Paranormal Research: National Library of Australia’s TROVE (Part 1) - Basic Search

Paranormal Research: National Library of Australia’s TROVE (Part 1) - Basic Search

www.trove.nla.gov.au
Prior Posts related to this Blog:
Paranormal Research: The Manning Index of South Australian History

Trove is one of the biggest public databases in Australia, it contains more than 370 million resources, spread across ten content zones which includes: Books,  Photos, Journals, Newspapers, Government Gazettes, Music, Maps, Diaries and Letters, Archived Websites, People, and Lists.

The focus here is on content in digitised newspapers. (Trove also supplies a specific section with  information about searching newspapers.)

1. In this exercise, we are going to enter the term "Death of the Arcade Beadle" in inverted commas into the search bar. And hit enter, we can see our entry from the Manning index in slot two (see prior blog post The Manning Index <click here> )…

now let’s find it without the inverted commas. As you can see in the example below, we now have a ton of related content spread across all States and various newspapers. What we want to do now is to refine our search

Example 1

2. The easiest way to refine our search: we know that the newspaper we are looking for is from South Australia, so in the first left-hand side drop-down menu we choose South Australia – we then skip the newspapers and go straight to category – we know it’s an article, so we click that option. (see example 1)

Example 2

3. Next, we click "Decade" and scroll down to 1880-1890, which gives us 29 options of newspaper to read through, all from 1887. Our particular newspaper is second on the list, so we can click it and read it if we like. (example 2)

  From here, we can do many things, we can look through the various newspapers, most of which are the same, we could open up our search to the whole nation, which is sometimes useful because you will find that the newspapers in the state where an accident or crime happens will sanitise their stories so as not to offend the family, so an interstate newspaper may have a more in-depth story about the death or crime you are researching.

Because of the layout of Blogger, I cannot add the content of this talk in its entirety in one blog post. This transcript was originally presented as an interactive video presentation at the City Library in Adelaide and does not transcribe well to this format.

 Next week I will look at Advanced searching options on Trove.

© 2017 - Allen Tiller - originally presented by Allen Tiller as part of the 'Haunted Buildings in Adelaide' - Paranormal historian in residence project at the Adelaide City Libraries in conjunction with the City of Adelaide.

Kapunda – “The Hallway To Hell”

Kapunda – “The Hallway To Hell”

 

Interior of the Hallway to Hell - photo by Karen Tiller

If you’ve heard the term “Hallway to Hell” then most likely, you’ve seen Haunting: Australia episode 7: The North Kapunda Hotel, an episode that almost didn’t happen. Originally the production company was looking towards Western Australia for two episode, but when I proposed South Australia, particularly the Adelaide Arcade and Kapunda, the most haunted town in Australia, they changed their minds and went with local knowledge and a hometown story.

 If you didn’t hear about the Hallway, through Haunting: Australia, then maybe you heard about due to the Ghost Crime Tour that Karen and I brought to Kapunda. The majority of ghost tour companies in this State were too scared to touch Kapunda after all the controversy with the Warwick Moss documentary that aired in 2001, and the unaired documentary that was filmed a few years later – let me tell you, the townsfolk still haven’t forgotten who was involved!

 

 Karen and I knew that there was a right way to introduce the town to having a ghost tour, so we set up a meeting between the owners of GCT and the  Light Council, and got the ball rolling. We then invited townsfolk to see what it was all about, we introduced donations to help repair the damaged cemeteries, and slowly, the Kapunda Ghost Crime Tour was not only accepted by the Kapunda Community, but local business began to see a knock on effect from tourism.
 During our time as tour guides, Karen and I entertained Government Ministers, tourists from England who had seen the TV show, visitors from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and right across Australia. We did our best to keep it factual, entertaining and spooky, and to promote the town that everyone forgets!

 No-one is quite sure what year this wing of the North Kapunda hotel was built, but it is estimated to be somewhere between 1848 and 1855. It may have been earlier than 1848 though and built as part of the workers accommodation around the town by the North Kapunda Mining Company. The same company built the original structure that became the North Kapunda Arms Hotel, that in 1865, Mr Crase would build his new hotel around, and reopen as the North Kapunda Hotel.

Behind the scenes photo of Haunting: Australia - photo Karen Tiller

 The downstairs section of the hallway in 1865 contained the first official office of the newly formed Kapunda Council, until they moved to bigger premises on the Clare Road. There were also two large, ornate rooms used by Jenkins and Coles bursars who dealt with the horse sales that were held at the rear of the hotel.

During the late 1880’s, the upstairs section of the hallway was known as “The Bachelor’s Hall”, the following is a poem penned about it by one of its inhabitants 

Bachelor's Hall.

By H. C. DODGE.

Hurrah ! hurrah for Bachelor's Hall;

The Queen's away and I'm monarch of all;

I don't have to hang up my coat or my hat,

And when I get lonely I talk to the cat.

I come when I like, and I go when I choose.

