A Haunting at The Union Hotel

The Union Hotel

Located on Waymouth Street in Adelaide's CBD, The Union Hotel first opened its doors in 1845 as the Union Inn. The Union Hotel has been a popular place for many years but did face the prospect of demolition at one point, only to rebound and become one of Adelaide's premier nightspots once again.

Although not paranormal it is interesting to note the colourful past of the hotel and its licensees and patrons.
  In 1849, Mr Creech imported a Bengal Tiger into Adelaide and began to show it at events in the city. The tiger was caged at the back of the Union Hotel and Mr Creech charged a fee of sixpence to see it.

The tiger is described in the “South Australian” (Friday 25 May 1849) newspaper as follows:

“The black Tiger brought from Malacca in the Cacique, was purchased by Mr Creech, of the

Union Inn, Weymouth-street. We paid the royal stranger a visit on Monday, and it certainly struck us as a curiosity-we do not remember to have seen one of the kind in any English collection. It is jet black, and very wild, not large, but evidently of immense muscular power. Its appetite is ravenous and savage, as an unfortunate cat, an involuntary intruder in its cage, we quickly experienced. The brute with a single stroke of its paw literally smashed its visitor, and greedily swallowed the blood; the carcase, however, of Grimalkin it rejected, perhaps on the score of relationship. We believe Mr Creech intends shipping his unique purchase to London or Sydney. In the former place, it would no doubt realise a good price”

Unfortunately for Mr Creech, his tiger brought about his arrest, and gaol, when a duck being kept by the hotel landlord, Mr Herring, poked its head through a hole in the tiger's cage and subsequently lost its life.

Mr Creech was charged and fined 3/6d, and sentenced to time in gaol for the offence, the tiger was eventually sold.

Mr Herring, a former owner of the Union Hotel, has been witnessed as a spirit in the building on occasion.

Mr John Michael Herring, a London builder who emigrated to Australia, first established the Union Inn in 1845 and soon sold the license of the pub to an employee, Mr Charles Oaty in 1846. In 1848, Mr Herring reacquired the Hotel from Mr Oaty.
  Mr Herring suffered a blow to the head after swerving to miss a child while driving down Rundle Street. He was thrown from his cart and collided headfirst into the pavement. Unfortunately, his actions did not spare the life of the child he was trying to avoid. Mr Herring was carried back to the Union Inn, where he died, aged 64. <1>

 It is alleged that Mr Herring is seen as a ghost in the hotel, dressed in attire attributed to an officer in the English Army, of which he had served before coming to Australia.

 Ewan Davidson, a local labourer, died at the Union Hotel. He had been enjoying drinks with friends on Wednesday 16 August 1848. After his friends left, Ewan stood and walked past the tap-room, falling seven feet down the staircase, headfirst into the kitchen, where he struck his head, killing him.

Davidson's death was reported 3 days later in “The South Australian Register” as; "Mr Davidson, aged 29, died of extravasation of blood on some part of the brain within the skull”.

On 14 February 1876, Mr George Isaacs died at the Union Hotel from complications of illness. Mr Isaacs was well known writer using the non-de-plume “A. Pendragon”. He wrote a novel and a number of satires that were very successful in his time, he was also one of the founders of the Gawler Humbug Society.

The Union Hotel reports frequent paranormal activity and is considered one of Adelaide's premier locations for witnessing something from the other side.

Mr Herring has been seen standing near the dance floor in the upstairs “polo room” dressed in his full British Army regalia on numerous occasions.

Often the kitchen staff report cold spots and shadows, items disappearing and odd crashing sound, could this be the spirit of Ewan Davidson returning, or stuck, in the place he died?

In the cellar, often a feeling of being watched is felt, and a cough heard when no-one else is present, is this Mr Isaacs making his presence known?

One cannot be certain, but the historical fact of deaths in the Union Hotel can be cited to begin to build a case for the hauntings and phenomena reported.

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

1. South Australian Register Wednesday 4 February 1852, page 2 

IGA Brompton - Alleged Haunting

IGA Brompton

One of the most recent haunting cases in South Australia is that of the IGA convenience store located on Torrens Road Brompton.

