Uley Road Cemetery & Chapel

  Uleybury was established in the late 1840s by Moses Bendle Garlick. Garlick had migrated to Australia from Gloucestershire England in 1837. Garlick was a weaver and Lay-Preacher. Uleybury was chosen as the area's name because the district's hills reminded Garlick of his home in Cotswold. 'Uley' was Garlicks home village and 'Bury' was the term used in that region for a tree-covered hill.

 In 1841, Garlick paid 400 pounds to have a small chapel built on an acre of land he had set aside. The Uleybury Baptist Church was the first Baptist Church in South Australia built outside of Adelaide and served the local community for many decades.

 In the 1970s, the now-abandoned chapel started to attract teenagers in the area looking for a cheap scare. At that stage, the area had no dwellings nearby and was rather remote, quiet and spooky.  Along with the teenagers came vandalism, and the chapel and many graves in the cemetery were badly vandalised, with many disappearing altogether.

 On March 10, 1981, the local council stepped in and demolished the old chapel. The stone walls that now surround the cemetery were built from the stones of the original chapel. A memorial plaque marking the event was placed at the front gate.

 The ghost stories of the area were well entrenched by the 1970s, many of which emerged two decades before in the 1950s.

 In 1953, The Bunyip newspaper, in Gawler, printed a story told by Frank Ifould.

Franks tells the story of a man who worked for his father. A man who enjoyed drinking alcohol every day. On the day's Frank's, dad went into town, the worker hit the bottle harder, often getting exceptionally drunk. One evening, another worker decided he would scare the drunk man and dressed in a white sheet. Ha waited patiently for the drunk to appear, and jumped out, scaring the drunk. The drunk, in his stupor, believed it was a real ghost, and told his story to whoever would listen.

 The story of the ghost eventually spread, and as it spread the story grew, until it started to include headless horsemen and ghastly coaches eerily cruising past the cemetery. From that moment onwards, the crossroads, just a little further up from the cemetery has been known as “Ghost Corner”.

 This proves that the alleged haunting of Uley Road Chapel and Cemetery is nothing new.  There are ghost multiple stories now, but some of them are eerily similar to the original story. Today there are stories of a girl in a wedding dress who runs out onto the road screaming, another girl who steps out in front of your car, dressed in white, she screams as your car hits her and disappears into the ether.

 There are stories of shadow people, stone-throwing ghosts, and some local legends of satanic rituals happening in the 1970s – this all adds to the myths and legends of the location - which is still a popular place in South Australia to ghost hunt or scare people.

 I have visited the cemetery many times, and on a couple of occasions come across some weird behaviours. One of them being giant circles made out of stones in the top left corner of the cemetery – the photos below were taken in 2010

Adelaide Arcade: Part One - " A History"

The Adelaide Arcade 

Part one: A History

In 1885 Adelaide was a bustling city, boasting numbers upward of 150,000 residents in the only “free” colony of Australia ( South Australia was not settled by Convicts, rather it was seen as a “Utopia” of sorts, for the wealthy and free settlers). 

The sealed streets were lined with Gas lamps, there was a postal service, newspapers, theatre and horse racing. 

On December 12th 1885 Adelaide Arcade was opened on Rundle Street, boasting 50 stores, with 50,000 square feet of space, Turkish Baths, electric Lighting, upper and lower floors, ventilation and a unique parcel delivery system. 

The stone entrance was built from marble quarried and carried from Kapunda, and ornamental cast Iron was bought from Fulten & Co. Panels of glass were transported from England, and special ornate tiling was used to line the floors of this grand structure of, what was at the time, a progressive and very modern design of architecture. 

The idea for the shops was to have a ground floor area displaying wares and goods and an upstairs room for working and or storage. At the time, each shop had its own internal staircase. 

Governor Sir William Robinson

The building was officially opened on the 12th of December 1885 by Governor Sir William Robinson. 

Adelaide Arcade was one of the first buildings in Adelaide to be lit totally by electric light. In 1885 it was also announced that “Gays Arcade” would be joining Adelaide Arcade to Twin street, the design was drawn by architect James Cumming. 

The opening day of the arcade caused quite a flutter in the city streets, 60, 000 pounds had been spent to build the Arcade, in a time of high unemployment, many of the lower classes were not accepting of this and thought to cause an uproar at the opening ceremonies. 

