Eidolon Paranormal was invited by When The Lights Go Out Paranormal to investigate the alleged haunting of the Cornwall Hotel in Moonta, South Australia. While experimenting with the Project Paranormal ITC app, the teams captured a very clear command.
<Transcript>
Before European settlement, Dead Man’s Pass and the Gawler region was the
home to the indigenous Kaurna Peoples.
Known
originally to European settlers as The Para Pass, the river crossing was first
used circa 1836. Colonel William Light is recorded as having stayed at a camp
near the pass in 1837, while exploring the Barossa Valley region and attempting
to find passage through the Mount Lofty Ranges towards the Murray River.
The crossing got its name after an exploration
party returning from the Barossa ranges came across an exhausted traveller,
whom they offered respite too. Once stopped at the crossing they checked on
their new companion who had fallen asleep in the back of their dray, only to
find him dead.
Having
no tools with which to dig a grave, they placed his body upright in a hollow
tree and covered it as best they could with sticks and branches.
Not
long after, another travelling party happened across the gruesome site, and,
after taking samples of the gentleman’s clothing, encased him with clay in the
tree. The name “Dead Man’s Pass” was adopted circa 1842 as the permanent name
of the South Para River ford, in honour of the dead man found in the hollow
coffin tree.
There
are many different accounts of the finding of the dead man. No one is certain
which account is true. Perhaps there is a little truth to be found within each
version of the story.
Dr George Nott wrote of finding the dead man
in 1860 in his book: Short Sketch of the Rise of Progress of Gawler.
In his diary Colonel Light wrote: “13th January 1839. Returned to the Para. We
halted here the rest of the day. Having heard of a dead body being there under
an old tree, we examined the spot and found it. There is a mystery in this
affair as it had been kept a secret. The skull is large, and the flesh almost
entirely gone. Part of his dress remained. His trousers of corduroy seemed good
as far as his knees - under those much torn. His short on one part contained
much coagulated blood. The body was covered over again and some of his clothes
packed up and conveyed to Adelaide.”
In the book “The Story of Dead Man’s Pass” The
Honourable B.T. Finnis of Gawler wrote a story with a slight variation to
Colonel Light’s.
“Travelling with Colonel Light on one occasion before the
selection of the Gawler Survey, we camped at the Gawler River and whilst
resting there we were surprised to find a dead man buried in an upright
position and plastered with clay. No part of his body was visible except the
toes. The
wild dogs had evidently discovered the corpse and had somewhat mangled the
feet. It was evidently a white man’s burial place from the clothes. The story
that was circulated in Adelaide as to the cause of the death of this
unfortunate man originated with a party under the charge of
Mr Bernhard. It was stated that travelling to the north, having a dray with
them, on nearing the ford of the Gawler River, a man in a distressed state
rushed from the scrub west of the line of the road and fell down in an
exhausted state, perishing for want of food and water. He was taken
every care of, but died very soon after meeting this party, which precede ours
on the way north. They had buried him in this tree and plastered him in to save
his body from the wild dogs. We afterwards called this tree
“Dead Man’s Tree,” a large hollow gum tree. The dead man was supposed to have
been a sailor, escaped from some ship off Port Gawler, who had lost himself in
the scrub in his endeavour to reach Adelaide, and thus perished miserably.”
In yet
another variation, The Southern Australian newspaper on the 16th of
January 1839 published an article titled “Suspicious
case”. Which read; “The body of a man, buried some time ago in the bush to
the northward, was exhumed last week by Colonel Light and Mr Finniss whilst
those gentlemen were out on their surveying expedition, and it was found that
the shirt, vest and trousers of the deceased were stained with blood, and his
pockets were turned inside out. The clothes were brought to Adelaide for
examination by the authorities and we hope a strict investigation into the
affair
will be held. At the time of the reported death of this man in the bush, many
months ago, no inquest was held, as there ought to have been, and we trust the
coroner will not be allowed to neglect his duty.”
Dead
Man’s Pass became a much-used crossing into the main street of Gawler as the
only roadway for bullock drays and horse and carts. The ford crossing became a
secondary way into town once a new bridge was built in the 1860’s on the
Adelaide Road.
In 1869, Gawler Council surveyed a new roadway
at Dead Man’s Pass. Council workers began constructing the new road and came
upon a skull and bones. Examining further, they found an almost complete
skeleton. The bones were taken to office of James Martin and examined by Doctor
Nott. Dr Nott concluded that they were the bones of a very tall European man
owing to the size of the thigh bones. It is thought the bones were those of
the man buried in the base of a tree some 30 years prior. The unknown man’s
remains were interred in an unmarked grave in the newly formed Gawler Cemetery,
now known as Pioneer Park.
In May
1890, a footbridge was installed at Dead Man’s Pass, erected by Mr T White.
