on the streets too like a tour guest who was scratched on the neck leaving behind visible marks.

Deanna Turner-Reid tells of her experience at Old Tailem Town on the Adelaide Haunted Horizon website, "During our visit to Tailem Town on Saturday night (hosted by the fabulous team from Adelaide’s Haunted Horizons) my partner and I split from the main group and went with Anna to start investigating the Church. Not too long after we started my partner Adam had the sensation that his airways were being cut off. He started coughing and his voice went scratchy. The feeling soon subsided and we continued on our investigation. A little time later Anna and I both saw a dark solid figure in the backroom of the church. A little time later I saw at the back of the church a tall dark figure but only the waist up. Definitely a male build and in the same area as a dark figure was seen on Easter weekend. I looked directly at ‘him’ and when i turned my torch on… he was gone. Sometime later when Alison went looking for her car keys, I joined her on a walk around the town to try and find them. We heard footsteps several times, voices, and even a whistle as if calling a dog. I also had the feeling that there was someone walking towards us and as if I had to move out of the way or I’d walk into them. Then sometime later again when we were all in the church. We were talking about the dark figure in the back of the church and whether it was an angry spirit or not when I started getting extremely hot, and started feeling very angry toward…s everyone and a feeling of disdain towards them. When my partner asked me if I heard the noise behind us and everyone was talking about it I had the strong feeling that I wanted to tell them all that they were a ‘bunch of ****ing idiots” which is certainly not in my nature or something that I would normally feel in that sort of situation. It took leaving the church for the feeling to go away."

Many claim that this old man-made pioneer town is the most haunted location in South Australia. Is Old Tailem Town haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
Adelaide's Haunted Horizons: https://adelaidehauntedhorizons.com.au/old-tailem-town/

HGB Ep. 323 - Kangaroo Island

Moment in Oddity - Florida Bog Bodies
Suggested by: April Marie

You've all probably heard of bog bodies before. These are human bodies that have been mummified in peat bogs and are found in Europe. But you did you know that Florida has its own bog bodies? A construction crew was working in Windover, Florida in 1982 building a new subdivision about halfwat between Disneyworld and Cape Canaveral. A man was working a backhoe to empty out the muck from a pond when he stumbled across a great archaeological find. There were 167 bodies in a pond and researchers from Florida State University were stunned when they found out that their estimate that these were 600 year old Native American bones turned out to be wrong. Radiocarbon dating put the bones at nearly 8,000 years old. The Florida bog bodies are different from European bog bodies in that they have no flesh left on the bones. But they do have their brain material still in the skull. This meant bodies were buried quickly. Most were found in the fetal position, lying on their left sides with their heads pointing to the west. To hold the bodies in the muck pond, whomever buried them, drove a stake through the fabric that enshrouded the bodies. The archaeologists found signs that the community cared for their injured and toys were made for the children who were buried with them. Contents in the area of stomachs showed that medicinal herbs were being used to perhaps cure illnesses. This was a hunter gatherer group that existed before the pyramids in Egypt were built and DNA revealed that they were not related in any way to other Native American groups found in the area and that, certainly is odd!


This Month in History - Butterfield Overland Mail Route and Old Wire Road
Suggested by: Jenny Lynn Raines

In the month of January, on the 16th, in 1858, a team of people left San Francisco to begin laying out the Stagecoach stations for the Butterfield Overland Mail Route. The route was named for John Butterfield, the man awarded the Overland Mail Company contract by the Postmaster General. He had 37 years of experience and was well suited to the task. The stagecoach service operated from 1858 to 1861. The really fascinating part of this is that this route actually started as the Osage Trace, which was a trail used by Native Americans for hunting migration. In 1836, the part of this trail that stretched between Versailles, Missouri and Fayetteville, Arkansas became  known as "The Fayetteville Road." Telegraph lines were added along the route in 1860. The name would change to "Telegraph Road." Another name change came during the Civil War when it was used by troops moving between Missouri and Arkansas and they started calling it "The Military Road." When the war was over, the name "The Wire Road" started being used. Again referencing the important telegraph lines. These lines, as we know, became obsolete and so the name became "Old Wire Road." So if you live near an Old Wire Road, you now know why it has that unusual name and the important history behind it.

