The Commissariat Store: Could it house Brisbane's oldest haunting??

The Commissariat Store around its 100th Birthday, ca. 1928 (State Library of Qld)

With the Queensland Heritage Festival now underway, a number of fantastic events have been planned by the National Trust of Queensland across Brisbane.  Today, the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, whose headquarters & museum are located within the Commissariat Store building opposite the Treasury Heritage Hotel, held an Open Day - the fantastic museum located inside boasts, amongst other irreplaceable relics of Brisbane's early history, the gallows beam salvaged from Boggo Road Gaol's now long demolished Number 1 Division, the maker's plate & ship's bell salvaged from the Lucinda (featured in last week's tragic article on the Pearl Disaster), & a bottle removed from St Helena Island Penal Establishment containing a convict's finger!  With so many gruesome artefacts housed within the one building, one has to wonder what other relics of Brisbane's past still call the building home...

For years, tales of ghosts within the Commissariat Store have persisted - those who have worked in the building over the years relate experiences of hearing strange noises when no other workers are about, of phantom footsteps in vacant sections of the building, unexplainable figures seen waving from windows after dark when the building is supposedly empty, of leaving objects in specific places only to find those items moved the next morning, and of invisible presences felt about the place by employees & visitors alike.  It's also a commonly held story that a side door accessed via a walkway from an adjoining park displays paranormal phenomena - it's said that if a visitor knocks on the door after closing time, footsteps can be heard approaching on the inside as though someone is coming to open the door, only to come to a dead stop immediately on the opposite side.  In an article published in The Courier Mail on the 9th of October 2009, the Royal Historical Society of Queensland's then recently retired President, Allan Bell, was pressed on whether he suspected the Commissariat Store was haunted - according to the article, "He [Allan] refuses to believe that the building housing the Society - the 1829 convict-built Commissariat Store, the second oldest building in Brisbane - is haunted, even though the ghost of a slain convict is said to roam outside. The story goes that two convicts were building something in the rear yard when a fight broke out.  One convict drove an axe into the head of the other.  Soldiers threw him in a wheelbarrow and charged up the road to the hospital, but he died."

This story of the murdered convict seems to crop up all over the internet when a search is conducted on ghosts/hauntings of the Commissariat Store, & no doubt the same story is bandied about on the fantastical commercial ghost tours conducted through Brisbane's CBD.   Whilst the basis of the story is sound, the bulk of the finer details are heavily, heavily flawed - I roughly documented this story in 2005, in the Australian Chapter of Jeff Belanger's Encyclopedia of Haunted Places.  For the record, two convicts weren't building something in the rear yard of the Commissariat Store, one convict did not drive an axe into the head of the other, & the victim wasn't strictly wheelbarrowed up the road to the hospital where he died.  So...what do we know about this historic event, & how can it be fleshed out fully in order to provide clarity once & for all??

The sorry tale we're about the explore, focuses on the transportation, incarceration & eventual downfall of one John Brungar.   A native of Kent in England, Brungar was convicted at the Kent Assizes on the 2nd of August 1819, & was issued with a life sentence which would ensure his transportation to the colony of Australia.  On the 17th of September 1819, Brungar was loaded aboard the convict transport Prince Regent, amongst 159 other unfortunate souls, all bound for Australia - of the ship's complement of "passengers", 43 others had been convicted & sentenced to a life of servitude in Australia, with the other 116 on lesser sentences.  After 4 long months of transportation, the Prince Regent sailed into Sydney Cove on the 27th of January 1820, despatching her complement of 160 souls into the capable hands of the colony's convict authorities.  Unfortunately, the bulk of Australia's archived convict material was destroyed after the cessation of convict transportation, however enough still exists that we can trace John Brungar's movements after reaching our shores - for a start, we know that after spending over a year in the vicinity of Sydney, Brungar was brought up on charges at Parramatta on the 19th of March 1821...an event which saw another two pointless years added to his previous life sentence.  Ten days later, Brungar was loaded onto the transport Elizabeth Henrietta, on the 29th of March 1821, for relocation to Newcastle.

 The Prince Regent, on which John Brungar was transported in 1819.

 In July 1821, four months after being relocated to Newcastle on the back of further sentencing in Parramatta, John Brungar's fortunes turned again - after being issued as a Convict Servant to a Master (generally a landowner of note), Brungar had chosen to abscond & took to the bush...a poorly concocted decision, as he was located soon after.  For his dissidence, he was sentenced to suffer 50 lashes - a physical punishment that would have tested the strongest of men.  The punishment seemed to slow John's self-destructive nature for a time, as his record remains clear for a few years.  On the 8th of May 1823, a letter was written by Lieutenant Close to the Colonial Secretary's Office, under which John Brungar, amongst others, would be given free pass for 14 days to transport 110 cattle, 2 horses & 360 sheep from Windsor through to Wallis's Plains.  Lieutenant Close was so sure of Brungar's loyalty, that he again sent a letter requesting his aid on the 16th of June 1823...only to sit idle as Brungar again absconded.  After being located again shortly after, Brungar was sentenced to a further 75 lashes for his indiscretions.  On the 14th of April 1824, Brungar had been moved to the employ of James McGillivray...employment that again lasted two months until Brungar was brought up on charges & sentenced to yet another seven pointless years - it was clear now that John was a perfect subject for transportation north, to the experimental Moreton Bay Penal Settlement.