The gates were locked at either end as dignitaries and officials dined, hungry people and the unemployed lined the gates, watching the officials eat and drink Champagne, a stir was beginning through the hungry crowd, but before a riot began 70 officers from the Adelaide police force arrived and moved the potential rioters on, this, however, did not stop the Governor's car being pelted by stones as he drove away after the function. 

The electricity used to power the lighting of the Arcade came from an on-site power generator, a large engine, located in what is now The Manhattan Dry Cleaners at shop 9. Each shop was also fitted with a gas lamp for emergencies and had heating and cooling ventilation 

There is also an underground section which is currently closed off, that was used as a tea room. 

The building was lit by sixteen lamps hung along the centre of the promenade, and one at either end, over the entrances. 

Of the gas-powered electricity generating machine this was stated in “Adelaide observer, 19 December 1885, p. 33 ” 

“The Engine Room is well worth the visit. Here there is the dynamo which works the electric light. In the centre are the soft-iron magnets and the thousands of coils of wire so beautifully placed in relation to each other that the slightest current engendered in the wire shall immediately accumulate over and over almost ad infinitum. The soft Iron magnets do their part by reason of the positive and negative poles in their mutual attractive force creating electricity. The current before passing on to the insulated wires branching off to the sixteen lamps has to pass over a little bridge of thin platinum.” 

This kind of technology was brand new at the time, with no electricity available on demand like we are used to in modern times. 

The wheel of the gas-burning engine turned at 121 revolutions per minute whilst the body of the engine was bolted to the hard floor. 

Some of you may be wondering why I am describing this engine in such detail, it is because of a death which occurred within the engine room two years after installation, a death we will be looking at in part two of this blog next week, entitled “ The Beadle”, a man who could well be haunting the Adelaide Arcade!

© 2012 The Haunts of Adelaide

written and researched by

Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

All content on “The Haunts of Adelaide” site, 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

 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 - all photos are out of copyright and have no usage restrictions implied.

Carclew House, Montefiore Hill: "Sinister By Design Part 2"

Today we trace the origins of the land and building that is known today as “Carclew House” a Gothic-styled mansion that sits adorning Montefiore Hill in North Adelaide.

"Sinister By Design Part 2"

Last week we were introduced to Carclew's designer, Mr John Quinton Bruce, this week we delve into the house's history and a little of the history of the family that resided in its walls and named this South Australian icon “Carclew House”.
Long before the iconic house was built, a much smaller residence sat upon the hill, that of James Chambers and Family.
 Mr Chambers was a very successful businessman in Adelaide in the late 1800s. Much of his families success came from buying a town acre in the first Adelaide land sale and importing horses from Van Diemen's Land in conjunction with his brother John.
The two men secured themselves a small fortune through their business dealings, and become philanthropists in the small Adelaide community.

James opened a livery stable in Adelaide, purchasing coaches from Cape Town and England, soon he gained the mail contract to Burra (around 1845) and built a large business carting people and mail to the mining communities in Kapunda and Burra and Mid North.

Hugh R Dixson

The house on Montefiore Hill was eventually sold to Mr Hugh R. Dixson, a tobacco manufacturer and merchant, who knocked it down and commissioned local architect, John Quinton Bruce to build an imposing mansion, which he named “Stalheim” in 1897.

Mr Dixson worked for his father from 1885 and in 1889 went to Perth, Western Australia, where he married. On the death of his father in 1891 he bought the S.A. and W.A. businesses from his father's estate and returned to Adelaide to live.
In 1903 the Dixson company merged with another company and become known as “The British Australian Tobacco Company", of which Dixson was elected the director. He moved his family to Sydney to live in 1905.
In 1908, Stalheim was sold to Sir Langdon Bonython, who renamed the building “Carclew”.

State Library of South Australia photo by Ernest Gall 1867

Bonython was 16 years old when he took a job at “The Advertiser”, one of Adelaide's daily newspapers. In 1879, he entered the business as part proprietor and by 1894 owned the newspaper business outright. He went on to own the newspaper for another 35 years, establishing a number of other media ventures in that time as well.

It was reported in another Adelaide paper, “The Mail” in 1929, that Bonython sold his stake in the Advertiser for £1,250,000 to a Melbourne consortium. At the time, this deal made him the wealthiest man in Australia.