Kangaroo Island

Kelly and I have watched, along with the rest of the world, as fire has devastated the entire country of Australia in 2019 and 2020. Fire renews, but it destroys everything in its wake before that renewal and the tragic statistics have been devastating. The fires have raged for over six months, thousands of homes have been destroyed, dozens of people are dead, millions of acres are scorched and the worst statistic is that nearly a billion animals are estimated to have been killed. One of the places hit hard is Kangaroo Island. Nearly half of the island was burned. This is a beautiful place and is one of Australia's largest islands. There is a rich history here incorporating both the Aboriginal people, the settlers who made this their home and the treacherous waters that surround the island. All of these have contributed to reports of unexplained events and hauntings. Join us as we share the history and haunting of Kangaroo Island!

The first time we heard about hauntings on Kangaroo Island was in December of 2019 when a listener in Australia named Kathy wrote, "Then in April this year I went to Kangaroo Island off Adelaide, South Australia.  It was mid avo & I was having a little rest & I’d placed some books I’d brought in the little inbuilt bookcase when some of the books - not all of them- flew out of the bookcase & plonked on the ground.  I didn’t see the event but definitely heard it.  So I got up & as I picked my books up I said 'whoever is here with my, you’re welcome to stay BUT you aren’t to do anymore of this.'  And they didn’t do any further actions." When we started looking into reports of spirits, we found many. But before we get into that, let's lay the groundwork for any good investigation and look at the history.

Matthew Flinders was a navigator and scientist who was born in England in 1774. He was inspired to become an explorer after reading Robinson Crusoe and joined the navy to facilitate this goal. He worked his way up in rank and attained commander in February of 1801. He was given the H.M.S. Investigator to command with instructions to explore the south Australian coastline, referred to at the time as the "The Unknown Coast." Before he left, he married Ann Chappell and intended to take her with him, but he was not allowed and the couple would be separated for nine years. Flinders first hit Cape Leeuwin in December of 1801 and continued sailing eastward to the western extreme of the Unknown Coast. In March of 1802, Flinders found Kangaroo Island and gave the island its name because of the western grey kangaroo that they found there. French explorer Nicolas Baudin mapped out the island and was the first to circumnavigate it.

But as is the case with most places that Europeans eventually settled, they were not the ones who discovered the island, nor were they the first to call it home. There are archaeologists who believe that Aboriginal people may have been here starting 16,000 years ago and remained until 2,000 years ago. They called the island Karta, which meant "Island of the Dead." Because nobody really knows who these Aboriginal groups were, I can't really tell you who they were. Settlers in Southern Australia grouped all of the indigenous people under the term Ngarrindjeri, which means belonging to men. We want to be clear here that this is like saying Native Americans in the US. There are many different tribes and they have particular distinctions and that is the same in Australia. They are called clans there though. Some of these related family groups include the Jarildekald, Tanganekald, Meintangk and Ramindjeri. Other clan groups not lumped into the Ngarrindjeri that were from nearby Adelaide are the Kaurna and Peramangk. The Peramangk were wiped out save for a bit of DNA that can still be traced. I would venture to guess that some of their ancestors were on Kangaroo Island. A really neat fact about these Aboriginal groups is that they have dreaming stories.

One of these stories from the Peramangk is about Tjilbruke who was described as the Water and Fire Man. He went through the territory marking off boundaries and the Mount Lofty Ranges are said to have been formed from his body. the Mount Lofty Range was also said to be formed from the body of Yurebilla the Giant. The story of the Mingka Bird tells of Mount Barker and a little bird who lived there that would announce the approach of visitors. The Mingka would also work like a Banshee in that its call could signal the death of a loved one. And there is a story about Nganno the Giant. His son was murdered and Nganno journeyed far and wide to find the murderers. While he was traveling, he named the places he passed through and also formed rivers, which he filled with fish. He eventually did find the murderers and killed them and decided to return home. The journey had changed him greatly and his people almost didn't recognize him. They feared him and ran into the sea where they transformed into sea creatures. They called out things like "I am a whale" and "I am a shark" and that is what they would become. Some of Nganno's people did not recognize him at all and they killed him and when he fell, part of his body made up the Mount Lofty Range.So lots of these legendary people built those mountains with their bodies.

The story of The Ngurunderi Dreaming from the Murray River website:

"In the Dreaming, Ngurunderi travelled down the Murray River in a bark canoe, in search of his two wives who had run away from him. At that time the river was only a small stream, below the junction with the Darling River.

