Brisbane's History – Ghosts of the past and now gone
excerpts taken from, "The Ghost Guide to Australia"
City Hall
It is room 302 on the 3rd floor that sounds often could be heard coming from within, footsteps and a sinister atmosphere
surround this area. The rooms in this area are close to the spot where it is said that a caretaker took his life in the 1940's.
For some time the area was used for a photographic dark room until the ghostly activity reached its peak. Carpenters in 1982 were sent in to demolish the walls and the area was added as to the buildings kindergarten centre. Fortunately for the patrons for the centre, the ghost has not been seen or heard since.
The Hall is reported to be the home to at least 3 ghosts. One is of a lady dressed in period clothes who is usually seen on the main staircase or at the top of the stairs overlooking the foyer. The second is of a workman who occasionally rides the lift after being killed while installing it back in the 1930's. The third resides in the Red Cross Tea Room, and is the
ghost of an American sailor killed by another sailor after a fight over an Australian girl. Apparently, every now and then people in the rooms nearby can here the sounds of an argument, the sound of a knife being drawn and the gruesome sounds of the sailor being
murdered.
Her Majesty's Theatre
Demolished in 1983. This had its ghosts and mysteries. A male ghost use to appear often at the back of the dress circle.
About 22 years ago when Jesus Christ Superstar was playing in the theatre, popular actor/singer Jon English (who played Judas) was reported as saying that one night he looked up from the stage and watched a transparent figure walk slowly from one side of the dress circle to the other. Others have seen this strange apparition, but no-one was able to identify him. The there was a small room where the costumes were kept in and props stores, this was once a dressing room. There is a story of two rivaling actors who fought in here around 1900, one killed the other and hid his body in the ceiling. Many years after the corpse had been removed one could smell the stench of putrefying flesh being filled up within the room. There was also a staircase near a canteen that was not on buildings plans that led to nowhere and ending against a solid wall. Heavy footsteps were often heard on the stairs, but nothing was ever seen. Then there were the phantom pillars. The interior of the theatre was remodeled in the 1930's, the upper circle ('The Gods') was removed, for the dress circle to be extended. The columns that supported the upper circle were also taken away, years later, patrons still said that they had been obstructed by those same columns while watching the theatre.
Brisbane Arcade
The Elegant Victorian shopping complex has also a ghost. This is a lady and she is very reluctant to leave. A successful Millinery shop on the upper level was once run by her. It has been known for her to be seen around this area, dressed in a once-fashionable Victorian gown and pacing the balcony at night.
Captain Patrick Logan
Of His Majesty's 57th Regiment of Foot, Commandant of the Penal Settlement at Moreton Bay from 1825 to 1830.. This story is Brisbanes oldest Ghost story, (really two stories in one.).Logan was a man who was not known for the good but more the bad. He converted the outpost he commanded into a well organized efficient colony.. The title 'Fell Tyrant' he earned from being a cruel man to convicts at Moreton Bay. One of Australians best known fold songs 'Moreton Bay' describes the horrific plight of convicts under his rule. Many died from being flogged, still strapped to the flogging frame, from misconduct they would earn up to 300 lashes. Many convicts feared Logan and his cruelty. the final verse of 'Moreton Bay' rejoices at his violent death.
The next story is taken from "The Ghost guide to Australia"
Captain Patrick Logan was a courageous explorer who made many journeys, sometimes alone, into the interior, surveying and mapping the wild terrain. It was while returning from one of these excursions, riding alone along a bush track in what is now South Brisbane, that Logan met a ghost. The Captain spotted a man in convict uniform and few yards in front of him and, thinking it was an escapee from a settlement, hailed him and ordered him to stop.
Logan expected the figure to run but to his surprise it approached him, reached out a sinewy arm and grabbed one of his stirrups. Logan's horse took fright and reared. The Captain lashed out with his riding crop but the blow passed straight through the shadowy figure. He spurred his horse to a gallop but the ghost clung on, floating effortlessly beside the terrified horse and rider. It was not until they were nearing the south bank of the Brisbane River that the ghost suddenly let go and disappeared.
Logans fear may seem out of character for a ruthless man, but something else had unsettled him: Captain Logan had recognized the ghost. It was a convict called Stimson who had absconded, been recaptured at the very spot where he appeared, and died while being flogged on the Captain's orders exactly one month before.