 The southeastern facade of the Carclew House 1910

Bonython entered politics in 1901, and in 1903 was elected unopposed in the division of Barker. He retired from politics in 1906
n 1908 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George(CMG) "In recognition of service to the Commonwealth of Australia".
Sir Bonython was well known for his good deeds and philanthropy, in 1916 he donated £50,000 for the construction of a hall at the University of Adelaide.
He also donated £100,000 towards the construction of Parliament House in Adelaide.
In 1919 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) "In recognition of service to the Commonwealth".
The Bonython family lived happily in the newly named Carclew House from 1908 until its sale to the State government in 1965.

1930

Sir Bonython was a distinguished-looking gentleman, short of stature but well-groomed, he was said to a very stern and strict man with his children, possibly even a little harsh for the time he lived in, but he expected much from his offspring, and drove them to strive for greatness themselves.

Sir Bonython was said to be a man of extreme cleanliness and had a distaste of anything that may harbour germs. He lives a long life, dying at the age of 91 on October 22nd 1939.

He was honoured with a State Funeral, with a service at St Peters Anglican Church, and was interred in West Terrace Cemetery.

His estate was vast upon his death, with a net worth estimated at around £4,000,000. He included as beneficiaries in his will, The Pirie Street Methodist Church and St Peters Cathedral, to which he had donated the cost of the canons and choir stalls in 1925 in memory of his wife who had died in 1924.

State Funeral of Sir Bonython

Of the stories of ghosts and haunting associated with Carclew House, one tale is of Sir Bonython killing his wife. The story goes that Mrs Bonython found out Mr Bonython had a mistress and grew incredibly angry, a fight ensued. It is alleged that he incapacitated Mrs Bonython, carried her to the spire tower and threw her out the window in a fit of rage.

When he got down to the grounds below to his wife, he found her still alive, so he carried her back up the spire and threw her down again!

Whether or not the story is true has not seemed to matter in the annals of South Australian history, people never let the truth get in the way of a good story, and this is a story that has it all.

That said, what did happen to Lady Bonython?

Lady Marie Louise Fredericka Bonython died on the 9th of February 1924. It is reported in “The Register” obituaries that Lady Bonython had been an invalid for many years before her death.

Obituary of Lady Bonython in 1924

She was a jovial woman, always in high spirits who showed a great deal of compassion and consideration for other, this earned her much respect.

She had spent 20 years serving on the board of the States Children Council and was a founding member of the District Trained Nurses Society.

Up until her death, she worked tirelessly as the Vice-President of the Kindergarten Union.

In 1920, She celebrated her Golden wedding anniversary with her husband having married him on December 24th 1870

She was survived by her husband, her son, Mr Lavington Bonython, Lord Mayor Of Adelaide, and three daughters.

So was Mrs Bonython murdered, thrown from the tower by her husband? 
It would appear not, as one would expect police and coroner reports, as well as media scrutiny with a family so much in the public eye.

From a conspirators point of view though, such a tragic murder could easily have been covered up, with Media control of local newspaper source, a Son in the Mayor's office, an abundance of money and power, Sir Bonython could have easily covered up such an event, but as we all know, the truth has a way of exposing itself, and if such an event did occur, it will find its way into the public forum eventually, but for now all we have is speculation as to whether or not such an abominable event occurred in the grand old House named “Carclew”

Other persistent rumours include stories of a man being buried inside the walls of one of the rooms and of a man being buried in a wall near the front door, there is no evidence at the moment that confirms of either of these events ever taking place.

Carclew house 2010

So what of the Carclew house today?

In 1965 the house was bought by the Adelaide City Council.

In 1971, then premier, Sir Donald Dunstan announced Carclew would become a performing arts centre for youths.

In 1976 the program was expanded, and Carclew became a place of multi-arts activities for youth.

In October 2006 Swanbury Penglase Architects prepared an extensive report on the condition of Carclew House – making a series of recommendations to ensure the long-term structural viability of the building. These works were undertaken by the Government of South Australia and completed in October 2009.

© 2012

The Haunts of Adelaide

All photos retain the rights of their various copyright holders and only shown here for the purpose of education,

All reference materials available upon written request.