Haunted History with the Tiller’s

Allen Tiller paranormal investigator, Historian and Author and Karen Tiller Paranormal investigator and Founder of Whimsy creations join Jason Ghost Hunter team to talk about the fascinating history of Australia.

Jason Ghost Hunter on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasonghostman1972

Jason and Julia also appear in the documentary Ghosthunter: https://www.facebook.com/ghosthunterthemovie

John Martin the Celebrity Delinquent: Part 6: Francis Robert Burton

 

John Martin the Celebrity Delinquent: 

Part 6: Francis Robert Burton

Francis Robert Burton was born in London on 9 September 1840. He was the second son of the surgeon, Dr Richard Burton. The family emigrated to South Australia aboard the vessel, Jane, in 1852, settling in the suburb of Sturt. The Burton’s built ‘Bexley’ in Sturt.

Francis joined the civil service as a clerk to the Northern Drought Commission. He entered the Crown Lands Office in 1865, and a year later, in 1866, was appointed clerk to the immigrant agent at Port Adelaide.  In 1868, Burton was appointed clerk of the Adelaide Local Court, and in 1867, clerk of the Wallaroo court. In 1879, he was appointed clerk of the Port Adelaide court. In March 1894, he was reappointed as clerk to the Adelaide Court.[1]

Burton was well known in Adelaide for his efforts to stop juvenile delinquency. It was written of him in 1890;

“Mr Burton has devoted himself to the self-imposed task with the zeal and whole souledness of a thorough philanthropist, coaxing boys away from idle habits and evil associations into the line of industry, honesty, and truth, not by ordinary mean, but by force of genuine attraction. Kindly by nature, he inspires confidence in boys of a class rendered suspicious of the motives of others by their own experience of deceptive ways. Surely My Burton will yet receive for his scheme the recognition it deserves, for with every boy he rescues from vicious courses and plants firmly on the path of duty, the State gains a useful embryo citizen.”[2]

 

While living in Wallaroo, Burton was inspired to open a youth’s recreation room, with the intention of taking boys off the street and giving them books to read and games to play to pass the time.
 In 1888, Burton opened his private boys’ reformatory at Glanville.

 Burton retired in 1909, at age 75, to his home at Belair. He then moved to Roseville, New South Wales. He died at Roseville, New South Wales in 1915.[3]

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2020

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[1] Dolling, Alison, The history of Marion on the Sturt: the story of a changing landscape and its people, (Frewville, S. Aust., 1981).

[2] 'JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.', The Express and Telegraph, (4 March 1899), p. 5., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article209525608.

[3] 'A FORMER SOUTH AUSTRALIAN.', The Register, (9 July 1915), p. 6., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59411653.

Suicide by Gelignite – Wallaroo 1906

Suicide by Gelignite – Wallaroo

 In 1906 an inquest was held by James Malcolm into the suicide of William Frederick White, a quarryman in the local flux quarry.

 Mr White, aged 52, was widowed with five children. His wife, Elizabeth, had died on August 1905.
  It was said his children feared him as he was often drunk and abusive since the death of his wife. Often, he threatened to kill himself.

His children often refused to sleep at the house. The previous evening to the suicide, White had found himself home alone which made him morose. On the Saturday morning of the incident, White’s eldest son, 16-year-old William Jnr. returned home to fetch a box for his sister who had spent the previous night in Moonta.

 William Jnr spoke to his father, who was sober. White Snr. asked where the children were, which William told him that had stayed at friends’ houses. William didn’t think anything suspicious in his father’s behaviour, took the box for his sisters and left.
 William wasn’t fifty meters down the road when he heard an explosion. He ran back to the house and found his father on a sofa at the back of the house, his hand and his head had been blown off.

 Police removed the body, and during their investigation found sticks of gelignite, fuses and caps in the house.

Evidence during the inquest was given by W.F. White Junior and W.A. Webber, son in law of William White Snr.
 The jury, at the end of the inquest declared that: “ William Frederick White came to his death by an act of his own hands while in a melancholy state of mind.”

 Members of the jury then donated the fees paid for jury duty to the children of the deceased who were now orphaned.