Logan met his own death while on another expedition. He set out with his batm,an and five trusted convicts on 9th November 1830 to map a creek west of the outpost of Limestone Hills (Ipswich). The party was stalked for most of its journey and attacked twice by hostile Aborigines but, despite this apparent danger, Logan went off on his own on 17th October, planning to rejoin the party at a pre-arrange rendezvous at dusk. When he found he could not reach the spot before night fall, Logan built a rough shelter and settled down for the night. In the early hours of the morning on the 18th, he was attacked and killed by aborigines - or according to some historians - by convicts.
At noon that day a party of convicts walking by on the river bank at the Moreton Bay settlement spotted captain Logan on horseback on the far side of the river, waving to them. None had any doubts as to who it was. Two of them downed the tools and hastily launched the punt that was used to ferry people across the river and rowed to pick up their commandant. When they arrived on the south bank, (the spot where stimsons ghost had disappeared and the Qld Performing Arts Complex now stands) there was no sign of Logan. He and his horse had vanished into thin air.
At that time Captain Logans battered body was growing cold in a shallow grave in the bush 70 km inland.
Residents of ipswich have claimed to have seen Logans ghost in more recent times at the spot where he met his death. There is a small reserve there now, 1.6km from the junction of Logans creek and the Brisbane River. A night or two spent there (if you can stand the mosquitoes) might reward you with a glimpse of the ghost of the fell Tyrant.
Ghost Mania
Excerpt taken from "Ghost Guide to Australia"
If you had walked down Gilchrist Ave in the Brisbane suburb of Herston any night during a hot week in November 1965 you might have thought you had stumbled upon a political revolution or a pagan religious ceremony. The street would have been jammed with cars, including a dozen police vehicles. Victoria park on the southern side of the street, the adjacent playing fields and the golf course opposite would have been filled with up to 5000 people milling about. you would have seen the whole spectacle lit with thousands of torches, car headlights, television lights and the hell fire glow of burning oil, spread over the small ornamental lake in the park. This was not a revolution or a religious rite - it was Brisbane's reaction to a reported sighting of the Ghost of Victoria park.
On the previous Saturday evening two school boys walking through the pedestrian underpass beneath the railway lines that run through the park claimed that a ghost had come out of the stone wall of the underpass and chased them. They described it as a 'misty bluish white thing' that looked like a human torso with no head, no arms and no legs below the knee. One of the boys had to be treated for shock at nearby Royal Brisbane Hospital. All this was reported in the next morning’s newspapers and Brisbane was instantly plunged into the grip of Ghost Mania.
Every night thereafter for more than a week, huge crowds gathered in the park and surrounding area in the hope of catching a glimpse of the ghost. There were families with babies and wide eyed children in pj's, men dressed in singlets, shorts and thongs; men in dinner jackets; women in toweling mumus; and women in fashionable cocktail dresses. There were young girls in short shorts and youths with long hair and leather jackets. Picnic hampers, thermos flasks and bottled bear were brought along. Meat pie and ice cream venders did a roaring trade.
And how did they all behave? Well, the majority treated the whole thing as a family outing and, apart from wandering too close to the railway tracks, behaved themselves tolerably well. But, at around 10 each night when the families had gone home (disappointed at not having seen the ghost), the gangs of youths took over. Drunken brawls were nightly events, police cars were stoned. Trains were pelted with rocks smashing carriage windows and showering terrified passengers with glass. Trees and fences were destroyed. Fires were lit wherever fuel could be uprooted or torn down. One maniac brought a 'flame thrower' claiming that he was going to 'roast this ghost' and other threw crackers and let off marine flares. Until motor oil was poured over it and set alight and the lake was used as a dunking pond. Police reinforcements were brought in and many of the thrill seekers woke up the next morning in jail.
Grandparents tut-tutted but admitted the scenes were reminiscent of 1903 when the ghost appeared the first time. Parents did the same but added that the behavior had not been nearly so bad in 1922 and 1932 when they turned out for the ghosts second and third appearances.
"This ghost does seem to bring out the worst in people," a City Council spokesman said. "Thank goodness it does not turn on a really terrifying show and panic the crowds. people would die in a rush to escape." As it was, dozens suffered minor injuries, treated at a field station by At John's Ambulance volunteers.
