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Tuesday 7 February 2023

A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel - Part 1.

 A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel - Part 1.

 


The Mount Remarkable Hotel can be found on Stuart Street in Melrose, South Australia. According to historian Bob Hoad; the original hotel was constructed in 1857 and was known as the Mount Remarkable Hotel until 1872. It was then known as Moran’s Hotel between 1873 and 1920 when it reverted to the Mount Remarkable Hotel.[1]

Melrose promotes itself as the oldest town in Flinders Ranges. Prior to European settlement, the area was home to the Doora people. By 1880, the Doora had been all but wiped out by Europeans. The first European to the area was explorer Edward John Eyre who named Mount Remarkable in 1840.

Copper was discovered in the area with mining operations commencing in 1846 and closing in 1851. The mines produced no lodes worthy of continued mining. Despite this, the mines were opened again in 1916 -1917.

 The Mount Remarkable Hotel was completed in 1857, making it the second oldest in the town after the North Star Hotel (completed in 1854.) The hotel was opened by Thomas Moran after he retired from the Mounted Police.[2]

Thomas William Moran was born in Dorrington Westmeath England in 1816. He joined the 11th Devonshire Regiment in Athlone Barracks. He served in Kent before his detachment was sent to Tasmania, then Adelaide, then Sydney. He quit the military in New South Wales, where he stayed for a short while before relocating to Adelaide to work as a reporter. He became friends with Captain Bagot of the Kapunda Mines, who had him admitted to the Mounted Police Force. He served at Port Lincoln, Port Augusta, on the Yorke Peninsula in the capacity of Corporal under Inspector Tolmer. Both Tolmer and Moran were involved in quelling ‘black uprisings’ in country districts.
 Moran retired from the Mounted Police at Mount Remarkable building a hotel. He also took up farmland in the area erecting one of the district's first woolsheds. After retiring from hotel life, he purchased a farm in Wongyarra, where he lived until his death in 1904.[3]

Ghosts

It is alleged that the Mount Remarkable hotel is haunted by numerous ghosts, and possibly a poltergeist. There are several recorded deaths at the hotel that could be utilised as possible evidence for the alleged hauntings. In the same instance, some of the alleged hauntings, have no correlating historical evidence, which could perhaps be used to reclassify the haunting as an urban legend. I will be presenting some of the historical documentation over the coming weeks. Then the ghost stories at the end of the series.


Next Week: A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part II - The Death of a Watchmaker.


Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2023



[1] J.L. (Bob) Hoad, Hotels and Publicans in South Australia, (1986), p. 389.

[2] Melrose, Sydney Morning Herald, (2004), https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/melrose-20040208-gdkqk3.html.; 'A NORTHERN IDENTITY.', The Laura Standard, (21 May 1915), p. 3.

[3] 'A CHEQUERED CAREER.', The Laura Standard, (19 August 1904), p. 3.

Photo: The Wenmouth Collection: Melrose [B 64310/290], State Library of South Australia, (1969), https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+64310/290.

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