A giant cod fish (Ponde) swam ahead of the Ngurunderi, widening the river with sweeps of its tail. Ngurunderi chased the fish, trying to spear it from his canoe. Near Murray Bridge he threw a spear, but missed and was changed into Long Island (Lenteilin). At Tailem Bend (Tagalang) he threw another; the giant fish surged ahead and created a long straight stretch in the river.

At last, with the help of Nepele (the brother of Ngurunderi's wives), Ponde was speared after it had left the Murray River and had swum into Lake Alexandrina. Ngurunderi divided the fish with his stone knife and created a new species of fish from each piece.

Meanwhile, Ngurunderi's two wives (the sisters of Nepele) had made camp. On their campfire they were cooking bony bream, a fish forbidden to the Ngarrindjeri women. Ngurunderi smelt the fish cooking and knew his wives were close. He abandoned his camp, and came after them. His huts became two hills and his bark canoe became the Milky Way.

Hearing Ngurunderi coming, his wives just had time to build a raft of reeds and grass-trees and to escape across Lake Albert. On the other side their raft turned back into the reds and grass-trees. The women hurried south.

Ngurunderi followed his wives as far south as Kingston. Here he met a great sourcer, Parampari. The two men fought, using weapons and magic powers, until eventually Ngurunderi won. He burnt Parampari's body in a huge fire, symbolised by granite boulders today, and turned north along the Coorong beach. Here he camped several times, digging soaks in the sand for fresh water, and fishing in the Coorong lagoon.

Ngurunderi made his way across the Murray Mouth and along the Encounter Bay coast towards Victor Harbor. He made a fishing ground at Middleton by throwing a huge tree into the sea to make a seaweed bed. Here he hunted and killed a seal; its dying gasps can still be heard among the rocks. At Port Elliot he camped and fished again, without seeing a sign of his wives. He became angry and threw his spear into the sea at Victor Habour, creating the islands there.

Finally, after resting in a giant granite shade-shelter on Granite Island (Kaike), Ngurunderi heard his wives laughing and playing in the water near King's Beach. He hurled his club to the ground, creating the Bluff (Longkuwar), and strode after them.

His wives fled along the beach in terror until they reached Cape Jervis. At this time, Kangaroo Island was still connected to the mainland, and the two women began to hurry across to it. Ngurunderi had arrived at Cape Jervis though, and seeing his wives still fleeing from him, he called out in a voice of thunder for the waters to rise. The women were swept from their path by huge waves and were soon drowned. They became the rocky Pages Islands.

Ngurunderi knew that it was time for him to enter the spirit world. He crossed to Kangaroo Island and travelled to its western end. After first throwing his spears into the sea, he dived in, before rising to become a star in the Milky Way."

The first settlers would come in 1802 and these were British sealers. They kidnapped Tasmanian indigenous women to bring with them as wives and the way we heard it described is that they were mistreated at first, but eventually the men began to respect them because they knew how to live in the untamed land of this third largest Australian island. Many of the kidnapped Aboriginal women tried to escape by crossing Backstairs Passage and this wasn't just by boat. Several swam for freedom and died trying. Records indicate that only one woman ever made the swim alive. The British would start colonizing South Australia in 1829. Kangaroo Island would be colonized in 1836 and this brought a farming community in that displaced the first islanders. By the late 1870s, only three Aboriginal women still remained and they were named Sal, Suke and Betty. Betty's descendants still live on Kangaroo Island.

There was not only sealing and farming here, but also salt harvesting. Whaling stations were set up in the 1840s at Doyle’s Bay, D’Estrees Bay and Hog Bay. In 1852, the first lighthouse was built at Cape Willoughby. This was desperately needed as the waters off of Kangaroo Island were treacherous. More lighthouses were added through the years with Cape Borda Lightstation in 1858, the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse in 1906 and Cape St Albans Lighthouse in 1908. The waters wrecked many ships like the cutter William heading for the whaling station in Hog Bay on August 23, 1847. The greatest loss of life came in 1899 when the Loch Sloy wrecked in Maupertuis Bay, Thirty-one people drowned. Other shipwrecks were the Loch Vennachar in 1905 and the Portland Maru in 1935. The first colonial settlement was Kingscote and it is the islands largest town. There are around 4,000 people living on the island, at least, there were until the bush fires. A ferry brings people in and out, along with supplies. The island has become known for its wine and honey that comes from Ligurian Bees. And it's a popular tourist destination. We wonder how many of those tourists know they are wandering onto a haunted island.

