Do otherworldly demon dogs haunt an old mine near Moculta in the Barossa Valley?
My thanks go out to Daniel James Down from Gawler In Photographs for allowing me to use some of his photographs of the very bridge I talk about in this video!
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| Mr. Arthur C. Gask SLSA: [B 58382] 1925 |
Arthur
C. Gask was born in St Marylebone, England in 1869. He was educated in London
and became a dentist.[1]
Gask married Florence Mary Tippett and
together had four children. Gask divorced Florence in 1909, and two months
later married his children’s nursemaid, Marion Maltby.[2]
Gask,
Marion, their two sons, and a daughter from his previous marriage emigrated to
Australia in 1920. Gask set up his dentistry at 199 North Terrace and is
credited as being the first in South Australia to use gas when carrying out
teeth extractions.
Gask became famous as crime writer while
living in Adelaide. In between patients, he would write crime fiction. In 1921
he published his first book, The Secret of the Sandhills, which sold out in
three weeks. He went on to write 30 novels featuring his detective Gilbert
Larose, plus many other novels and short stories. Such was his reputation that
H.G. Wells held him in high esteem, saying of his book The Vengeance of Larose;
“best piece of story-telling…It kept me up till half-past one.”[3]
Gask retired
in 1933 and moved to the country. He named a homestead he built near Kooringa, ‘Gilrose’.[4]
He later, moved back to city life, settling at Walkerville.
Arthur
Gask died on 25 June 1851 in a private hospital in North Adelaide. His remains
were
cremated.
Books from Arthur C. Gask (from Wikipedia)
Gilbert Larose novels
· Cloud the Smiter, 1926
· The Dark Highway, 1928
· The Lonely House, 1929
· The Shadow of Larose, 1930
· The House on the Island, 1931
· Gentlemen of Crime, 1932
· The Hidden Door, 1934
· The Judgment of Larose, 1934
· The Poisoned Goblet, 1935
· The Hangman's Knot, 1936
· The Master Spy, 1937
· The Night of the Storm, 1937
· The Grave-Digger of Monks Arden, 1938
· The Fall of a Dictator, 1939
· The Vengeance of Larose, 1939
· The House on the Fens, 1940
· The Tragedy of the Silver Moon, 1940
· The Beachy Head Murder, 1941
· His Prey Was Man, 1942
· The Mystery of Fell Castle, 1944
· The Man of Death, 1946
· The Dark Mill Stream, 1947
· The Unfolding Years, 1947
· The House with the High Wall, 1948
· The Storm Breaks, 1949
· The Silent Dead, 1950
· The Vaults of Blackarden Castle, 1950
· Marauders by Night, 1951
· Night and Fog, 1951
· Crime Upon Crime, 1952 (Posthumous)
Other Novels
· The Secret of the Sandhills, 1921
· The Red Paste Murders (US Title: Murder in the Night), 1923
· The Secret of the Garden, 1924
· The Jest of Life, 1936
Short Stories
· The Martyr on the Land, (1935)
· The Passion Years, (1936)
· The Destroyer, 1939
· The Will, (1944)
· Buggy's Babies, (1944)
· Ghosts, (1944)
· Seedtime and Harvest, (1944)
· The Amazing Adventure of Marmaduke, (1944)
· The Lottery Ticket, (1944)
· The Mark of Honor, (1944)
· The Hatton Garden Crime, (1945)
· The Way of Chance, (1945)
· Black Market, (1945)
· The Bishop's Dilemma, (1948)
For more information about
Gask’s works please visit AusLit.
https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A27498?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy
While researching hauntings in Victoria Square, I came across this poem written by ‘A.M.’. It is a satirical look at goings-on in Victoria Square up until 1930, and strangely enough, it is pertinent today.
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| Victoria Square 1897 - SLSA: [B 1450] |
Col. Light Sees It Through
Colonel Light planned it all in the pioneer days
And the old city grandfathers fenced it round.