Suicide by gelignite was not confined to Wallaroo, South Australia. Cases of this horrific way to die can also be found on Trove in Broken Hill NSW(1917), Castle Hill NSW(1954),  Cairns QLD (1929), Melbourne Vic (1926), Perth WA (1906), Claremont WA (1930) and even across the pond in New Zealand (1922), just to name a few.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019.

Sources:

'SUICIDE BY GELIGNITE.', The Register, (19 February 1906), p. 5.

'WALLAROO.', The Express and Telegraph, (21 February 1906), p. 2

'WALLAROO.', Chronicle, (24 February 1906), p. 16.

'SUICIDE BY GELIGNITE.', Observer, (24 February 1906), p. 13.

Witchcraft in South Australia Part III:
Australian Laws

Last blog we looked at Witchcraft laws around the world, this week we will be looking at the Australian States and Territories and laws regarding witchcraft that has been repealed or are still in place.

New South Wales 

The Witchcraft Act of 1735 was repealed by the Imperial Acts Application Act, 1969 (NSW),

The offence of fortune telling, [Section 4(2)(n) of the Vagrancy Act, 1902 (NSW)] was repealed by the Summary Offences Act (Repeal) Act, 1979 (NSW). New South Wales currently has no Witchcraft Act.

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory still had The Witchcraft Act of 1735 (9 Geo. 2 c. 5) as law as late as 2013. (Smail, 2013). The Act was repealed and replaced under the Summary Offences Act 2016 57(1)(d). In the Northern Territory Act, a person commits an offence if they pretend to “…tell fortunes, or uses any subtle craft, means, or device, by palmistry or otherwise, to deceive and impose upon a person”. (NT Gov. 2016).

Queensland 

 Witchcraft in Queensland was covered in The Criminal Code -Section 432, which stated; "Any person who pretends to exercise or use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration, or undertakes to tell fortunes, or pretends from his skill or knowledge in any occult science to discover where or in what manner anything supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found, is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for one year."

 However, the code was changed in 2005, and “witchcraft” per-se, is not mentioned, however via invoking Public Nuisance laws, psychics committing fraud can still be charged with a crime.

South Australia
The Statutes Amendment and Repeal (Public Offences) Act, 1991 abolished the Witchcraft laws in SA.

However, the 1991 Act came with a new section, Section 40. A person who, with intent to defraud purports to act as a spiritualist or medium or to exercise powers of telepathy or clairvoyance or other similar powers, is guilty of an offence.

Victoria

Victoria was the last Australian State to repeal a witchcraft act, which happened in 2005 with the "Vagrancy (Repeal) and Summary Offences (Amendment) Act 2005", prior to this repeal the law in Victoria Stated:
Section 13 of the Vagrancy Act 1958 which is entitled 'Fortune Telling and Pretending to Exercise Witchcraft, etc':
Any person who pretends or professes to tell fortunes or uses any subtle craft means or device by palmistry or otherwise to defraud or impose on any other person or pretends to exercise or use any kind of witchcraft sorcery enchantment or conjuration or pretends from his skill or knowledge in any occult or crafty science to discover where or in what manner any goods or chattels stolen or lost may be found shall be guilty of an offence. (AAP, 2005)

Tasmania, Western Australia and the ACT have no laws against witchcraft.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

https://www.facebook.com/TheHauntsOfAdelaide/

Bibliography

AAP, 2005, Victoria clears witches for take-off, Fairfax Media, viewed 9 April 2018, https://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Victoria-clears-witches-for-takeoff/2005/07/21/1121539075041.html


Smail, S, 2013, Northern Territory government to repeal centuries-old witchcraft, tarot card law, ABC News, viewed 9 April 2018, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-17/northern-territory-to-ditch-their-witchcraft-law/4894086


Northern Territory Government, 2016, Legislation, NT Government, viewed 9 April 2018, https://legislation.nt.gov.au/Legislation/SUMMARY-OFFENCES-ACT

COCKBURN: A Murder of Crowe

COCKBURN: A Murder of Crowe

Cockburn is a small town in South Australia’s outback, on the border of New South Wales. Cockburn is 50km’s west of Broken Hill and 462 Km’s north-east of Adelaide.