*Share fun facts about the island*

An interesting story popped up as we searched for ghost stories about a ghost boat found off of Kangaroo Island in January 2019. Apparently, Abby Sunderland left on an around-the-world sailing trip as a teenager. That's pretty brave. She suffered many setbacks and had various issues, eventually having to abandon her boat called Wild Eyes in 2010. She had to be rescued by French and Australian authorities. The boat had been lost for eight years.

There are many stories of the unexplained and hauntings on Kangaroo Island. The Aboriginal people called this the Island of the Dead for the reason. These early people were the Ngarrindjeri people and they believed that the island is where spirits traveled after death. The ancestral spirits would gather here before the final journey into heaven. Another group of people here were the Ramindjeri and they thought of the island as being the "gateway to star heaven in the Milky Way." The Ramindjeri have a spirit here of a woman who died that appears to people as a small bird.

As is the case with many of the lighthouses around the world, Kangaroo Island has haunted lighthouses. Families who stayed in the lighthouses were very isolated because no roads linked the lighthouses to the main parts of the island. This was a very hard existence.

Cape Willoughby Lighthouse

Cape Willoughby Lightstation is found in Cape Willoughby Conservation Park and was the first lightstation in South Australia. It was first lit on January 16, 1852. The cottages have claims of unexplained stuff creaking floorboards and fingers tapping on the windows. A man named Clive Daniels was staying there one night with his wife and family in 1993. The group soon figured out that they were not alone. Clive was playing his guitar and writing music inside the lighthouse alone. He could feel the atmosphere changing. The air got heavier and he heard the sound of a wooden door creaking open. The lighthouse had no wooden door. And then he heard the footsteps climbing up towards the top of the lighthouse where he was sitting. Clive's flashlight inexplicably went out. The battery had been new. Then he felt a presence. An icy cold mist surrounded him and he could feel it watching him. He shivered. He put his guitar away and made his way down the tower as best he could in the darkness. When he got outside, his flashlight turned on again. He looked back at the lighthouse and he thought he saw someone up at the top. About a half hour after he returned to the cottage he was sharing with his wife, she awoke and felt something in the room. She woke Clive and he thought it was the same presence as the one in the lighthouse. Then the shower turned itself on by itself. It ran for 15 minutes. They went to investigate when the shower turned off to see if someone had actually taken a shower at 2am. Clive's wife Robin found the bathroom empty and dry. No water in the shower, no warm misty air or steam on the mirror. The next morning, Clive's sister told him that a shadowy figure had come into her room during the night. She at first thought it was a piece of luggage and went back to sleep. She found a trail of sand on the floor and no one had been to the beach. The family finally packed up and left when a newspaper on the table had its pages flipped all on its own. What could be haunting the place? The gorge beneath the lighthouse is called the Devil's Kitchen. Several ships wrecked here killing sailors. And a lighthouse keeper died here in the lantern room in 1869.

Cape Borda Lightstation

The Cape Borda Lighthouse was originally known as Flinders Light and is perched on the cliffs of Investigator Strait, which is at the north western corner of Kangaroo Island. The lighthouse is very uniquely shaped. Rather than round, it is square and doesn't stand very tall. Construction was completed in 1858 and this is the third oldest remaining lighthouse. Supplies were brought in by ship and had to be hauled up the cliff edges. Cape Borda was automated in 1989 and is still fully operational with even the fog cannon still being fired daily. The keeper’s cottage is said to be haunted. Tourists can rented out the cottage and several have claimed to experience weird things while there. The main spirit said to be here belongs to a little girl.

Cape du Couedic Lighthouse

The Cape du Couedic Lighthouse has a tower with a red cap that was constructed from 2,000 pieces of local stone and a Fresnal lens made by Chance Brothers. There were three four-roomed cottages built as well for the keepers to use as living quarters. The way that supplies made it to the lighthouse was via boat and hauled up to the lighthouse by a flying fox winching system that was originally powered by a pair of horses. Visitors books report all the different haunting experiences visitors have had while staying here. Many people have seen the apparition of an elderly man who people believe is a former lighthouse keeper. There are weird sounds and lights turn on and off by themselves, particularly in empty cottages.