In 1901,
Patrick Condon, a Gawler Corporation employee had a fatal accident when his
night cart flipped when it fell down an embankment, and landed on him, killing
him.
Also, in
1901, a young crippled boy was found dead in Black Hole billabong at Dead Man’s
Pass. Anton Johann Link's clothing were found on the banks of the billabong by
another young lad, who went to search for him, only to find Anton floating in
the water, dead.
In 1914,
Mr S. Fotheringham held the town of Gawler to ransom. The Dead Man’s Pass
footbridge crossed the river onto his land. He offered to sell the portion of
land to the council for 50 pounds, or that they pay him 8 pounds a year in
rent. Both the East and West Munno Para District Councils (The Two Councils
governing Gawler at the time.) agreed to buy the land, but ultimately the East
Munno Para Council refused. Fotheringham, in response to the refusal, fenced
his end of the walkway bridge with barbed wire, and threatened to cut down the
tree on his property that the bridge was suspended from. In April the same year,
an agreement was made with Mr Fotheringham, and the bridge reopened.
Floods
in 1917 extensively damaged the footbridge, with water being recorded as being
as high as Ayers Road and reaching the buildings of the former gasworks
In 1923,
raging flood water washed the old footbridge away…the bridge was repaired in
1924 and stood in place until the early 1980s when it was finally removed for
public safety
In 1952,
The Advertiser reported that Ernest L.B. Potter of Croydon, recollected that
when he was 10 years old, his uncle Edward Potter, a geologist, uncovered a
large skull while digging a hole for an underground water tank. The skull was
found to be that of a Diprotodon which is from the Pleistocene Epoch of
Australia. Diprotodon Optatum became extinct about 25, 000 years ago and was
known to exist while indigenous populations were in the area. These animals
grew up to 3.8 meters long from head to tail and stood about 1.7 meters tall at
the shoulder. Its closest relations today are the
wombat and the koala.
There
are many stories of paranormal encounters at Dead Man’s Pass. If one cares to
visit the “Ghost village” website, one can read the story of a young man and
his mate who were riding their bikes down first street. They were going too
fast, and one kept hearing a voice in his ear say, “go right!” indicating to
turn right into Gawler Terrace. The boy didn’t have much time to make a
choice, if he swept left around the dead man’s pass bend he would go into
oncoming traffic, if he managed to turn right, he wouldn’t make the turn. Going against his instincts, he turned
right, and ploughed straight into the curb, flying through the air, and hitting
a massive gum tree. He lay there stunned.He looked up and saw two figures standing
over him. A man and woman. The man said, "You're lucky to be alive,
lad," and the Lady said, "Take heed, boy, you only get one chance
like this!"…
The boys
mate came over to see if he was ok. Laying on the ground, without a scratch on
him, he asked his mate where the old people had gone. His mate replied that he
hadn’t seen anyone, but he had heard his friend talking to someone. He then
said he had watched him fly through the air, over 33 feet of gravel, and then
land, almost softly on the big gum tree.
The land at Dead Man’s Pass has previously
been owned by the Pile Family, and from 1907, the Riggs Family, who allowed the
Gawler Three Day horse Events to run across their land. In 1978, Gawler Council
purchased 20 Acres of Dead Man’s Pass and designated it a reserve.
Today
Dead man’s pass is a beautifully kept park with walking, cycling and nature
trails. It is home to many native birds and animals and is easily accessed and
explored.
Thank
you for watching Hidden Secrets. <End Transcript>
Researched, filmed, edited and produced by Allen Tiller.
Built between 1875 and 1878, the building now known as The Edmund Wright Building was designed by architects Edmund Wright and Lloyd Taylor for the Bank of South Australia, which was an independent branch of the South Australia Company, formed in 1835, in London.
The building opened on the 2nd of June 1878 and cost 63,000 pounds to construct.
For most of its life, the building has been used as a bank, changing hands from the Bank of South Australia, to the Union Bank in 1893. Later becoming the ANZ Bank from 1951 until 1971 after which it was sold to Mainline Investments.
Mainline Investments proposed a 19-story office block to be built on the site in 1971. A public campaign saved the ornate building from demolition. The Minister for Public Works purchased the property for $750,000 and renamed it Edmund Wright House. It has since been used by The Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and as a migrant resource center. Its lower bank vaults are used on occasion for music recitals and meetings.
The design of the building is in the style “Corinthian” and features carved friezes, carved spandrels, carved keystones, and a carved tympanum featuring the bank's shield.
The former vaults of the bank in the basement, and the upper levels of this building, are thought to be haunted by a man named “Tom” who is said to have been stabbed to death in the building, although no record of such an incident can be verified.