Unfortunately, the first we hear of John Brungar at the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement comes on the 27th of September 1828.  In that month, the foundation trenchwork for the Commissariat Store was being carried out, by a gaol gang of which John Brungar was a part.  On the 27th, at 8am in the morning, Brungar approached another convict named William Perfoot - Brungar was aware that Perfoot possessed a lighter mattock, & had been manoeuvring unsuccessfully to sequester it for his own use.  When Perfoot again refused to hand his mattock over & a slight physical tussle began, the convict overseer demanded that Brungar move to the other side of the excavation...an order he obeyed until midday, when his frustration took the better of him.  Turning to face Perfoot, who was stooping down at the time, Brungar ran across the pit with his mattock and struck his adversary in the head...the blade of the mattock penetrated Perfoot's skull to a depth of about two inches & felled him where his stood, apparently dead.  Brungar immediately dropped his mattock, picked up a shovel, & continued on as if nothing had happened...although his crime had been witnessed by everyone present.  Perfoot was loaded into a wheelbarrow & conveyed to the convict hospital, where he languised for 6 long days before passing away from his injuries.  Unfortunately for Perfoot, 10 months beforehand another convict had unsuccessfully attempted to kill him by striking his head with a hoe...it was quite literally a case of second time (un)lucky...

As a result of the crime, Brungar was conveyed to Sydney, where he was tried for Perfoot's murder before the Supreme Court along with 3 other murderous convicts from Moreton Bay - the court cases for all would take a bizarre turn, however.  On being brought into the court, all four protested their innocence & swore that they had been denied the ability to call forth valuable witnesses from Moreton Bay.  The Court was adjourned until the following day to allow all to complete affidavits to the effect...however, when the Court resumed the next day, their statements were found to have no basis & the cases proceeded, to which all defendants protested repeatedly throughout.  Again, the Solicitor General allowed the cases to stand over to the next day, such that the defendants could amend their statements...a delay that still had no basis, as all went to trial the next day & were sentenced to execution for their crimes.  However, John Brungar's demise would see one further twist - on the morning of his execution on the 16th of April 1829, his procession to the gallows was halted...it was presumed that this respite was due to his Warrant of Execution having not arrived at the Prison on time.  However, Brungar was to walk the same path two days later on the 18th, alongside his fellow Moreton Bay murderers - all were put to death at the end of the hangman's rope, paying the ultimate price for their crimes.

In his book Haunted Brisbane: Ghosts of the River City, "Jack" Sim claims that a supposed ghost sighting of Patrick Logan (on the southern riverbank opposite Brisbane on the 18th of October 1830), is the oldest ghost story in Queensland & second oldest ghost story in Australia - an event that is documented nowhere & has no historic basis.  That said, what of the Commissariat Store Ghost??  If it's postulated that the ghost wandering the halls of the Commissariat Store is that of the murdered convict William Perfoot, an event that is actually documented in September 1828, in the very foundations of the building & clearly two years prior to Logan's murder, might this be Brisbane's oldest ghost story??  That choice I'll leave up to you, the reader, to discern...

The Pearl Disaster: Brisbane's forgotten shipping tragedy...

 

The Pearl at her mooring in February 1896 (State Library of Qld)

As you're likely aware, today, the 15th of April 2012, is the 100th Anniversary of the Titanic Disaster.  So far, The Courier Mail has run full colour lift-outs in their Saturday edition two weekends in a row, tonight both Channel Seven & SBS are screening Titanic documentaries, & on Wednesday night Channel Seven will screen another tele-drama based on the Titanic sinking - it's clear that Australians are still equally fascinated & appalled by the events that took place that fateful night a century ago.  However, very few residents of Brisbane are aware of an event that unfolded 116 years ago, right here in Brisbane, the anniversary of which has only just passed.  Whilst the scale of the disaster paled in comparison to that of the Titanic, the fall-out from the Brisbane tragedy sent reverberations around the world.

The sorry story began at 4am on Monday the 6th of February 1893.  After torrential rains had lashed the south east of Queensland, Brisbane was in the grip of a flood...however, where other floods had come & gone at this time of year, this particular flood was greater & more ferocious than any other Brisbane had experienced before - in time, history would record the event as the Great Flood of 1893, a natural disaster we still talk about in hushed tones to this day.  For days, the Brisbane River lay swollen through the heart of the city, spilling out into the lower-lying areas of the greater Brisbane region & flushing all manner of flotsam & jetsam into Moreton Bay.  However, on Sunday the 5th of February a major flood surge began to move down the winding river from its headwaters, destroying everything in its path.  The Indooroopilly Railway Bridge, which had barely survived the previous severe flood in 1890, was first to feel the tremendous power of the surge.  A fully-laden steam train was hurriedly parked on the bridge in a vain attempt to weigh the structure down & pin it to the riverbank, however the effort was for naught - at 5:45am, with a deafening crack & roar heard 1½ kilometres away, 25 metres of the bridge's 50 metre central span sheered away, plunging into the raging torrent below.   The surviving sections of the bridge held out valiantly against the continued onslaught until 1pm, when another deafening boom sounded & the remainder of the central span was torn free by the continually rising waters.

