australian ghosts (1935)
TRANSCRIPT
7/27/2019 Australian Ghosts (1935)
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Sunday Mail (Brisbane) (Qld. : 1926 - 1954), Sunday 10 March 1935, page 27
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97841612
Ghosts Abroad in
the Country
Strange Noises in the
By S. Strutton
The well-behaved country gbost
refuses to haunt a room like Its
city brothers; it haunts a whole
locality. Take, for instance, a
cattle camp. These are the most
persistently haunted spots in the
bosh.
TTTTHETHEB it is because drovers
W who, like sailors, are alone for™
*long stretches of time are
more superstitious than the ordinarybushman, or whether it Is because the
slightest sound is sufficient to startle
cattle at nighU-is uncertain.
me iacc is, me souna oi an um
man kangaroo thumping through the
bush In the moonlight is sufficiently
startling for the newchum. And
when one of those giant owls cries
'Whco-ooo-ooo-oooool among the
treetops the camp's ghostllness is con
vincing.
Most cattle camps are haunted, how
ever, because of their close proximity
to a native burial ground. Now tome
native tribesmen merely place the
bodies of their dead relatives on suit
able platforms of bark and sticks in
the fork of a convenient tree, whence
the bones are scattered soon enough by
the iguanas and crows.
But others are more thoughtful.
Though not being learned in the
matter of tombstones, they select the
tomb and stone In one; or, in plainer
English, they stuff their departed
friends head firSt down a hollow tree
trunk. Now it has happened that the
camp cook has selected su h a tree
when in search of firewood. Hence
the conviction that the ghosts ol
dead blacks haunt such localities.
THE WILGA GHOST
Then there is the ghost which has
become an institution; whose Tame be
comes widely circulated far away
from the particular dislrii.. it
haunts. Such a ghost is the
WUga ghost, which haunts the
district* ofIsisford and
Ilfracombe.and wliich started its activities in «
minor way on the banks of the Wilga
waterhole about 40 years ago.
Since Its eerie scream was first Heard
by a lonely camper wherever bushmen
gather will be heard talk of the Wilga
ghost. Some fellows claim that it is
only a large owl, but these arc the
scientific cranks; the real buslimnn
clings firmly to his 'ghost,' and re
fuses to have it explained away.
Tills Js the case also with the mys
terious light which is sometimes to be
met with on the road to Djarra. The
light seems to hover at a certain point
on the road, but disappears when any
on the road, but disappears when any
body drives nearer. The explanationthat it is a car light has been ad
vanced, but it was known before cars
came into the bush. So people urttue
between a ghostly ana an electric ori
gin and let it go at that.
SPEARED TEAMSTER
There is a spot on the track between
Normanton and Cloncurry which is
haunted by a teamster. Back in th«eighties, when a line was about tostart from coast to Cloncurry, a bul
lock dray loaded with steel rails and
dynamite pulled up outside a wayside ?
shanty.
While the buUocfey and his oHsiderwere inside, washing the dust down, a
drum of add (meant for the recovery
of gold) spread Its contents over theexplosive. There was an explosion
which blew a hole in the ground. Whiletrying to escape the teamster
?
was
speared through the back with a steel
rail. A few months afterwards a bushman met him driving his ghostly teamalong the road. And so another bushghost was born.
One of the most humorous ghoststories is that of the Greyrock ghost;a ghost which came to life after themurder of an old man for his horsesand turnout by a travelling com
panion nicknamed 'The Snob.' The
remains were reduced to charred bonesand ashes in a camp fire, and the
accused man was released because no
body could swear to the identity of
the bones. But in a few years a ghostbegan to haunt the place.
SHOOTING THE GHOST
The ghost took the form of an oldman who haunted the camps oftravellers in search of his lost horses.
Travellers reported mysterious dis
appearances of their stock; horsesvanished, only to reappear along the
road two or three days' ride away.
Then travelling cattle took to stampeding during the night, and some
were crippled by rushing over the
steerj banks of the basalt gorges. The
camp— which is a Government grass
and water reserve—
began to get abad name; people going out of their
way to avoid camping there.
This kept ud for 10 to 15 years,until the ghost began to trouble a
kangaroo shooter who had msde his
headquarters there with s small mob
of remounts.
Then one night the shooter laidin wait for the ghost. Soon, in thebrilliant moonlight, he saw the figureof an aged man approach his hobbledhorses. As the ghost bent down to
unhobble one of the outside mares theshooter— who was a remarkable shot
—raised his rifle and fired. Therewas a yell of terror as the old man
made for cover with the speed of a
made for cover with the speed of a
champion sprinter, leaving his hat on
the ground The hat hi-d a neatbullet hole in the top ol the crown.
Public opinion claimed that it be
longer to a snjector who wanted thejreservr water and grass for his own
stock and used n ghostly means for
securingit.
At any rate, the 'ghost.'
[ceased to haunt the reserve from that'nieht.