And grass they planted and Morton bays
That flourished apace in the fertile ground.
There teas room to wander, for rest and to spare,
And a shady retreat was Victoria Square.
All traffic was banned to the ringed-round street;
As kids we played on the green grass banks;
Our mothers rested tired housewives' feet
And weary men voted a weary man's thanks.
The darkness brought lovers with tales that are trite
And blessings for thoughtful old Colonel Light.
But men with notions of 'progress' and 'go'
Said, 'Cut tis a road from the south to the north
And another east-west across it,' - and lo!
It was said, it was done, and through it thenceforth
Wheels rattled and left us at heavy expense
Four scraps of a square and a mile of high fence.
Then tramway wreckers demanded their toll
And got it, of course, as tram bosses do.
'Now pull down the fence,' said the corporate soul,
'Let the proletariat (many or few)
Walk, heedless of entrance or paths if they must.'
So the fence was exchanged for a desert of dust.
Next someone in search of live things to uproot
Cried, 'Down with the trees! They have white ants, or snakes,
Distemper or tick; so put in the boot
And the axe just as promptly before the day breaks.
Thus, wisely forestalling the ratepayers' wrath.
We'll make this a garden — but nearly all path.'
But will it end there? Let no sceptic scoff,
All are possible things to the corporate mind.
Let's glance at the future— and not too far off—
To see what 'improvements' the clever can find.
'Flowers fade,' they will say, 'like a once solved charade.
'Let's make it all gravel — one big promenade.'
They will tire of that too and for changes will yearn
And, admitting a failure but saving a face,
Will conclude, 'the scheme's fine but we've money lo burn,
So we'll concrete or asphalt the whole dusty place.
Not a ghost of a tree, fence, flower or wall
Shall remain to annoy us, no -dashed thing at all'
Some future Lord Mayor or Alderman Mac
Will arise in his day to be the first speaker
With a brand-new idea, the best in the pack,
And shout, 'I've got it! I've got it! Eureka!
This asphalt is hot and hard on the knees,
Let's put up a fence, as high as you please,
DIG UP THE WHOLE PLACE AND PLANT GRASS AND TREES!'
And Light in his bronze will stagger, I'll swear,
But he'll point as of old, indicating, 'Well there
Is the place it's to be, MY Victoria Square.'
A. M.
Source:
'VICTORIA SQUARE', The Register News-Pictorial, (19 August 1930), p. 7., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53803906.
Researched and compiled by Allen Tiller © 2020
In Haunted Adelaide, Allen Tiller views ghost stories through a pragmatic lens. Rather than sensationalise the stories, Haunted Adelaide investigates the paranormal through fact-checked, historical information that adds authenticity to some stories, and debunks others.
Unlike other paranormal research books, Haunted Adelaide values evidence-based stories over psychic hearsay and gives an unbiased, factual account of the hauntings of the City of Adelaide.
Haunted Adelaide is the culmination of 20 years of research on hauntings in the City of Adelaide. It includes research and stories from the world first, Adelaide City Libraries ‘Paranormal Historian in Residence’ project ‘Haunted Buildings in Adelaide’, and Allen Tiller’s extensive research and investigation into the paranormal in the City of Adelaide.
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| The Warra Warra Waterhole, southeast of Crystal Brook. |
In 1876, the Mid North town of Crystal Brook was inundated with curious tourists trying to sight the Bunyip at the Warra Warra Waterhole (sometimes spelled Wurra Wurra or Wirra Wirra[1]) on the Broughton River.
The waterhole is located in a bend of the Rocky River, about two and a half kilometres from its junction with the Broughton River, southeast of Crystal Brook.