Further downstream, the Victoria Bridge linking North & South Brisbane was beginning to weather the same surge.  Residents of Brisbane lined both sides of the river & watched on in amazement as the waters rose to the level of the bridge deck, & debris smashed against the structure's side.  During the night, two large punts which had broken away from their moorings upstream, slammed into the superstructure & became jammed, adding to the steadily increasing volume of building materials & vegetation banked against the bridge.  Astonishingly, Victoria Bridge appeared to defy the flood's best destructive efforts throughout the night...until 4am the next morning, when the still-present crowd played witness to the sheer brute force of nature in stunned silence, as the bridge finally buckled under the weight of water & wreckage.  According to The Queenslander on the 11th of February 1893, "There was one loud crash, which shook the very earth, and made the surrounding buildings shake to their foundations; one convulsive heave, and the wrecked portion went down the river.  Soon other pieces followed it, until before half an hour had elapsed fully one-half of the bridge had disappeared."  The main lifeline between the two banks of the Brisbane River was now completely severed, sharing a similar fate with the only other Brisbane River crossing at Indooroopilly which had failed the day before - Brisbane had cruelly been plunged back into the dark ages of the City's early era, where water-craft were the only means of transportation between North & South.

Jump forward three years to 1896, & the three year anniversary of Victoria Bridge's destruction.  By this time, construction of the second permanent Victoria Bridge was well under way - proceeding the 1893 Bridge collapse, a temporary (& rickety) wooden bridge had been hastily constructed from the northern bank, adjoining the surviving southern section in the centre of the river.  However, given the time of the year, Brisbane was again due for a flood.  By Wednesday the 12th of February, the Brisbane River was swollen again & flowing heavily, & the piles in the piers of the temporary bridge section came under immediate treat from floating debris.  By 5:45am the next morning, over 2 acres of floating debris had backed up behind the bridge, & 5 piles shattered under the weight with an ear-piercing crack, damage that would see the temporary section sag nearly a metre.  All traffic across the bridge was immediately halted, throwing Brisbane's morning commute into chaos.  Immediately, local powers scrambled to press into service every suitable vessel they could find - on this day, ferries would again become the only link between the North & South.  Of the four vessels employed, one was the Pearl, a small steamship.

At 5pm in the afternoon, the Victoria Bridge still being closed, the working class of Brisbane made their way down to Queen's Wharf near the front of the now old Commissariat Stores...the Pearl lay alongside waiting for her fares.  To this day, the exact number of passengers who boarded the vessel that fateful afternoon is open to debate, however the agreeable complement sits between approximately 70-80.  At 5:05pm, the Pearl pulled away from the wharf, the Normanby & Government Steamer Lucinda being anchored in her path further out into the stream.  Throughout the day, the Pearl had passed between the two ships on a number of occasions in an attempt to placate passengers' concerns that the vessel was taking a longer route between the riverbanks...a travel path that had already seen the Pearl clip the stern of the Normanby on one occasion & ride over the anchor cable of the Lucinda on another.  On the 5pm run, the Pearl attempted again to run between the two vessels, however her earlier attempts & near misses served to seal her fate - on nearly clipping the stern of the Normanby again, the engines of the Pearl were called to a stop, at which time an eddy of flood water between the vessels shunted the Pearl backwards.  Before the engines could be started again to adequately get the Pearl underway, the surge slammed the vessel down on the anchor line of the Lucinda, effectively cleaving the vessel in two.

 

Men, women & children slid across the deck as the ship disappeared beneath the surging waters in less than 30 seconds.  Some luckily struck on the Lucinda's anchor chain and climbed upwards to safety...further passengers were able to grab lifelines immediately thrown by the crew of the Lucinda who were on watch...however, many who were on board the Pearl ended up in the swollen river & found themselves being flushed downstream at a rapid rate.  It was at this point that some of the most harrowing stories emerge...

James Wilson & his wife boarded the Pearl & were thrown into the water - James attempted to hold his wife above water while another lady clung to him, causing him to lose his grip & his wife was washed away to her death.  On being saved, he was transferred to a boarding house where he came in contact with the 4 young children of another woman who had perished in the disaster - he immediately consented to care for them, even in his grief & loss.  Three young brothers named O'Sullivan, aged 14, 11 & 9, were swept into the river - the 14 year old managed to snag & climb up the Lucinda's anchor chain, while his 11 year old brother hung on to a man's coat & was barely saved...however, the oldest brother watched from the Lucinda's stern as the youngest screamed "Mumma, Mumma," & disappeared beneath the water - his little, broken body was recovered near Breakfast Creek a week later.  Archibald McCorkingdale, past Councillor of Caboolture Shire, was washed into the river with a friend - on entering the water, he shouted, "Goodbye, I cannot swim.  Remember me to my wife," before slipping under the water...his body was never recovered.  21 year old Henry Archibald Jarman grabbed a lifebouy as he slipped off the deck into the water, but handed it to his Aunt, stating, "Here, you take this and save yourself, I'll be alright"...he was then washed away & drowned.  Of those who were lost, the saga continued...

In the days proceeding the wreck, search crews located clothing washed up on beaches at Sandgate, the entirety of which was sent back to Brisbane in the hope it may be identified.  Three days after the disaster, Mr Oxenham who was employed as the telegraph-master at Redcliffe, spied a body floating alongside the Redcliffe Jetty & immediately notified the Police.  The body was salvaged & taken to the Redcliffe Police Station, & in turn was transferred to North Pine & then on to Brisbane - on the post-mortem examination, the body was identified as that of a 29 year old woman who had been aboard the Pearl.  Ten days later, on the 26th of February, further word was received from Bribie Island where another body had been located on the shore - having been transferred to the local morgue, a broach was found on the body which in turn was identified by a friend at the Inquest...the woman, who possessed no other family in Brisbane aside from her sister, was also identified as one of the Pearl's passengers.  At a later stage again, an unidentifiable body was found on the shores of St Helena Island - it was postulated that this may have also been one of the missing souls from the Pearl sinking.