 The store garnered international attention when video footage was shown on Australian TV of a “roll-up” bar being thrown down an aisle way at 11:30pm at night, well after the shop had closed.
The shop owner, Norm Hurst, stated that the roll-up bars are actually stored over 12 metres away in another aisle and that he cannot explain why the camera came on and captured the event.
Adelaide Paranormal Detectives were invited by Mr Hurst to investigate the location, during their investigation the team tried to recreate the actions of the bar, but were unsuccessful in doing so, they also received no other information to confirm the IGA as being haunted.

Ms Pulvirenti of Adelaide
Paranormal Detectives

Despite the Paranormal investigation gathering no evidence of ghosts, the haunted label has stuck with the IGA and a number of theories have risen, one theory regards the death of a boxer, Mr Bora Altintas, as a possibility of being the ghost, but why he would choose to throw a child's food bar down an aisle instead of something more appropriate to a boxer, and a man of his alleged character is something we will never know, if indeed he is the IGA Ghost

On the 21st of September 1998, Bora Atlintas, a Turkish national who had emigrated to Australia was shot dead by a single bullet, in the phone booth outside the takeaway store near the IGA.

Bora Atlintas

Mr Atlintas was a very well known boxer in Australia, a professional middleweight State Champion. It is alleged that Mr Atlintas had become involved in Adelaide's seedy underworld as a drug dealer and a standover man. He was facing a string of offences and time in prison for a number of drug-related crimes when he was gunned down.
Investigations continue into the location, but as of yet nothing of solid evidence has been found.

For more information please follow the links below

 http://www.news.com.au/national-news/are-ghosts-haunting-brompton-iga/story-e6frfkvr-1226303625611

Story on  Adelaide Paranormal Detectives investigation into the IGA Store

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-sleuths-spurred-on-iga-supermarket-ghost-video-inquiries/story-e6frea83-1226309726609 

Videos

On Sunrise

http://youtu.be/7ykCaBMkQEQ

http://youtu.be/1ExrlYjaLcY

Footnote: After the global media attention this story gathered, many local teams tried to gain access to the IGA store to conduct their own paranormal investigation and steal some of the spotlight from the Adelaide Paranormal Detectives team. It has been alleged that one very prominent paranormal local paranormal investigator even threatened physical violence towards members of the APD team.

This paranormal investigator is a blight on the local scene and national scene, but somehow maintains an image of being an upstanding person. The truth always has a habit of surfacing though, and in this case, its only a matter of time until they are exposed for what they truly do behind the scenes.

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

All content on “Eidolon Paranormal & The Haunts of Adelaide” sites, blog and corresponding media pages (eg Facebook, twitter etc) is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any means or process without the written permission of the author. © 2012, 2013

All photos remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are displayed here for the purpose of education, research and review under the copyright act "fair usage" clause.

Some photos used here on this site are sourced from The State Library of South Australia, and The National Library of Australia and http://www.gawler.nowandthen.net.au - all photos are out of copyright and have no usage restrictions implied.

Engelbrecht Caves: Ghost of the South Coast part VIII

Engelbrecht Caves

One of Mount Gambier's biggest tourist draw cards is the Engelbrecht Caves. The cave system was explored in 1864 by John Stratford, Charlie Brad, Albert Grosser and 10-year-old Charlie Grosser, in a canoe built by pioneer settler Dr Edward Wehl.
The adventurers explored but soon found themselves caught in strong currents in the underground cave system and were pulled through the network. They had a hard time making it back to where they started but made note of the enormous size and beauty of the caves during their trip, which was eventually written about much later in 1933.

The caves are formed of Gambier Limestone, and by a process of chemical dissolution have formed over thousands of years, the limestone being originally formed some 35 to 45 million years ago!
The cave gained its name after Mr Carl Engelbrecht arrived from Germany, and bought a nearby flour mill, turning it into a whiskey distillery. He used the caves to dump all of the waste and by-products, evidence of bottles can still be found today!