A few people who experienced the haunting in this building came forward during my Adelaide City Library residency for the Haunted Buildings in Adelaide project. Some who worked inside the building described how the lift would often operate by itself. One witness described looking up on one occasion the lift opened expecting someone to leave the lift, but the lift would be empty…
Lights also had a habit of being turned on or off within the building when no one was visibly near the light switches, but perhaps the eeriest of experiences for a witness was the calling of her name (and of other staff members) by a disembodied voice in the building, one that none of the staff recognised, or could locate the source from which it emanated!
One witness, Debbie, claimed that when the building was a bank, and she worked there, on two occasions her voice was called. Debbie also claimed that staff would hear an unseen man walking down a passage. Debbie has identified the spirit as that of a man named 'Morris,' which differs from the stories I recorded from other witnesses to paranormal activity in this building. Is there a second spirit haunting this former bank? Perhaps, but without proper investigation, we will never know.
Phineas Philip Davies (31 March 1865 – 28 Dec 1885)
Commemoration Day, 28 December 1885. The South Australian Colony’s only warship, HMS Protector, was sitting off the coast at Glenelg, awaiting orders to fire its guns in salute to the forty-ninth year of the settlement of the colony.
It was the first time HMS Protector had been allowed to fire its guns in salute. The cannons fired five times, then suddenly, the ship’s flags were lowered, and it steamed off towards Port Adelaide.
Onboard, the crew were in full medical mode. The cannons had fired, but something had gone wrong, and two crew members were seriously injured.
Daniel Cann, in charge of cannon number 5, was severely maimed by an explosion of the cannon and was sent to Semaphore Hospital. He survived the explosion but lost an eye and was disfigured.
Phineas Philip Davies, on the other hand, had received the full force of the blast from the cannon breech and died on board the ship.
An inquest was held on Tuesday, 29 December 1885, at the Largs Pier Hotel by the City Coroner, Mr T. Ward. The Coroner and Jury were taken to the warship to inspect the gun. Sitting alongside the gun were the coffin and body of Davies.
Master Gunner Haisom explained to the audience how the gun worked and then described what they believed had gone wrong. Haisom explained that Davies was positioned at gun 5, position two. Haisom had himself gone around to every gun and supplied each with a bucket of water to sponge out the excess gunpowder after each firing. He then informed the gunners that they had 50 seconds to reload after each firing.
At 12 o’clock, they began to fire the guns. The number 5 gun fired two rounds, with its crew, including Davies, preparing for shot three. Davies entered the charge, which exploded on contact. Davies had neglected to sponge the gun after the last firing, leaving lit residue in the cannon, which ignited the new 10 lb powder charge.
The remains of Protector at Heron Island in 2008 at low tide
Davies’ gun commander, Daniel Cann, was subsequently accused of not delivering the order to sponge the cannon between shots, something that was standard procedure.
The jury deliberated on the evidence for quite some time but, in the end, delivered a verdict of accidental death.
A memorial was erected to Davies at Cheltenham Cemetery and was claimed by the Royal Australian Navy in December 1986. The memorial to Davies was installed as the headpiece of the South Australian Naval Memorial Garden at HMAS Encounter until the memorial was relocated to its current position in April 1995.
Madeleine Ryan, History SA, ‘Naval Memorial’, SA History Hub, History Trust of South Australia, http://sahistoryhub.com.au/things/naval-memorial, accessed 2 March 2018.
In 1944, at the age of 20, John Balaban was sitting in his
bedroom in Romania. He had just finished reading another of many philosophical
books, a hobby he took up after his abusive and habitually drunk father had
suicided by hanging himself.
On this morning, John
concluded, after all that he had read and been through, that there was no God. At
that very point, Johns bedroom ceiling opened as if lifted from above, and a
bright cloudy light lit the room. God, in the image of a man with long
white hair and a grey beard smiled down on John and said unto him; “John,
it is alright if you don’t believe in me anymore. You do anything your
conscience dictates and you will be happy.” After Gods visit, which Balaban stated ‘was
not a dream’, Balaban thought he could do anything, as he was no longer afraid
of the law.
John Balaban:
Source: 'BALABAN TO HANG', The News, (29 July 1953)
In 1946, only two years later, Balaban who was prone to
violent rages, was admitted to a mental health facility in Romania.
In 1947 Balaban committed murder in
Paris when he strangled to death Hungarian national, Reva Kwas.
Balaban moved to Australia in 1951.
In 1952, he killed
prostitute Zora Dusic in her Torrensville shack by first strangling her, then
cutting her throat with a knife he found on the dressing table.
John and Thelma got
along for a while, but the relationship soon became unstable, and John claimed
he was tired of Thelma’s constant complaints, about, in his words “everything!”