However, the greatest blow to Brisbane from the tragedy concerned the Morren family.  On the morning of the 13th of February, Hugh Morren & his eldest son & daughter were in mourning - their wife & mother had passed away the day before in the Brisbane General Hospital as a result of a protracted illness.  The father & children had made the journey to Brisbane from their home at Manly, where six younger children lay in waiting, to bury their loved one at Toowong Cemetery.  On the return from the funeral, all three boarded the fateful Pearl...five minutes later, their fortunes would again be parted.  The daughter was the first to be rescued from the river - thinking that both her father & brother had perished, she made her way to the Melbourne Street Railway Station to head back to her siblings, weeping heavily on the platform as she waited for the train amongst the other commuters.  Having boarded the train, she sat in stunned silence as her heart-broken brother boarded the carriage at the next station - at once, the two siblings consoled one another on the train ride home, however their father Hugh was not so luck...he perished amongst the others, on the day of his wife's funeral, & was buried alongside her four days later.  Ultimately, the Morren children were collected & sent to an orphanage at Sandgate, until Queen Victoria received word of the tragedy in England - not only did she send her condolences regarding the tragedy, but an immediate fund was set up in London to aid the Morren children, who in turn were transferred to England to be cared for.

The Pearl Disaster crippled the growing hub of Brisbane, & the story was passed amongst its residents for years...however, with no visible reminder of the tragedy, Brisbane has all but forgotten.  Whilst the Titanic drama plays out over the coming days, for those of you catching ferries across the river from Brisbane to Southbank after work, stop & think - 116 years ago, many souls walked the same path you have to the riverbank...however 29 of them never made it home...

The McKenzie Case: A tragedy that rocked 1923 Brisbane.

View of the city from One Tree Hill (Mt Coot-tha) in 1925 (State Library of Qld)

In researching material for the weekly articles, I regularly come across all range of events in Brisbane's history - stories of tribulation, accounts of hardship, amazing developments & tales of tragedy...whilst the bulk of these stories lack any link to the supernatural, occasionally a tale leaps from the pages of history & begs to be told, if for no other reason than to remind us of how fickle life can be.  These events, as they unravelled, permanently affected the psyche of Brisbane's society - the following tale of woe is one of those occurrences...

On Saturday the 6th of October 1923, as the sun rose over Brisbane & lit the slopes of One Tree Hill overlooking the city, the broken body of a woman was discovered by Kangaroo Point resident Frank Beckey.  Returning from a stroll up the mountain, Frank had chosen a side track during his descent, & had inadvertently stumbled across the morbid sight.  The Police at Toowong were immediately called for, & Constable Richard Arnold from Taringa & fellow Officers from the area raced to the scene.  Frank led the Officers to the body - to the woman's right sat an automatic .22 calibre pistol, three rounds spent & four still viable...beside her left hand, the crumpled photo of a man stared stoically towards the sky.  A handbag was also visible alongside the body, containing a handkerchief, gloves, a silver pencil case & 2/9½ in coins.  It was evident that the woman had chosen to end her own life, gunshot wounds being visible over her heart & also to her right temple - three expended projectiles removed during the post-mortem examination would verify the fact.  The Coroner would conclude that death had occurred approximately 24 hours beforehand.  On closer examination of the body, seven visiting cards bearing the name "Mrs Donald McKenzie" were located...it was now likely that the body was that of Miriam McKenzie, although her motive for suicide was unclear...if only just for a moment...

No sooner had the body been located & conveyed to the morgue for autopsy, than a letter was received at the Criminal Investigation Branch in Brisbane via the post.  Upon opening the envelope & revealing the letter contained inside, the Police stood in shock...Miriam McKenzie, who's body had been recovered only hours beforehand in bushland on One Tree Hill, had posted her suicide note to them directly: 

October 4, 1923.

To the Police,

I shall die by my own hand tomorrow morning.  I can be of no further assistance to my husband, and so feel I have nothing to live for.  I appeal to you and to those who are bringing charges against him to consider the succession of severe shocks to which his nerves had been subjected, and to remember that the man with 100 degrees of resisting power, who failed because he was assailed by 101 degrees of temptation, should not be condemned in the minds of the people who were infinitely weaker, but were never assailed by the one overwhelming degree of temptation.

Out in the sunshine, amongst the big, clean things of creation, I shall go contentedly and calmly; I love him and he loves me, and we understand each other.

If any doctor would be kind enough to do so, please allow him to sever my jugular vein.

Miriam McKenzie

8 a.m.,  October 5. - I am still of the same opinion.  M. McK. 

A simple postscript was written at the bottom of the page, but had been crossed out - "Please let Donald keep my message and photograph."  The suicide & above letter would have likely struck the Brisbane Police like a bolt from God...although, Miriam & her husband Donald were well known to them, due to a Court hearing that was in progress at the time...

A week earlier, on the 25th of September, Donald McKenzie had been arrested in Brisbane after having fled south with his wife Miriam, from Wowan just south-west of Rockhampton.  As Manager of the Wowan Cotton Ginnery, alongside his Clerk Alfred Hyde, Donald was accused of conspiring to steal £243 from the British Australian Cotton Growing Association.  Three days later on September the 28th, Donald finally obtained bail & was met by his wife Miriam outside the prison, who, against the charges being levelled at her husband, was convinced of his innocence.  However, upon his release Donald confessed to his partner that he was indeed guilty of the charge...a confession, whilst shocking, his wife was willing to forgive with the promise she would wait out any prison sentence he might be issued.  The following days, however, took their toll, as Miriam's faith began to falter... it had been put to her that Donald could likely be facing three to five years in prison for his crime.  Approaching her husband with an agonising concept, Miriam floated the idea that they should both commit suicide to escape the inevitable...a notion Donald quashed immediately...he would face the charges head-on.

