Para-Para: Ghosts of Gawler: Part 6

The Ghosts of Gawler Part 6

Para-Para

Para-Para Mansion, an icon of Gawler, situated in what is now Gawler West. 
Having grown up very nearby, it wasn't unusual for myself and my friends to wander onto the Para-Para estate as boys, walking along the river, we would find ourselves in the backyard of the mansion's property on occasion and marvel at all the farm equipment strewn about the place.

Of course, having grown up in Gawler, and going to school nearby, I inevitably heard the rumours of the Mansion being haunted. 
There were a great many stories to tell, most coming from when the building was unoccupied for many, many years, my favourite one isn't so much a ghost story but a practical joke of sorts, that could well have been an urban legend, it went something like this.

A group of older school boys led some younger schoolboys to the mansion to tell them some ghost stories, and generally spook the younger lads. They peeked through windows at the somewhat derelict insides, room by room, telling the boys stories of murders and suicides, when they got to the last room, the younger boys would freak out and run away...of course the older boys would fall on the ground in hysterics, because much earlier they had broken in and nailed all the furniture to the roof, making it seem, in the gloom of the evening, as though the furniture was floating up there!

Two other ghost stories I can remember, one involves a young lady committing suicide. She had fallen for a young man but had found him sleeping with the Mansions maid, she flung herself down the staircase and broke her neck. It was always rumoured that if you peeked through the glass of the door you would see her white face peek back.

The other notable story from my childhood involved a man of the house, who was someone of importance, being found by his wife having sex with the housekeeper in front of an open fireplace on the bottom floor.
 In her shock she grabbed a fire poker and stabbed him through the back with it, killing him, she then hit the maid over the head with a wooden rolling pin, killing her, then pushed them both into the fire...she then threw herself down the stairs and broke her neck landing on the floor...

So were any of these stories true?

Most likely not, the only death recorded in the house in local newspapers was that of the original builder and owner Mr Walter Duffield, who died on November 5^th 1882. It is most likely that the stories sprung from periods when the house was empty and local kids would find their way in, however, saying that, in 1939, The Bunyip, Gawler's local newspaper ran an article that mentions the rumour of a ghost "floating up and down the staircase”.

Another article, an extract of which is published here also mentions a lady on the staircase.

Para Para in 2012 - photo by K. Tiller

Other than it's infamous ghost stories and urban legends, Para Para also has a royal connection, with His Royal Highness, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, staying at Para Para in 1867.

Plenty has been said about the history of Para Para, and rather than rehash what is already written, those of you who want to learn, or discover more are welcome to follow the link provided below.
http://www.hosking.wattle.id.au/~laurel/parahtml/parahistory.html



Para Para is now a private residence and should be treated as such. The legends of it being haunted, are just that, legends which seem to be attached to any old large house anywhere in the world.
If you wish to view Para Para, please do so from the road and DO NOT trespass as it is private property.

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Pioneer Park: The Ghosts of Gawler: Part Five

The Ghosts of Gawler Part Five:
Pioneer Park 

At the northern end of Gawler's main street, across the road from the Coles complex, is a very pretty park featuring a rotunda and a memorial garden, it is bordered on one side by a shed owned by the Exchange Hotel and the Gawler Tourist Centre.

The "Old Cemetery"

The park has been a meeting place for Gawlerites for decades, being used annually for local events, outings and picnics.

Having grown up in Gawler, I know the park and the stories associated it with very well. I can remember when a canon used to stand on the north-west facade and was fired during an annual street party, I remember all the youth of the town meeting on the hill during weekends, because there really wasn't much else to do in the town, most of those kids were totally unaware of the bodies buried beneath their feet, but not me, I knew better.

The cemetery was first established when the town plan was drawn by Colonel Light, it is not entirely clear who the first person buried was, but by 1870, the cemetery was closed except for those who had already bought a plot to buried in.

The cemetery sat at the top of the street, pretty much unused, as the bigger Willaston public cemetery had been opened and was being used, as well as the Anglican cemetery in Gawler East and the Loos cemetery in what is now Buchefelde.

It wasn't until the late 1920s that someone decided something should be done with the now decrepit cemetery who's headstones were cracked and falling over, whose fences were broken and unpainted, the “old cemetery” as it was now referred to, was in a state of very bad disrepair.

A Rotunda on the park in 1914

The first idea to clean the place up came in 1925, but it took ten more years before anything was actually done by the councillors.

Work began, the fences were removed, the headstones were taken down (and now sit inside the front gates of the Willaston cemetery), land was levelled, trees planted, garden beds were laid, and a rotunda was built, the name was changed from the much-used “Old Cemetery” to “Pioneer Place” and Gawler's most used green square was born.

Now one would not know a cemetery stood there, other than the large monument on the western side dedicated to John McKinlay, which had to be rebuilt due to a semi-trailer demolishing one side of it. The other clue to a cemetery once being here is the memorial stones with lists of names in the centre of the gardens.

 In the late 1990sa worker was in the shed of the Exchange Hotel next to the park, when two coffins slid through the cracked and broken wall into the shed from the old cemetery, you can imagine the gossip this caused in the town!

The McKinlay monument after being hit by a truck

I have heard many ghost stories associated with the place over the years, even back in the day when it was a cemetery there were stories, one of which was a sighting of Spring-heeled Stephen, but mostly they were the typical ghost stories, ladies with lamps, gentlemen standing in the shadows etc.

