A Ghost Named Clark.

 

Kadina 1933 {SLSA B 8738}

 In August 1880, Kadina on the Yorke Peninsula was haunted by a ghost. The ghost was seen in the evenings. It purposefully scared women and children, jumping out from behind trees, and around corners.

 One evening, Foot Constable Murray of the Kadina police patrolled the streets. He spotted the ghost as it floated through the town and followed it. He approached the ghost, and grabbed it, expecting to pass through it - as you do – but the ghost was solid. He unmasked the Kadina spectre, a man in a white bedsheet, and took him to the police station! FC Murray may have been South Australia’s first ‘ghostbuster!’

Hosiah Clark was charged by Foot Constable Murray with ‘unlawful use of a disguise to frighten women and children.’[1] Clark was deemed idle and disorderly, he was sentenced to pay 15s for his crime and serve fourteen days in the Wallaroo Gaol.[2]

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2024

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[1] 'POLICE COURT—KADINA.', The Wallaroo Times and Mining Journal, (18 August 1880), p. 3.

[2] 'NEWS OF THE MONTH.', The Illustrated Adelaide News, (1 September 1880), p. 1. 

 A Phantom at Moonta

 

Many people have been reporting a phantom hitchhiker appearing in their headlights on Moonta-Wallaroo Road; and sometimes on the Moonta end of the Spencer Highway.
There have been reports of a phantom man wearing a large black coat. The ghost stands in the middle of the road, staring straight up at the sky. When the witness’ stops, he disappears. Others have seen the man walking in the middle of the road, a black silhouette in the distance, and as you get near him, he vanishes from sight.
 Some people who have stopped and checked the area, thinking the man in black has just moved to the side of the road, have reported after getting back into their cars, witnessing an ashen white face against their passenger side window. The face looks at the witness with absolute horror, before vanishing into the night!!!

 

Have you experienced this phenomenon? I would love to hear your story!

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.

MEGAscene

MEGAscene

I’ve written articles for several magazines over the years, but the longest continual series of articles I have written is in South Australia publication, MEGAscene, published on ISSUE by Rising Sun Media.
 MEGAscene first published in September 2015 and is a predominately music based photographic magazine, but also covers other events, and for a little twist, has included an article written by me about a haunting, ghost or other paranormal topic, each issue.
 I thought it might be a good idea to post links to the SA Paranormal articles I have written for MEGAscene, here on this blog, as most you wont find anywhere else online.

So here they are!:

Issue 1: SA Paranormal – An introduction to Allen Tiller, and paranormal stories in South Australia. (Sept 2015)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_1_final/34

Issue 2: Kapunda – an introduction to Australia’s most haunted town. (Oct 2015)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_2/38

Issue 3: The Old Adelaide Gaol – South Australia’s most haunted location (Nov 2015)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_3/54

Issue 4: Martindale Hall – Clare – A historic haunted mansion in the Clare Valley (Jan 2016)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_4/32

Issue 5: Highercombe Hotel – Tea Tree Gully Heritage Museum (Mar 2016)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_5/54

Issue 6: The National Railway Museum – Port Adelaide (April 2016)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_6/54

Issue 7: Cornucopia Hotel – Wallaroo (June 2016)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_7

Issue 8: “The Haunted Boy” Paintings (sometimes known as the “Haunting Boy”) (Sept 2016)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_8/32

Issue 9: The Cornwall Hotel – Moonta (May2017)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_9/46

Issue 10: The Old Mount Gambier Gaol (Aug. 2017)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_10/44

Issue 11: The Royal Arms Hotel – Port Adelaide (March 2018)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_11/56

Issue 12: Ayers House – North Terrace Adelaide (July 2018)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/megascene_issue_12/54

Issue 13: Adelaide Ghosts & Ghouls Walking Tour (Sept 2018)
https://issuu.com/risingstarmedia/docs/issue_13_of_megascene/32

Issue 14: The British Hotel – Port Adelaide (yet to be released at the time of writing this blog)

You can also find MEGAscene on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/megasceneoz/

Happy reading!