Donald was due for his day in the Brisbane Police Court on Wednesday the 3rd of October, which he attended with his head held high.  After an initial hearing, his case was remanded for a week...unfortunately though, further bail was not granted & Donald was conveyed to the City Watch House.  Distraught over her husband's plight, Miriam followed her husband to the Watch House & spent time with him...it would be the last time he would see her alive.  Still detained on Sunday the 7th of October, the news was broken to Donald that his wife had been found dead on the slopes of One Tree Hill, having committed suicide in an attempt to gain leniency in his case...four days later on the 11th of October, the Police Magistrate Hewan Archdall acknowledged the death of Miriam McKenzie in Donald's case, & under Section 656 of the Criminal Code (First Offenders Act), he was allowed to walk out of the Court with a six month suspended sentence.  However, Donald's suffering was yet to end, as the Inquest into his wife's death was due to begin...

On Wednesday the 17th of October, not even a full week after being released from the Watch House pending his own criminal case, Donald found himself back in the witness box at the Police Court.  In an attempt to explain his wife's suicide, Donald stated, "She was so much attached to me that I think she did it to endeavour to create sympathy for me when I was being tried, in order that I might be dealt with leniently."  Further evidence was given two days later on the 19th, during which Miriam's recent state of mind was called into question & her suicide letter was tendered as evidence. After a great deal of evidence was proffered, the Inquest was adjourned until Monday the 12th of November...a date that would see the entire sorry saga brought to a close.  At the same moment that Miriam's Inquest was being continued in the Police Court, local resident George Wells was walking through Toowong Cemetery & came upon a gruesome scene - a man sprawled across the new grave of Miriam McKenzie, just beyond the main gates of the cemetery.  George could see a revolver, a woman's picture & a leather attaché case lying alongside the body, & it was evident the man had been shot in the temple.  Much to George's shock, however, he discovered the man had miraculously survived the horrific head wound - ambulance bearers were called for immediately, however their efforts were for naught...the still unconscious victim, Donald McKenzie, passed away at the Brisbane General Hospital 4 hours later.

Donald's suicide shouldn't have come as a surprise to the authorities - in the days leading up to his death, he had written numerous letters to the Police & Prison Officials alluding to his plans.  The most poignant of these letters had been sent to Police Magistrate Hewan Archdall, who had presided over Donald's criminal hearing:

Some time during the next few days I will have stepped over into the great divide.  My wife, who was always the soul of honour, would not wish me to break my word to you, although she will be happy and contented to know that I am joining her to complete the wonderful companionship which has been ours for the past seven years.

I pass out because I cannot face the punishment which I have mentally inflicted upon me for the remainder of my existence, and because I have nothing to live for.  My wife was my one inspiration in all things.

Few men have had the experiences that have been mine.  As a soldier I have seen service in six campaigns in various parts of the world - in the South African Campaign, in Burma, the Andaman Isles, India, and during the late war in West Africa, East Africa, and Jubaland; and I have always earned a good reputation.  As a civilian I have accomplished much, and met with many reverses.

My wife knew my feelings when I was put into the cage - captivity to one who could find the greatest joy in existence, out of his wife's companionship, and before he knew her, in climbing the Himalayas, or walking across Central Africa, enjoying the open spaces of South Africa, chasing cattle in the back-blocks of West Australia, cutting timber in the South-west of West Australia, or in the mountains of Oregon...when the hardest work was never too hard.  Had my wife lived, any promise I made you would have been kept.

Reports of the sorry conclusion to the McKenzie case went national, running in every major newspaper across the country.  However, the case was about to unleash one last major twist, which in itself would shock Brisbane equally in comparison to what had already occurred.  On Friday the 11th of January 1924, the Inquest into the death of Donald McKenzie was heard - documents recovered from the leather attaché case found beside Donald in Toowong Cemetery featured predominantly in the Inquiry.  Further letters contained in the case, to the Police & Prison Officials, confirmed that his death was a suicide...however, one document would leave Police gob-smacked, especially after the recent embezzlement case.  It was discovered that Donald McKenzie wasn't really Donald McKenzie at all - he was, in fact, Otto Leopold Bergstrom!  Having been born near Birkenhead in England, Otto had seen military service with the Liverpool Regiment before finally arriving in Western Australia with his wife in 1911.

However, married life was cruel to Otto, who described his wife as "a fiend in human form" - on one occasion she had shot him in the arm...on another, she attempted to strike him in the head with an axe as he slept.  Having had enough, Otto deserted his wife in 1914 & fled to Johannesburg under the name of McDonald, with his sweetheart Miriam Greenwood in tow.  After further military service in Africa during WWI, Otto & Miriam finally returned to Australia in 1918 under the guise of a married couple...although it wasn't long before Otto's legitimate wife finally caught up with the pair.  She proceeded against him in Court for maintenance, to the tune of £345, & Otto & Miriam immediately fled under the aliases of Donald & Miriam McKenzie.  For the next few years, they lived for short stints in Sydney, Oregon in the United States, Araluen in southern New South Wales, Highgate Hill in Brisbane & finally Wowan, where Donald attempted to defraud the Wowan Ginnery of £243 - it's highly likely that the maintenance debt hanging over Donald's head finally drove him to the attempted embezzlement of the British Australian Cotton Growing Association...& the rest of the story, as you've read, became a tragic tale in the historic record of Brisbane.