In August 1876, the South Australian Government offered a reward of £50 to anyone who could capture the creature, dead or alive.[2]
A reporter from the South Australian Advertiser stated:
“The hole probably covers about two acres, and the water is brackish. I have never heard of the water rising and falling with the tide, and I take the Bunyip to be no other than a dog belonging to a worthy farmer, who resides on the bank of the river near the waterhole.”[3]
The waterhole also had a reputation for drownings. In January 1878, a group of five friends left Thompson's Hotel with the intention of swimming in the Warra Warra Waterhole. A young man named Beasley was swimming when he suddenly began to struggle and then sank beneath the water. His friend, E. E. Boys, attempted to save him, but Beasley was pulled under and drowned. Thomas Wilson eventually dived down and, after three attempts, recovered Beasley’s lifeless body from the waterhole.[4]
In 1889, the Bunyip was allegedly sighted by W. A. Allen and J. Parmenter, who rode into Crystal Brook and announced their discovery. The men’s statement was initially treated as a joke, until they began paying for provisions to hunt the creature. The men described the beast as being four feet long and fifteen inches across the back; however, they could not say whether it had a head or a tail.[5]
A trap was subsequently set for the Bunyip.
During this period, there were multiple sightings of the creature. However, as a reporter for the Evening Journal pointed out, of the six different people who claimed to have seen the Bunyip, not one could provide a satisfactory description of it.[6]
The mythology surrounding the Warra Warra Waterhole Bunyip can allegedly be traced to a sly-grog shanty that once stood near the river. It is alleged that, during the 1870s, the proprietor of the grog shop told stories of the Bunyip as a real and very dangerous creature. He claimed that the waterhole had a large tunnel beneath it that extended out to sea, and that the Bunyip used it to drag its prey away.
Early settlers were apparently so convinced of the Bunyip’s existence that they often formed shooting parties and staked out the waterhole in an attempt to kill the beast.[7]
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| New Maughan Church 2012 |
After the demolition of the former
Methodist New Connexion Church in 1963, a new church was built on the same site.
In 1965, to much fanfare, the New
Maughan Church was opened. It included a neo-gothic revival style church designed
by Brown and Davies, the new Radio City headquarters of 5KA, 5AU and 5RM.[1] The Salvation Army band played at the
opening with three choirs and two thousand worshippers present. A procession
also features the South Australian Governor, 30 clergymen of different denominations,
including Catholic and Protestant, all dressed in the finest robes. The festivities
were broadcast live on 5KA.[2]
The neo-gothic
church was distinctive for its folded copper plate roof that formed a 24-sided “crown”
atop a steel-framed octagonal form. It also had a redbrick tower at the corner
of the site. The building had been deemed one of South Australia’s most nationally
significant examples of 20th-century design by the Australian Institute of
Architects, South Australian Chapter.[3]
The City of Adelaide Heritage Survey in
2009 stated of the building, “a notable and prominent example of contemporary
Gothic architecture which is rare in South Australia and unique in the city
centre.”[4]
Despite this, in 2016, provisional
heritage protection on the neo-gothic New Maughan Church was revoked by the Labor
Government. This allowed the historic church and former Radio City buildings to
be demolished.
In their place a new twenty-story edifice was constructed, named
‘Uniting Communities’. The new building features apartment buildings for people
with a disability, a retirement village and space for conferences and worship.
It opened in 2019.
To view stunning photos of the church during its demolition, please visit Autopsy of Adelaide here: https://autopsyofadelaide.com/2016/10/12/urban-exploration-adelaides-maughan-church/
[1] Donovan & Associates, City of Adelaide Heritage Survey: 2008–2009 Volume One, (2009), pp.31-2.
[2] Transmission, vol 1, no 13, (July 1962), p. 1.
[3] Rick Goodman, Wreckers tear down historic Maughan Church in Adelaide CBD, The Advertiser, (14 August 2016), https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/wreckers-tear-down-historic-maughan-church-in-adelaide-cbd/news-story/76c1e1d453fdfc67cb32d4d308217322.
[4] Josh Harris, Vertical retirement village to be South Australia’s greenest building, ArchitectureAU, (15 February 2018), https://architectureau.com/articles/vertical-retirement-village-to-be-south-australias-greenest-building/.