The finest cigars help me scatter the blues;

 No bundles I carry and nothing I buy;

There's no one to care about-only big “I”

 I revel in wildest confusion around;

There isn't a thing in its place to be found;

 My books and newspapers, they litter the room

That' hasn't for weeks seen the sight of a broom.

There's clothing or something on every chair;

My bed's never made, but it's little I care;

I sleep like a top, for there's no one to call

I take solid comfort in Bachelor's Hall.

I've used all the dishes and now it's my fate

To eat, when I'm home, on the back of a plate;

I'm learning to cook, but, alas. I confess

I choose to go hungry than, swallow the mess.

But, Bachelor's Hall with its comfort and quiet,

Is almost too spooky for regular diet;

No children live in it to welcome their dad,

No supper is waiting, no wife-O, so glad.

No! Nothing but ghosts of the loved ones away

Inhabit this tomb where alone I must stay,

Compelled to break silence by having a chat

With my woeful companion, the strange acting cat.

O, gladly I'll yield my crown sceptre and all

The Kingly delights of a Bachelor's Hall

To the Queen of the Home when she comes with her train

To wisely and lovingly over me reign.

First Published in The Kapunda Herald - Tuesday 7 August 1888, page 6

The Bachelor’s Hall saw its own scandal in the 1885 when three of its inhabitants found themselves facing the magistrate at the Kapunda Courthouse for disturbing the peace.

 Murray Thomson, Robert Anderton and James Shakes Jnr. Faced the magistrate on May 12^th, with Thomson and Anderton represented by Mr Glynn, and Shakes represented by Mr Benham.

 The men had been charged because someone had been firing guns in Franklin Street at about 10 past three in the morning.

Exterior - Hallway To Hell - Kapunda - photo: Allen Tiller

 The evening of the event, many people had been in town to see the bellringers entertainment, and had then retired to the North Kapunda Hotel for a supper put on by Mr Crase, which included entertainment including sing-alongs and speeches. The bar itself was closed, but the party went on in the commercial room and on the balcony.

 More than 125 gun shots were heard in Franklin Street in about a 10 minute time frame. The police tried to frame the defendants as being the guilty parties, but witnesses declared they had seen Mr Thomson in a room upstairs, light a candle and look out the window in his night clothes at the ongoing disturbance below.

 Mr Shakes wasn’t even within the town boundaries when the incident happened, so the case fell apart, instead, the Magistrate went after Mr Crase, under the guise of the act happening outside his hotel, he would be responsible for the people there. Mr Benham quickly shot down this argument as Mr Crase was entertaining upstairs privately, and may not have known who these people were, nor had they been inside his hotel drinking.

 The case was eventually thrown out of court.

Interior - Hallway to Hell - Kapunda - photo: Karen Tiller

 Interestingly though, the story that circulated through the town was slightly different to the story that surfaced in court. It would seem a number of young men had been drinking in the hotels, and had gone to the bellringers event. After the event they began walking the town trying to entertain themselves. 
 About 15 of these young men were heard in Main Street, and were asked to move on by William Thomas when they congregated in front of his bookshop, it was within the next hour the gun shots occurred in Franklin Street, which may have come about because these young men were refused entry in the North Kapunda Hotel.

AN EVENING WITH SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S VERY OWN INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR ALLEN TILLER

AN EVENING WITH SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S VERY
OWN INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED
PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR | ALLEN TILLER

Allen Tiller is Australia’s leading Paranormal Investigator. Recently featured on Foxtels hit TV show “Haunting: Australia” which showcased some of Australia’s most haunted locations to a worldwide audience.

Allen is also the founder and CEO of Eidolon Paranormal, the parent company of SA Paranormal and The Haunts of Adelaide which was recently included in Pandora the web archive of the National Library of Australia.

Allen is appearing to a private audience to discuss his years of paranormal experience, reveal the most haunted locations that he has personally investigated around South Australia and give some exclusive behind the scenes information about the amazing locations that they investigated while filming Haunting Australia.

BOOK HERE

Proudly Presented by
Ghost Crime Tours

http://www.ghost-crime-tours.com.au/ 

The Grinning Ghost of Mount Gambier: Ghosts of the South Coast Part IV

Ghosts of the South Coast

Part IV

The Grinning Ghost of Mount Gambier

  In 1937 Mount Gambier was a bustling town, Adelaide's second biggest city, a tourist hotspot, and plagued by a ghost!

Chronicle Thursday 24 June 1937, page 46

  Endless reports over a few weeks were being filed with the local police of a ghost running amok on Mount Gambier's streets. Women were fainting at the sight of it, men were running away scared and the Police had very little to go on. The ghost seemed to magically disappear in the presence of the police.

Descriptions of the ghost claim that it was totally white from head to toe, with glowing yellow eyes and a large grin.

 A rumour also sprung up around the town at one point that the ghost had been captured and hidden away in the local Police cells. the police, who had yet to witness the ghost, denied these claims and stated they did not have the facilities to keep a ghost.

Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW  1888 - 1954)
 Thursday 24 June 1937, page 5

  Two men had an interesting encounter with the Mount Gambier ghost. When walking past the local primary school at 2am one morning, one of the men felt someone tap him on the shoulder. When he turned to see who had tapped him, he saw the grinning ghost staring back at him.

  He and his friend panicked and bolted down the road as fast as they could. They soon gained their wits and courage and returned to the primary school to investigate, where they saw the ghost, who also saw them. The ghost leapt over a fence and ran away from the men!

Town Hall - photo by Allen Tiller

  The men, thinking of outsmarting the ghost, ran around the outside of the school to the front gates, where it seemed their ghostly attacker would be heading. They were in luck!
 As the ghost turned the corner to exit the school, one of the men made to grab him, the ghost startled, turned and ran back the way he had come!

The two men ran to the local police station and awoke the constable there to tell him of the ghostly sighting, but it was now too late to capture him as he had fled the scene....or simply vanished...

  The two men got a very good description of the ghost, which they said looked like a man wearing a woman’s dress over his head, tied off around his waist.

Another person, this time a woman, was found unconscious in Grey-Street later that week. When awoken and questioned she said the ghost had surprised her when it touched her on the shoulder, she had fainted and didn't know anymore.

Another police search ensued, but again, the ghost had vanished.

Things got a little more dangerous when a local minister reported that he had been awoken during the night in his house when the ghost had been watching him through his window. He silently pulled out his gun, and shot towards the ghost, wounding it!

After this final encounter with a religious man, the ghost fled into the night, and never returned again!

© 2013 Allen Tiller

The Death of Captain Broadfoot: Ghosts of the South Coast Part 3

Ghosts of the South Coast

Part III
The Death of Captain Broadfoot

Port MacDonnell is located 450km southeast of Adelaide and is the southernmost town in South Australia. The first European to sight the area is thought to have been Lieutenant James Grant whilst sailing the ship, The Lady Nelson (now part of the Mount Gambier Tourism Centre), and later the port was named after Governor Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell.
The town officially became a port on the 4th of April 1860.

Coastline view from old Port MacDonell Light-house

 It is a beautiful place to visit, with an amazing scenic coastline, and one of the longest jetties' in South Australia and was second only to Port Adelaide in terms of business, shipping wool and grains around Australia and the world.

In 1853 murder came to Port MacDonnell when Captain Broadfoot, Captain of the ship “Jane Lovett” (which was wrecked) was murdered by two men working locally as shepherds at Leak's Station.

South Australian Register,
 Friday 11 November 1853.

The men would do his chores, shave him, the menial household stuff the Old Captain could no longer do for himself, but would also go and plunder the old Captain's wrecked ship.

One day Broadfoot saw the two men, pillaging the cargo from his ship and went to confront them, he wasn’t seen again until much later, when a man named Ferguson and a local Aboriginal found the Captain, with his throat cut, and the cut-throat razor in his left hand, the paralysed hand.

Instantly an alarm was raised in the town, the local constable who knew Captain Broadfoot very well, knew he could not grasp a bottle, let alone a cut-throat razor in his left hand, and deduced that suicide was out of the question, He also knew Crawford and Stevens aided the old man regularly.

The two men, Crawford and Stevens were Van-Demonians ( A term used to describe people from the then-named “Van Diemans Land”, now known as Tasmania) who were very well known in the local area.

Customs House - Port MacDonell

The Two men used to visit Captain Broadfoot, who was a very old drunk with a paralysed hand and couldn't do much for himself anymore.

The constable went to Crawford's meagre hut to question him and quickly decided to handcuff the alleged murderer. Whilst there Crawford asked the Constable to get him a drink before he took him back to the station, of which the humble officer did, only to turn around to face Crawford again with the drink and find Crawford holding a gun.

Crawford then uncuffed himself, stole a horse and rode off to Mount Gambier to make his escape, local gossip at the time reports that he went straight to bar that had two officers in it and ordered a drink but made a clean getaway.

Stevens, on the other hand, was arrested at Mount Schanck, past Mount Gambier, where he confessed (conveniently) that he had seen Crawford slit the throat of the Old Captain, he was duly sent to trial.
Steven's trial was to be held in Adelaide, and upon getting near to the city, he escaped, ran to a butcher's shop where meat was being cut for trade, and asked to have his chains cut off. The Butcher refused and a scuffle broke out, the Police were soon upon the scene, and Stevens (also spelt Stephens in some news reports) was rearrested and duly taken to the police courts.

Soon it was discovered that Crawford and Stevens were both ex-convicts and known for their criminal activity, which didn't fair well for Stephens who was duly sentenced and did time in Adelaide Gaol.
Crawford, on the other hand, had long escaped into the bush, but word got back to the police that he was telling everyone, that “I won't be going down without there being bloodshed” - but he was never heard from in South Australia again. It is assumed that he changed his appearance and name and returned at some point later to recover the stolen money and valuables he had hidden somewhere near Mount Gambier.

© 2013 Allen Tiller