Amongst the bundle of papers removed from Donald's attaché case immediately proceeding his death, Police discovered a letter addressed to funeral directors Messrs John Hislop & Sons - Donald had prepared a written request to be buried with "my dear wife, Miriam."  On Tuesday the 13th of November 1923, a day after he had ended his own life on the same spot, Donald was laid to rest with his sweetheart Miriam, at the foot of One Tree Hill where she'd taken her own life barely a month earlier...hence, thus ended the tale of Brisbane's real-life Romeo & Juliet...

The Public Estate Improvement Fund: Paddington Cemetery's Executioner...

The Paddington Cemetery grounds, cleared & fenced, published on

page 13 of The Brisbane Courier on the 27th of June, 1914.

In last week's article on the Paddington Poltergeist/Possum, we touched briefly on the destruction of the North Brisbane Burial Grounds at the hands of the Public Estate Improvement Fund.  Admittedly, by the time the Paddington Cemeteries Act was passed on the 30th of November 1911, the site was nothing more than a dilapidated atrocity perched on the doorstep of Brisbane's expanding CBD...the majestic South Brisbane Cemetery overlooking the banks of the then-pristine Brisbane River had been in operation for 41 years, with its sister Brisbane General Cemetery at Toowong, nestled at the base of One Tree Hill (Mt Coot-tha), having been in operation for 36.  Few residents cared for the pioneers interred at Paddington, who had paved the way for the expansion of Brisbane so many years beforehand.  Viable building land encroaching on the cemetery borders was being snatched up, & new landowners were desperate for usable recreation reserves & amenities in their neighbourhood...thus, it was decided that the neglected & mostly forgotten cemetery had to go.

As we touched on last week, the Paddington Cemeteries Act of 1911 allowed for the area's resumption for public use.  Brisbane residents were duly notified of the decision to resume the cemetery precinct by the Lands Department - relatives of those buried within the confines of the cemetery were given until the 1st of December 1912 to make application to have remains & monuments exhumed & re-interred elsewhere at the expense of Government. Almost instantly, encroaching residents who were previously in support of transforming the area, publicly voiced their concerns through letters to the newspapers, fearing exhumation of corpses laid to rest in the mid-1800's could unleash a new wave of since-eradicated diseases on the surrounding population.  However, by the end of 1912, only 100 applications for removal & re-interrment had been received by the Public Estate Improvement Fund.  Exhumation work began in the early months of 1913.  The vast bulk of graves earmarked for removal were destined for Toowong Cemetery, with The Brisbane Courier reporting that remains were being re-coffined & reverently re-buried at a rate of about 20 per week...it was estimated that the entire process would take about 8 weeks to complete, at which time the remaining headstones & monuments could be removed to their designated area alongside Christ Church.

As we know from last week's article, 505 unclaimed headstones & memorials were removed & relocated as a part of this process, after which time all physical evidence that the area had once been a cemetery was stripped until only local memory remained...or so the Ithaca Shire Council & Lands Department hoped, in an effort to convince newcomers to Brisbane that their weekend picnics were being held on virgin turf rather than atop some pour soul's final resting place.  One councillor at the time went so far as to mention that the new recreation reserve would be ideal for lounging & reading...although the reading of works of fiction & ghost stories should be discouraged in case the subject content dredged up memories of the site's prior use.  Multiple newspaper articles following the site's clearance reported that "all remains" had been removed, however this spin-doctoring couldn't have been any further from the truth - from historic records we know that approximately 40-50 privately-funded exhumations occurred at Paddington cemetery, for removal to South Brisbane & Toowong, in the few years proceeding its closure in 1875...coupled with the 100 exhumations in 1913, the number of burials removed from the site totalled approximately 150.

The greatest surprise comes when the total number of exhumations is put into context - in the dying days of 1912 & opening of 1913, the Lands Department undertook a physical survey of the cemetery in order to discern the total number of graves present...their estimate closed at 4,643 burials.  More recently, Dr Rod Fisher of the University of Queensland's School of History, Philosophy, Religion & Classics, estimated the number at closer to 10,000.  Depending on which total you hold as true, at the time of Paddington Cemetery's erasure, an amazingly meagre total of 1.5% - 3% of the cemetery's interred souls had been re-interred elsewhere...leaving an unbelievable 97% - 98.5% of interred souls on site!  It was clear that both the Council & State Government hoped that not a single coffin left beneath the site would ever see the light of day after the site was converted to public land, an occurrence they managed to avoid for 14 years...however, come September of 1928, Paddington's dark secret was again dragged to the surface...