The little community began in 1886 after the South Australian Government struck a deal with the New South Wales government to exploit ore deposits in nearby Silverton, Thackaringa and Umberumberka.

The NSW Government turned the deal down, and local business identities instead, built their own line from Silverton to the SA border.

By 1892, 2000 people were calling Cockburn home, and the town boasted two hotels, a butcher, two general stores, schools and churches.

In 1929, Daniel Crowe, his wife Clara and six children moved to the small community. Daniel worked a shunter for the South Australian Railways Department and lived in provided railway cottages in the town.

 Earlier in the year, Daniel and Clara lost their eldest son, Daniel Jnr. in an accident at Peterborough.

Things had not been good between the couple since the death of their eldest son, and over time Daniel became suspicious that his wife was cheating on him with a man named Kennedy.

One-day Daniel wasn’t feeling good and decided to go to the doctor at Broken Hill. He asked Clara to go with him and she replied; “Not on your life. I have to see a friend tonight.”
 Daniel replied; “I am nothing?”
To which Clara replied; “Yes. You are alright, but I think that I have met better!”

Daniel left to see his doctor in Broken Hill. On his way back into Cockburn he noticed Kennedy acting suspiciously, ducking and weaving through train carriages as if trying to avoid him.
Daniel burst into his home and asked Clara; “What is the strong of this?”
 Clara screamed back; “Go to Blazes! Why did you not stay in Broken Hill, you’re not wanted here!” and stormed off into the bedroom.

 The following morning, Clara, the 15-year-old daughter of Daniel and Clara Snr. awoke at 7am, she lit the fire in the kitchen readying it to make breakfast. Younger sister Kathleen, went into her mother’s room to rouse her. Suddenly a scream ripped through the house, and Kathleen came back in the room, and fighting through tears, said to her brothers and sisters “Mummy is dead!”

The night before, Daniel had stormed out of the house and made his way to the rail siding, where he knew a bottle of Lysol was stored. He then made his way back to the family home, loaded his rifle, and snuck into the bedroom.
 He squatted at the foot of the bed, and shot his wife one time in the face, somehow not waking the entire household.

At 3:30 in the morning, he was seen by eldest daughter Clara, who had been disturbed by the sounds of something falling over, entering the kitchen and getting a bottle of beer, then muttering to himself “Now that’s done”, before exiting the back door of the house.

 Eldest Daughter Clara ushered her siblings off to a neighbour’s house and alerted the police. They arrived and found Clara Snr. dead in her bed, 50 yards out from the rear of the house, they found the unconscious body of Daniel laying on the ground.

Daniel was taken away and placed in Parkside Mental Hospital in Adelaide, under suspicion of murder and attempted suicide by poison.

He was questioned by police but denied remembering anything to do with the incident.

Daniel Crowe faced magistrates at Gladstone Gaol, with his attorneys issuing a statement of insanity as his defence.

The Jury hearing the case could not decide one way or the other over the charge of murder, so Daniel Crowe was left indefinitely in the Parkside Asylum. He died in 1962.

Cockburn is now a town of about 25 people, with one pub….

© 2018 Allen Tiller

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHauntsOfAdelaide/

www.allentiller.com.au

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Bibliography

1929 'COCKBURN TRAGEDY', News (Adelaide, SA: 1923 - 1954), 27 September, p. 11. (HOME EDITION), viewed 06 Jan 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129072651

1929 'COCKBURN TRAGEDY', Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW: 1888 - 1954), 12 September, p. 2. , viewed 07 Jan 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46579207

1930 'COCKBURN TRAGEDY', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA: 1889 - 1931), 13 February, p. 11. , viewed 07 Jan 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article73795383

Cockburn Progress Association, 2018, Cockburn SA – Town History, Cockburn Progress Association, viewed 7 Jan 2018, http://www.cockburn.org.au/town-history.html

1930 'TRIAL OF D. B. CROWE', Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW: 1888 - 1954), 21 March, p. 2. , viewed 07 Jan 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46571779