The women who write the Ghost and Girl Blog wrote an article entitled "Favourite Haunts: A Sea of Ghosts on Kangaroo Island" and in that article, one of them detailed her visit to Cape du Couedic and experiences she had writing, "I was completely restless the entire first evening of our stay. Inside the cottage, it felt as though we were constantly watched. I know it sounds terribly cliché, but this sensation was so intense that it made the hairs on the back of my neck remain permanently raised, as if something was hovering just behind me, deliberately staying out of sight. Whenever I looked up, or turned around, or walked out of one room and into another, I could not escape the feeling that at any moment I would find a stranger staring at me from within the shadows. Then on the first night, not long after I had dozed off, I was woken suddenly by what I thought was someone whispering in my ear: "My name is John..." I live in an old, stone house, and am therefore familiar with the sounds that old, stone houses make in the night: The pop and crack of the roof and floorboards as the house cools; the knocking of the stones and the rattle of sash windows and doors as it shifts and settles; the howl of the wind as it makes it way down the chimneys. And for the first two nights at Cape du Couedic, the wind howled and the sea crashed in a way that only the Southern Ocean is capable of, and all the noises we heard during those two nights we could confidently say were nothing more than the normal sounds that an old stone cottage makes during nights of wild weather. On the third night, though, we were blessed with perfect calm. The eerie sensation of being watched and followed had abated, and we found ourselves quite comfortable within the walls of the old assistant keeper's cottage. It made for an undisturbed sleep. However, in the early hours of that last morning, before the sun had even peaked above the horizon, I woke from my slumber, unmoving, but fully awake and alert. Outside it was perfectly still, not even the sound of a bird could be heard. And then, just as it had been reported countless times in the visitor books, there came the sound of movement from the other end of the corridor outside the bedroom: A shuffling, thumping and tapping, the distinct sounds of someone pulling on boots, followed by footsteps proceeding down the hallway to the front door, first becoming louder at their approach, before gently fading away. The tales of the ghosts of Cape du Couedic do not reveal, nor even hazard a guess at the identity of the spirit whose footsteps are so regularly heard making their way down the hallway in the cottage. I like to think that it is one of the old assistant light-keepers making his early-morning check of the lighthouse. Whilst it's easy to make assumptions, it's more difficult to confirm if any of the assistant light-keeper's stationed at Cape du Couedic, and resident of the same cottage, were actually named John. It'd be a neat coincidence if there was, though."

Cape St Albans Lighthouse

Cape St Albans Lighthouse was built in 1908 out of stone and painted white. Access to the lantern room was unusual in that a cast iron staircase was built on the outside. The tower had a fixed white light with a red sector to warn of the Scraper Shoal and was unmanned running off of kerosene. In 1914, the light was converted acetylene gas. A switch to electricity was made in 1976. We couldn't find any ghost stories for this one.

A possible ghost light was seen on the island in 1998. Two people were out walking on Snelling Beach on the island late at night when they saw a yellowish white light on the hillside. This ghost light moved south along the valley at about tree level and then suddenly turned and started coming towards the witnesses. The color of the light changed from yellow to a bright white and grew from the size of a tennis ball to the size of a dinner plate. The light changed direction again and moved away from the witnesses and got smaller. A second light joined the first a little bit later and then they both disappeared over the hillside.

Now I don't usually get into talking about UFO sightings, but there have been a couple of interesting reports from Kangaroo Island that were reported on the Haunted Adelaide Blog. Alan Potter was a radio technician apprentice who was working at the Adelaide Airport in 1969 tracking a Fokker Friendship aeroplane when he reported seeing a second object flying in a straight line towards the aeroplane. Potter told ABC Radio of the incident, "I still don't think I believe in UFO’s but I can't explain this. As the Fokker tracked towards Kangaroo Island, a smaller echo, much smaller than the Fokker, appeared to leave the large echo and fly in a line directly towards the plane. With one rotation of the radar antennae, that large echo had moved 70 nautical miles to the north-east, in the next pass it had disappeared off the screen completely."

The bush fires on Kangaroo Island are devastating. Countless animals have been killed and lots of gorgeous acreage will now have to rebuild. This is a land of mystique and legends among the Aboriginal people. Are there spirits here? Is Kangaroo Island haunted? That is for you to decide!