In mid-1928, the decision was made by Council to replace an open brick drainage channel known as the Milton Drain that ran along the southern extremity of the previous cemetery - the channel had been constructed in 1886 in order to help drain the lower area of the cemetery grounds which was renowned for its boggy nature.  The new drainage system would exist as an underground sewer pipeline, necessitating the excavation of a trench through the southern section of the now Lang Park Recreational Reserve...unfortunately, against the best efforts of Council & Government to obscure the origins of the land, the trench was to run through the southern section of the previous Church of England Cemetery portion.  In order to best understand the fall-out, an article on the 4th of September 1928 in The Brisbane Courier sums up the spectacle best -

"Workmen who have been making a sewer trench across Lang Park have been digging up coffins and skulls and human remains. In the early days of Brisbane Lang Park was a cemetery.  Yesterday afternoon, at the moment that a "Courier" reporter arrived on the scene, the skull of a woman was brought to the surface in a bucket from a depth of about 11 feet.   Human bones, crumpling with decay, and a skull which had been smashed by children, were in big tins alongside some of the shafts.  Groups of small boys stood at the top of the shafts watching the men at their gruesome work.  Pieces of old coffins were strewn around the shafts.  The stench was nauseating.  On Friday the workmen approached the foreman for 10/ an hour while working among the coffins. They complained that the coffins and the bones were falling on top of them, and that the vitiated air down below was almost unbearable."

The above exposé in The Brisbane Courier forced an immediate investigation by both the Council & Health Department - not surprisingly, both bodies played down the incident.  Mr R. A. Fraser, Chief Inspector for the Health Department, made a public statement in The Brisbane Courier 4 days later on the 8th of September, stating that he, "examined the relics to which newspaper reference has been made, & submitted whatever appeared to be of human origin to Mr Heber Longman, Curator of the Queensland Museum, who very courteously, at my request, identified the fragments as human, probably of European race...[T]he bone & other fragments brought to light are few in number, & are being held for re-interment on the completion of the drive during the next few days."  City Council followed suite, as reported in The Brisbane Courier on the 18th of September - "The few human relics that were found while a sewer was being constructed through one section of Lang Park (old Paddington Cemetery) were reverently reinterred at Toowong Cemetery on September 13, 1928, in the presence of an officer of the Water, Supply & Sewerage Department."  The initial independent report from The Brisbane Courier & subsequent statements by both Health Department & Council differed markedly...& all parties involved likely hoped the topic had finally been laid to rest...

The Paddington Cemetery "Trench"...published in The Worker on the 12th of September 1928.

Which it was, for a further 6 years.  In July 1934, Lang Park & it's underlying history again hit the media...on the 17th of July 1934, the now Courier Mail published an article regarding earthworks being carried out above the former cemetery.  According to the article, "Portions of human skeletons & the crumbling remains of coffins have been discovered by relief workers engaged in levelling a small rise alongside the Queensland Amateur Athletics Association's oval in Lang Park, Paddington.  Both bones and coffins fell to dust immediately they were disturbed, preventing their interment in another grave.  With the surrounding soil, they were merely removed to another portion of the park, and covered.  Dark patches in the yellow clay where the men are now working indicate where coffins have been.  The formation is quite clear, but scarcely more than perhaps a splinter or two of the woodwork remains.  A few days ago a portion of a shin bone was unearthed during blasting operations to remove the roots of a large tree, and even pick and shovel work on the face of the hillock barely 2ft below the surface has produced part of a skull and several small bones."

On publication of this news, memories of the prior Paddington Cemetery were pulled to the forefront of Brisbane's psyche, & one very poignant questions surfaced -  what had become of the 505 memorials & headstones that no longer stood beside Christ Church??  On the Brisbane City Council website, it's stated that, "The remaining memorials were removed in the 1930s when relief works were undertaken in Lang Park to improve the drainage and sporting facilities. Unfortunately the register was not updated to record the removal of these memorials and as a result, no trace remains of what happened to them." Similarly, "Jack" Sim had a ridiculous bash at guessing where the missing memorials ended up, in his 2011 edition of The Ghosts of Towwong Cemetery: Brisbane's Necropolis - "During the Great Depression hundred of gravestones were broken up and used as road base on Hale Street.  Motorists do not realise what is under their tyres.  For a mile from the river a foot thick band of this rubble remains under the asphalt."  Where the current Brisbane City Council & haunted historian "Jack" Sim failed in pinpointing the location of the missing monuments, the Haunts of Brisbane steps in yet again to set the record straight...

In the 17th of August 1934 Courier Mail article, the final paragraph stated, "[T]he area was frequented at night by undesirable persons, and was unsightly, and, finally, three or four years ago, the headstones were sent to Toowong Cemetery."  The very next day in the Courier Mail, on the 18th of August, a further article was published, stating, "It was learned from official sources yesterday that the gravestones which, about 23 years ago were removed from the old Paddington cemetery to the adjacent memorial reserve, and later transferred to Toowong, were used for filling up a gully in that cemetery.  Interest in the whereabouts of the monuments has been revived by the discovery recently of additional human remains by workmen levelling a portion of Lang Park, the site of the old cemetery.  [I]t was stated yesterday that these stones were in a badly dilapidated and broken up state when received at the cemetery, and that the inscriptions could not be deciphered."  Hence, the 505 monuments & headstones that remained after the 1913 cleansing of Paddington Cemetery, which had laid unclaimed, were finally transferred to Toowong Cemetery in approximately 1930 & broken up as landfill.

In 2001, as a part of the redevelopment of Lang Park (Suncorp Stadium), a further 397 burials were excavated from the site prior to the stadium's expansion - many of which were re-interred again at Toowong Cemetery.  In addition to the 150 prior 1913 exhumations, & taking into account the Lands Department & Rod Fisher's total interment estimates, between 4100 & 9450 souls still reside below the hallowed turf we celebrate every year as the NRL's State of Origin is played in Brisbane...& it is only a matter of time before one of Brisbane's pioneers surfaces during earthworks to remind us of the price we've paid for Brisbane's premier sporting ground...

The Plunkett Street Poltergiest: A Paddington Haunting...