The Battle of Broken Hill Part II

The Battle of Broken Hill Part II

Captured Rifles and flags - Photo: Broken Hill Historical Society

  With dead and wounded falling everywhere on the back of the train, “Tiger” Nyholm grabbed his rifle and began firing back at the two men on the hill. An alert was also raised, which went back to the Police Station at Broken Hill, some 3 kilometres away.
 Inspector Miller, in charge of the local police, sent a message to Lieut. Resch who assembled a squad of local military enforcement and volunteers riflemen. The men, now posse, set out towards the scene of the attack. Sergeant Gibson noticed two men climbing among the white quartz rocks just past the Cable Hotel, and halted to make enquiries as to if they had witnessed anything.
 The two men opened fire, and shot Mounted Constable Mills in the groin and thigh.  A gun fight broke out. The military and police force took cover, and slowly surrounded the bottom of the hill the two where the two men were hiding.
 The public in town, hearing the volley of shots, grabbed their rifles, men old and young, made their way out to the gun fight, and opened fire at the two men.

The gun fight lasted until 1pm, when the police, military and citizens rushed the mountain, shooting the men dead. Their two bodies’ lay ten metres apart, one, shot through the temple was very much dead, but the other man was still breathing, and clinging on to life, even with 16 bullet wounds in his body – he died on the way to hospital in the back of an ambulance.
 Such an outcry of rage was to come from the events that the public did not want the men buried in their local cemetery – police later removed the bodies and disposed of them in secret.

So who were the two men who undertook the first terrorist attack on Australian soil?
 Badsha Mahommed Ghul (1874 – 1915) was an ice cream vendor and Mullah Abdullah (1854-1915) was an Iman and Halal butcher – both men were from a region, known at the time as India’s North-West Frontier, which is a location now found within the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Picnic train at Broken Hill - photo provided by SLSA PRG280_1_15_1017

 Ghul had traveled to Australia and found work as a cameleer, but business was not good, so he found work in a local silver mine, but with the outbreak of the Great War, was fired after all German contracts were cancelled.
 He instead bought an ice cream cart from a local Italian, and became quite well known as the friendly sweet vendor in the town.
 Mullah Abdullah on the other hand was an older man with a grudge. He still wore his traditional clothing, and due to an old leg injury, walked with a hobble that slowed him incredibly. Local kids feared him, but also made fun of him, sometimes throwing stones at him and running off, knowing he could never catch them.
 He had been living in Broken Hill for 15 years and was seen in the local Islamic community as a religious Iman, sharing in daily prayer, and acting as the local Halal Butcher in Ghantown.
 He came in to dispute with the local Sanitary Inspector, Cornelious Brosnon, for not being a unionist and for what was considered his “barbaric practices”.
 Brosnon prosecuted Abdullah in 1914 for not slaughtering animals at the abattoirs as was the current established practice. He was ordered to pain a fine of One Pound, or face 7 days in gaol – he chose to pay the fine, but never forgot or forgave Brosnon. He was again fined only months later for not having brands on sheep he had slaughtered, this time he face 3 months gaol, or a fine of 3 pounds, of which he could not pay.
 In a state of despair over his prospects, further tragedy struck him when a fire broke out in his uninsured two room house, which burnt to the ground, with all his possessions. Now a broken man, with no belongings and no purpose, he turned to his neighbor and friend, Ghul for comfort.
 Ghul recounted to his friend that the Sultan of Turkey had only recently called a Jihad on Australia’s allies who were going to war in Europe, he urged his friend that they would have great afterlives if they killed as many Australian’s as possible for their country and God.
 They concocted their plan, and with a Snider-Enfield carbine, a Martini-Henry Breech-loader rifle, a pistol and homemade bandoleers, they set out toward Silverton on the 1^st of January 1915, to begin their war on Australia.

Billy Hughes - 7th Prime Minister of Australia

The aftermath of the day’s events were swift and dramatic, townsfolk rushed out to the train carriages and took souvenirs of bullet casings, they destroyed the ice cream cart for souvenirs, then set the local German Club on fire, cutting up the local fire hoses so it could not be extinguished.  The drunken mob soon headed towards Ghantown, ready to take their anger out on the rest of the local Islamic community. They were stopped by a small military force, bayonets ready, who blocked their path – the mob soon broke up and headed home.
 The attack soon become national headlines right across Australia, causing outrage and viscous attacks at Muslim sites around the country. Billy Hughes, the 7^th Prime Minister of Australia declared that all “enemy aliens” must be incarcerated for the length of the war.  