After a group of divers explored the caves by the request of the local council, it was decided they wouldn't be suitable for a tourist development due to the large piles of rubbish inside and the possibility of people being hurt in small lakes and waters inside.
Almost 15 years later, The local Lions Club took over the site and set about cleaning it up, after 3 years and $10,000 they handed the caves back to the council, and from there it became the tourist attraction we know today.

In late 2008 a tourist was enjoying the caves when she took a random photograph, as tourists do, she got a shock when looking at the picture when she found the face of a small boy looking out at her from behind a rock. The boy seemed to have an unearthly blue glow to him.
She was stunned and sent the photo to be viewed by the tour group. Someone in the tour group leaked the photo online, and soon it was in all the local papers and a media frenzy grew around it. The photo was also available online.
This led to a large number of new tourists becoming interested in the caves and the story, all looking for the little lost ghost boy in the caves.

The media attention also caused a large backlash by non-ghost believers, these people began to attack the authenticity of the ghost photos and even made personal attacks toward to photographer, which in turn led to the photo being removed from all media and internet sites as per her request.

I am lucky enough to have a copy of the photo, but as per the copyright holder's request, cannot display it here.
Interestingly a local paranormal investigation team named Abandoned Australia investigated the caves back in May 2009, but found nothing at the time they thought was paranormal, but also stated that this did not mean the location was not haunted – for more about their investigation please follow this link:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/05/18/2573494.htm


Mount Gambier also offers Ghost Tours, you can find them here via this link: http://mountgambier.localitylist.com.au/yellowresult.php/goal/Detail/ckey/2043


So are the caves haunted by a little boy? If they are, who is he, and why is there, in a cold wet cave?
These are the questions no one has an answer to right now...
More investigation is needed to verify the existence of the 'ghost boy' and the authenticity of the photos,; but this is highly unlikely on both accounts, so the ghost boy, for now, will remain another of the mysteries of the area...

That concludes our look into Ghosts of the South Coast, for now, we will return to the area at a later date as we have uncovered several other local stories as well, but we feel it is important to not dwell on one area for too long. So we will move on for now, and come back down south at a later date.

© 2013 Allen Tiller

The Spirits of Lake Leak - Ghosts of The South Coast Part 7

The Spirits of Lake Leak

Not far from Millicent, close to Glencoe, is a large dormant volcano with a lake in its crater, much like Mount Gambier's Blue Lake, but much smaller. That lake is known as “Lake Leak”.
For many years, it was rumoured in the local area, that Lake Leak was haunted. Very few people dared to venture up to the beautiful setting at night for fear they may encounter the local ghost.


People have drowned in this lake, that is a well-established fact. The locals knew those who had lost their lives here and knew how dangerous the place could be. It was often said on a moonlit night one could see a silver-grey, human-like figure lying on the dark waters of the lake. Whether the figure was a male or female, could be discerned, but nonetheless, people witnessed a mysterious person, floating, still, upon the water...like a dead body...

Not many people ventured to the lake at night, but every so often a stockman or rider passing through, would camp nearby and let their horses rest, They would wake in the night and see the mysterious figure floating on the water. The men (or man) would quickly pack up and ride into the night scared out of their wits, others wouldn’t even wait to pack up, but simply split until morning and then return for their things.


 One evening a man, braver than most, happened upon the lake and decided to stay the night. He spotted the mysterious shimmery silver-grey figure and watched it closely, noticing it never moved. Throwing caution to the wind, he decided to move closer and observe the figure.
It just lay there, floating, never drifting, always in the same spot.

The observant man decided not to bother the ghost this time, but just watch the figure. He then decided he should watch it for a few nights, to see if it ever did anything. One night he decided he would try and communicate with it, but had no reply.

On the third night, he spotted another ghost, this one much closer to him, and weirdly doing the exact same thing as the distant ghost, floating upon the water.

Working up all his bravery he decided to investigate the second ghost and got much closer. He was shocked at his discovery... the “ghost” was, in fact, an ancient white gum tree stripped of its bark and emerging in the still waters. He ventured to the distant ghost, to discover the same thing.

The next day he rode into town to the pub, to tell his story of bravery, and to tell the locals that the ghost of Lake Leak, which had haunted them for over a decade was nothing more than an old tree!



© 2013 Allen Tiller