One of the more recent stories I have heard is a man in an older styled suit standing looking out towards the Coles complex, who simply disappears. I am sure there are many more stories that I am yet to hear, and I invite you to share them in the comments section below

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

The Bunyip: The Ghosts of Gawler Part Four

The Bunyip

The Ghosts of Gawler Part Four

  The Bunyip Newspaper began its existence in 1863 as a monthly pamphlet published in collaboration with  "The Humbug Society". Editor Dr George Nott and printer, William Barnet teamed together to create what was to become South Australia's longest-running family-owned newspaper.

When the paper began, it was a satirical look at life around Gawler. Later, it was to become a weekly "orthodox" newspaper, still with a strong community focus, but expanding into further suburbs and country areas surrounding Gawler.

 The Bunyip Newspaper, in its early life, was situated in a shop near the Baptist Church in Murray Street, Gawler. Later its offices were moved further along Murray Street to be situated near the Prince Albert Hotel. Those premises were destroyed by a fire and 'The Bunyip' relocated to its present location, of which it has remained in since 1885.

The Bunyip Newspaper was sold to the "Taylor Group" of newspapers in 2003 by the Barnet family, ending the families long ownership of this local icon (September 1863 until April 2003).

The haunted staircase

Since the sale, The Bunyip has seen many changes in formatting, design and presentation, including the adding of colour to its format. The Bunyip continues to be one of Gawler's most respected icons and sources of news and entertainment, The Bunyip contributes to a great many of the events of the town, with sponsorship and support and continues to be the best resource for local news and events.

Karen and I were lucky enough to be invited by the newspaper's General Manager, Margaret, to investigate the Bunyip office and printing area. We had a tour of the location including the cellar, which still contained a lot of the old printing tools from the beginning of the 1900s. We also found another room adjacent to the basement that had long been sealed off, no doorways were visible into the room from the old hole in the wall through which we were looking, so we do not know exactly what the rooms use may have once been.

Karen in the Basement

The majority of the phenomena reported to us seemed to be taking place upstairs in the offices. We headed upstairs and started recorded a number of EVP's, with questions tailored to the research we had previously undertaken.
 We heard a couple of loud knocks during our EVP session, but they did not appear on the audio recordings, in their place, however, was low pitch sounds of a dog barking, which no-one in the room with us heard at the time.

The other allegedly active area was a downstairs office, where chairs had moved by their own volition and the sounds of someone sitting at a desk writing had been heard by numerous witnesses. This was intriguing, but on this occasion, we didn’t manage to capture anything on video or audio we would deem as paranormal in origin.

Perhaps the most intriguing alleged paranormal phenomena were the sounds of someone walking up and down the staircase in the centre of the building. Witnesses to this phenomena went to inspect who else was inside the building with them only to find the place securely locked down, and no one else inside!
  Through rigorous debunking, we ruled out the expansion and settling of the wood of the staircase and that of the building. We conducted a number of experiments to try and recreate the reported sounds, with no success. It would seem the person (or Ghost) that is responsible for the noise has some large heavy boots and really wants to be heard, but not seen!

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

The Old Spot Hotel: The Ghosts of Gawler, Part Three

The Old Spot Hotel

The Ghosts of Gawler Part Three

Gawler's oldest hotel, The Old Spot Hotel was known as the “Golden Fleece Hotel” when it first opened its doors on April 1^st 1840 (and has now returned to its original name).

It originally consisted of a one-room hut, a bedroom and a tent, and was Gawler's very first building.

A drawing of the Hotel in 1845

It saw three distinct rebuilds over the years, from being two rooms and a tent into a single-story structure featuring a billiard room (which still stands today).
In 1903 the hotel was rebuilt as a two-story structure. In 2012, new building works began, where shops on the northern side of the hotel were demolished to make way for a reworking of the hotel and its surrounds.

The original publican was one David Scheibener, who eventually saw the inside of the Adelaide Gaol for money owing to Francis Dutton, the hotel was then sold on to its next proprietor.

In its early days, the back section of the hotel was also used as Gawler's first morgue until the construction of better facilities on Todd Street.

The Old Spot in 1890

The Hotel has seen a number of deaths inside its walls. In 1868, Charles Donaldson a 35-year-old local passed away in the hotel.

In 1889, a serious accident occurred directly in front of the hotel when an 8-year-old boy hitched a ride on the horse-drawn tram which ran the middle of Gawler's main street.
 The boy jumped on the back of the tram, but was spotted by the guard and told to get off.
 He jumped off without looking and landed under the hooves of horses pulling a cart. The wheels of the cart ran over his head, crushing it.
The boy's father, working just across the intersection witnessed the grisly accident. A pool of blood sat on the road, near the entrance of the hotel until late the next day.

A horse-drawn tram in 1915 - Old Spot Hotel in the background

The most notable of all ghost stories associated with the pub has been from much more recent times, in approximately 1993, Scott Pearson, a professional photographer took a photo in the hotel that showed three distinct images, thought to be spirits that were haunting the hotel.

The hotel had just had renovations completed and a number of patrons and staff had started to see apparitions of a small girl and older gentlemen. Noises were being heard, voices, and other strange phenomena.

Mr Pearson stayed overnight in the hotel, and set his camera up, taking many photos during the night, only one photo showed anything of interest. You can find the photograph at http://www.castleofspirits.com/website/old/Australianghosthunters/oldspothotel.html and decide for yourself if you think Mr Pearson did indeed capture something paranormal.

© 2013 Allen Tiller

 www.eidolonparanormal.com.au