 
 The Locomotive Engine that was involved in the conflict, the “Y 12” with build number 3536, is now thought to be the engine that resides in South Australia, National Railway Museum Port Adelaide. The engine saw over 70 years of service pulling ore carriages from mines around Broken Hill and Silverton

http://www.smh.com.au/national/silver-city-showdown-20141031-11f9se.html

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/92600076

The Battle of Broken Hill - Part I

The Battle of Broken Hill Part I

Whilst this week’s story does not take place in South Australia, it does have a connection to our State, read on to find out more!

 Every New Year’s Day the locals of Broken Hill were treated to a picnic in Silverton, which included a train ride on one of 40 open ore carriages. The event was hosted by the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows annually. The 1915 event saw around 1200 people taking part, spread across the 40 open carriages being pulled by the “Y 12” steam locomotive.

 There was a happy party atmosphere on board the train and as it rounded a large sweeping bend, the train passed an ice-cream cart, painted white, with red words on the side reading “Lakovsky’s Delicious ITALIAN ICE CREAM. A Food fit for Children and Invalids” with a little red Turkish flag flying from the top of it.
 Two men wearing turbans were spotted on a rise across from the train line,  gunshots were heard. The picnic goers cheered with delight, thinking it was a salute to the glorious day they were above to have, until, people around them began to fall, wounded or dead.

 Once it was realised that the gun shots were not celebratory, but deadly, parents flung themselves over their children to protect them from the oncoming volley of bullet fire.

Alma Cowie, pictured 1911,

 killed during an attack at Broken Hill Jan 1^st 

1915 Photo: Broken Hill Historical Society

Among the happy picnic goers, included 17 year old Alma Cowie and her boyfriend Clarence O’Brien, who were sitting together enjoying the train ride, dressed in their Sunday best, like all the travelers, and waiting to eat their packed picnic and cool homemade lemonade, after playing picnic games with the other revelers.
 They both stood up to get a better view of what was happening. While standing there, another loud gunshot sound cracked through the air, and something flew past the ear of Clarrie, he turned to Alma, only to see her falling to the floor, with the top of skull opened and bloody.

 The War in Europe, which Australia had entered only months before, had just come to Australia, and claimed its first causality.
 The train kept chugging on down the line while the two men took pot shots at the distressed passengers.

William Shaw, a sanitary worker and his family were on another carriage, William was soon another of the casualties, and his daughter, Lucy who was shot in the elbow, amongst the wounded.
 A cameraman, riding a motorcycle behind the train, Mr Alfred Millard, who intended to photograph the picnic event was shot dead, and another bullet, which missed it mark with the train passengers, killed a man named Jim Craig, who was out chopping wood.
 Amongst the shot and injured were Thomas Campbell a 70 year old tinsmith who was shot in the side.
George Stokes – a 14 year old boy who was shot in the shoulder and chest.
 Alma Crocker (wounds unknown).
 Rose Crabb – who was shot through the shoulder.
Constable Mills, who received bullet wounds to the groin and thing.
 Beryl Lane - who was shot in the jaw, and 23 year old Mary Kavanagh who was shot through the base of the skull.
  There would have been further casualties if it was not for the heroic effort of the train guard Eric “Tiger” Nyholm who was a crack shot with a rifle, and had begun shooting back at the men on the hill.

Some of the victims of the murderous attack by two aliens on New Year's Day. From left to right — Master Geo. F. Stokes, wounded on the train; Mr Thos. Campbell, who was shot at his own door; Miss Alma P. Cowie, who was killed outright on the picnic train, being shot through the head; and Senior-Constable Mills, who was wounded in the battle with the police. Conlon Studios.

All up, six people lost their lives that New Year’s Day… next week’s, The Haunts of Adelaide will include the fate of to the two assailants and the connection to Adelaide.