On that fateful day,
April 11th, Balaban began drinking and found himself near the River Torrens
parklands. At some point, he had a fight with a woman in the female toilets of
the parklands, and when stumbling around outside, found a large iron bar. He
made his way along the Torrens and sat down with a man and woman and had a few
drinks with them, before assaulting them both with the iron bar, and walking
away.
Later, he was
chased near the Torrens Tennis Courts by an unknown man, then turned upon his assailant with the iron bar, and beat him senseless.
Balaban began his murderous spree by hitting his wife on the
head with a claw hammer, beating her to death. He then thought he might kill
Mrs Ackland in the same manner, and afterwards Phillip. In his deposition to
the courts he stated; "Phillip sat up and cried, and I hit him, I thought
it better that he dies too than live under a shadow.”
In a chilling statement, Balaban, during his court trial, went
on to say; "I only killed those at the Sunshine Cafe because they deserved
to be killed."
John Balaban was hung in the Old
Adelaide Gaol on the 26th of August 1953.
The ghost of the notorious homicidal maniac, John Balaban, is
alleged to have been seen in the old Adelaide Gaols “Hanging Tower’, and was
identified by a witness after seeing a photo of Balaban in the front foyer, and
identifying the man she had seen sitting on a bench inside the tower.
Among the many spirits said to haunt the hotel is the spirit of female child. She is believed to be around 4 years old and is alleged to haunt the ground floor. It is believed she is waiting for her mother to return.
This photo was sent to me by a former worker at the Jens Hotel who claims that the image in the picture closely resembles that of a 3-year-old child, the daughter of a former publican, who died in the hotel.
Allen Tiller’s Top 5 Most Haunted Hotels in South Australia
I have never done one
of these on the blog before, but thought it time. The following hotels, in my
opinion, are the (allegedly) most haunted in South Australia. You are welcome to disagree
with me, or submit your own opinion on which South Australian hotels you would
put in your top five, in the comments here or over on facebook at:
Licensed as “The North
Kapunda Arms” in 1849, this pub grew from the growth of the copper mines in Kapunda
and would later be the home of Sir Sidney Kidman’s horse sale, the largest ever
held in the world.
Long considered the
most haunted pub in the most haunted town in Australia, The North Kapunda Hotel
is home to a plethora of phantoms thought to be ex-residents, publicans, ladies
of the night, and miners – the activity in the hotel was recently documented on
Haunting: Australia, including a “possession” of one cast member!
Previously it had featured on the documentary “Kapunda: Most Haunted Town in
the Western World”.
The Overland Corner
Hotel is situated on the bend of the Murray River between Renmark and Barmera.
It is an isolated pub that has seen two of Australia's most iconic Bushrangers
drink at its bar.
Many active spirits
have been reported as haunting the pub for the past 160+ years of its existence.
Some of the ghosts are thought to be the Brand brothers, the original family
builders of the hotel, who lived, laughed played and died within the Iconic
Hotels walls.
Other spirits include that of a local aboriginal girl, and
even Queen Adelaide!
A recent TV advertisement
has listed The Grand Hotel at Millicent as the 2nd most haunted pub in South
Australia, but as you can see, in my opinion, it comes third. It is thought the hotel is haunted by up
to 10 different ghosts which includes the spirit of a little boy who is seen
playing near a pool table. The ghost of an elderly man who is seen ascending
the staircase, and a spirit who leaves wet handprints on the walls!
I have investigated
the hotel on several occasions, both privately and with the public, and have
encountered some very strange phenome within its walls. The upstairs section of the hotel houses
the guest’s suites and shared shower facilities. This seems to be the epicentre
of the haunting, particularly in the one wing containing bedrooms 11 through to
13. On one occasion, about the middle of the
day, I was standing in the junction of the hallways, which wind and turn
through the upper levels. In one spot I could smell very distinctly the smell
of the ocean and old tobacco, but take a step in any direction and the smell
would be completely gone. Now, not being one to jump to the “ghost” conclusion
in an instant, I put it down to being so close to the ocean, and the smell of
tobacco being embedded in the walls and carpets, and didn’t think any more of
it, until I went downstairs to the dining room and a psychic told me that right
above us was a spirit of an old Swedish sailor who had died elsewhere, but
returned here as he felt this was home – (this still did not convince me the place is haunted by a Swedish sailor!).
Gawler's oldest hotel, The Golden Fleece Hotel first opened
its doors on April 1st 1840. The hotel is famous for its hauntings, with one
exceptional ghost photo being taken by photographer Scott Pearson in the mid-1990s
The hotel is reputed
to be haunted by a little boy who sometimes seen sitting on the front bar.
Other ghosts include an old gentleman and teenage girl. The rear of the hotel
was once the town's morgue, until a proper morgue was built by local funeral
firm Taylor and Forgie’s.