And what of the ghost? Was there one? Is there one? Well, observers in 1903 described it as looking like a 3 meter tall nun in a grey habit. in 1922 and 1932 it was described simply as a shimmering grey form. If we accept the school boys description in 1965 and assume it is the same specter, it seems she, he or it, has lost some bits between 1903 and 1965. Two theories were put forward in 1965 to identify the specter. One was that it was the ghost of a vagrant named Walter Hall who had been beaten to death with a bottle and his body dumped in the lake in 1952. The other suggested it was a Swede, Karl David Dinass, who was a suspect in a brutal murder case in 1960 and who committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train near the underpass. Neither theory takes into account the earlier sightings of the ghost.
All has been quiet in Victoria Park for the past 30 plus years. Perhaps major renovations to the underpass in 1984 scared the ghost away or maybe its just biding its time and getting ready to make another appearance.
The ghost of Bellas Art gallery.
The ghostly presence of this now "bellas Art gallery first made appearances in the headlines in 1976 and then again in1984. A medium was called in to investigate in 1976, who came to the conclusion that the ghost was Helen Brennan.
This name brought back many memories for the residents of Fotitiude Valley. It was Helen Brennan and Reuben Wallace who ran a corner store at the intersection of James and Robertsons St's, during the 1940's. On October 15th, Helen was found suffocated in the flat above the shop. Wallace was accused of the murder, but suffered a severe heart attack before the trial for the murder of Helen Brennan. The charge was reduced to manslaughter, when wallace finally appeared, he was acquitted.
A young Mother and her two children rented the dwelling 27 years later. No sooner had she moved in, she began to hear strange sounds. She spoke to the press saying that she believed that there was something evil in her home. A medium came in and said that she could see a woman lying in a bed in one of the flats. She was unwell and kept asking for someone, Ruby or Reuben.
The young family left and when the new occupants went in, they did not seemed to be bothered by any ghostly presence - not until 1986 when a bus driver, his wife and Tibby the cat moved in. The cat panicked whenever it was carried up the stairs and its mistress claimed she saw a small transparent female figure wrapped in a light grey shroud standing on the stairs on 2 occasions.
Today the premises are occupied by the Bellas art gallery. The proprietor has never seen the ghost but is quite happy to answer enquiries about the colourful history of his building.
The Tower Mill
Brisbane’s oldest remaining building, the Tower Mill in Wickham Terrace, dates from Captain Logans time. This graceful old sandstone tower had a chequered career-flour mill, signal station, fire watching tower and meteorological observatory. Like most convict era buildings, there's also a dark side to its history. When the original sails on top of the tower failed, a treadmill was installed that was worked by chained convicts and, on 3 July 1841, the tower was used as a gallows to hang two aborigines convicted of murder.
Since the middle of the last century, stories have circulated about the tower being haunted. Residents of Wickham Tce have claimed that sometimes when they look up at the small window facing the street they could see a faint glow and a figure inside the tower, swinging gently from side to side.
Today the tower mill stands in a small park, dwarfed by surrounding buildings. Perhaps if you sat across the tree lined street around dusk and watched that window, you might see something watching you.
Upon my trip to the tower mill, I found it not to be too active now. But when I decided to go around to where the reservoirs behind the mill I found this area, to be cold and dense. There are a few areas where you can see inside the reservoirs. I managed to get my camera in a few times and took some very interesting photos. On photo I took turned out to be spider webs, so this picture is not displayed. I happen to find this upon a returning trip when I took another picture and came up with basically the same and found the abnormalities in it to be just that. But… I did get a photo inside the reservoirs where there is a green something in it. Never thought anything of it until recently when finding out that a green abnormality in a pic is of a family person. Could this be the ghost of the little girl who fell and died in the reservoirs years before? Here is a picture I took out the front gates to the resovoiurs and Mill.
King George square
Behind the Brisbane Arcade in Adelaide St there was once a butcher's shop, facing the present, King George Square. The shop was there at the turn of the century and for a good many years after, but it is gone today. It was L, shaped, the meat being prepared in one part and the customers served in another.
Legended has it that a butcher and an apprentice got into an argument one day. A meat cleaver was thrown and the apprentice died. Later owners of the shop and customers would occasionally hear the sound of men arguing and struggling, then terrible screams coming from the back of the shop.
Radio 4BC Building
A few blocks away on the corner of Adelaide and Wharf Sts, stood the old Radio 4bc building. It too has fallen under the demolisher's hammer. Originally a pickle factory, the building had a staff tea room at the rear. There was an opening in the tea room floor that had once housed a food lift.
Years later 4bc night-time radio announcers swore that the room would suddenly turn icy cold and the sound of someone crying for help could be heard coming up the shaft.
What doyou think of this? Could this be a ghost who still resides at Newstead House?