The Haunting of the Exchange Hotel - Gawler

The Exchange Hotel was first licensed in 1868. On Saturday the 17th of May 1893, this hotel made national news after the suicide of R.F. Rankin. He had been wrongly prosecuted in Moonta for defrauding a chemist of 10 pounds.
 Rankin came to Gawler intending to stay the weekend. Rankin had some bad habits, he was an intravenous cocaine and morphine user.[1]  On Saturday evening, Mrs Lucas, the wife of the publican heard some painful groans coming from Rankins room, she alerted her husband, who tried, but could not open the door. They called their ostler, who climbed a ladder and broke into the room, opening the door. There on the bed was Rankin, lying dead among syringes and tubes of cocaine. Doctor Dawes was called to examine Rankin…but it didn’t take long for him to realise it wasn’t an overdose, but a case of poisoning.
  Found lying under the bed was a small bottle of prussic acid, which is also known as a solution of cyanide. It was used in fumigation and in mining, and the smallest amount can cause death instantly.[2]  Rankin had consumed about 15mls of the liquid. A jury concluded that most likely, Rankin was delirious from the amount of cocaine and morphine he had consumed, and possibly drank the bottle of cyanide without realising what he was doing. His death was listed as an ‘accidental suicide’.[3] 

 It is claimed a female houseguest died upstairs and she is to blame for several of the ghostly goings-on inside the hotel. Scott Fraser, a former publican of the Exchange Hotel has previously stated in the media that lights will randomly turn on throughout the various levels of the hotel. Even more unsettling is the strong smell of death that permeates the rooms of the hotel with no known source.
  Fraser had exterminators in twice, thinking a possum had died in the ceiling. After inspection, no source for the smell could be found, in fact, the smell seemed to move from room to room, and could sometimes be smelled in one corner of a room, and not another, as though an invisible wall was holding the smell in containment. The smell was bad enough that on some occasions people would choke, gag or vomit from it.

 This hotel is also claimed to be haunted by the spirit of a little girl. It is not known whom she might be, but she is often seen sitting on a bed in an upstairs room!

 

Researched and written for the Gawler History Team presentation ‘Ghostly Gawler’ by Allen Tiller © 2021

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[1] 'Coroners' Inquests.', South Australian Register, (30 May 1893), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48521216

[2] ‘Hydrocyanic Acid Formula’, Soft Schools.com, (2019), http://www.softschools.com/formulas/chemistry/hydrocyanic_acid_uses_properties_structure_formula/228/

[3] 'Coroner’s Inquests.', Evening Journal, (30 May 1893), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197868964