The view from Paddington to the city, c. 1902 (State Library of Qld)

Brisbane's inner-city suburb of Paddington - Queensland Holidays website describes the area as, "Speckled with quaint cottages turned enticing shop-fronts, restaurants that spill out onto the pavement and a mixture of traditional tin and timber houses and renovated Queenslanders.  Visitors will love browsing for quirky keepsakes, vintage and designer fashion, antique and second-hand treasures, retro goodies, home wares and artwork. The bars are a combination of boutique cocktail lounges and casual pubs and the restaurants are well known to the breakfast crowd, who can be found either enjoying a quick catch-up before work or a lazy weekend coffee."  Back around the turn of last century, however, the emerging suburb had a very different feel to it...

In the first few years of the new century, Paddington was in a state of rapid expansion.  In the lowland areas beneath the stately heights of Musgrave Terrace, blocks of land were being snapped up for very reasonable prices upon which workers cottages & stereotypical  "Queenslanders" were hastily constructed...within a stone's throw of the dilapidated former North Brisbane Burial Grounds.  At this point in history, the condition of what had been Brisbane's first "free settlement" cemetery was deplorable - the surrounding fences had fallen & the bulk of the palings had all but been spirited off for use as firewood in the surrounding houses, allowing wandering livestock such as cattle, horses & goats to readily graze amongst the crumbling headstones.  However, a more morbid activity regarding the cemetery occurred in early 1900's Paddington - as the number of workers cottages & "Queenslanders" grew surrounding the cemetery, the number of headstones & grave surrounds in the cemetery seemed to decrease.  Whilst the price of land in the area was reasonable, the costs of upmarket building materials such as sandstone flagging & cast-iron balustrading were not.

Some of the "Queenslanders" throughout Milton & Paddington began to sport fancy balustrading on their verandas, supposedly sections of pilfered ironwork that had originally skirted the borders of the wealthier graves in the Paddington Cemetery.   Similarly, some workers cottages began to boast fancy sandstone pathways from their front gates to their front doors...the result of stolen headstones from Paddington Cemetery turned face down.  About 12 years ago, I was invited to a couple's renovated Queenslander in Paddington just off Musgrave Terrace, to talk to them about a suspected haunting.  They'd not long owned the property, but were concerned that whilst the previous living owner had left, a more immaterial soul had not.  After making some small talk in their kitchen whilst coffees were made, I was ushered out onto their back balcony to "get down to business" & discuss their haunting...& was shocked to discover a very large & weathered headstone propped against the railing of their entertaining area next to their patio table!  When I questioned them about the headstone's origins, the only information they could provide was that they'd found the stone hidden under the house not long after they'd purchased it...possibly a remnant of the nearby Paddington Cemetery.

Whilst supposed thefts of monumental masonry & ironwork from the Paddington Cemetery is open to debate, we do know one thing for sure - on the 30th November 1911, after enduring decades of neglect & a rapidly expanding city centre on its doorstep, the Paddington Cemeteries Act was passed to allow for the area's resumption for public use.  The public were duly notified of the decision by the  Lands Department - relatives of those buried within the confines of the cemetery were given until the 1st December 1912 to make application to have remains & monuments exhumed & re-interred at the expense of Government.  However, by that December, few applications had been lodged with the Public Estate Improvement Fund (Lands Department) - ultimately, the Brisbane Courier reported on the 7th June 1913, "removal of remains of persons buried in the old Paddington Cemetery has been completed.  Under the contract about 45 tombstones and the remains of 100 persons were lifted & removed to other cemeteries" - cleaning & levelling work on the site began 5 days later on the 12th June.

By the 20th June, the Brisbane Courier reported, "Under the Act passed to deal with the Paddington Cemetery, provision was made for reserving a strip a chain wide near the church.  It is intended to utilise this for the storage of the tombstones standing over the remains of persons whose friends did not ask for their removal to other cemeteries.  The removal of these tombstones will be commenced shortly."  Records of the time reported that 505 unclaimed memorials & headstones were removed from the greater cemetery grounds, and were stored in the allocated area alongside the current Christ Church in Milton.  Not long after, the vast bulk of this masonry vanished from alongside the church, never again to see the light of day - one completely unfounded work of fiction put forward recently by a self-professed "historian," claims that the headstones were crushed & used during the Great Depression (1929-1932) as road base on Hale Street - this quite simply is not true, although I'm sure it helps to sell his books.  Ultimately, the monuments & tombstones were spirited away to a known location, a topic we'll visit in a future article, & the possibility does exist that some of these stones found their way into the possession of property owners around Paddington.

Jump forward to 1952, to a 50 year old house in Paddington's Plunkett Street...constructed when the Paddington Cemetery was seeing out its final days.  Occupied for only a short period of time by young married couple Edmund & Mavis Norris, & their eight month old daughter Julie, it became apparent on the 5th of June 1952 that something was amiss in their residence.  Throughout the month of June, the couple were disturbed by mysterious noises within their house.  The disembodied noises continued on a regular basis into early July when the story of the Paddington Ghost finally hit the media, & the story was broadcast across Australia on the 7th of July.  The West Australian, out of Perth, reported that the Norris's were considering leaving their home due to the ongoing haunting...The Canberra Times ran a very similar article confirming that Mrs Norris had first heard the ghost about a month previously, & it was regularly heard traversing the house at midnight.  However, The Courier Mail came through with the goods & reported heavily on the Plunkett Street haunting....

According to the article, "Scores of people travelled to see a "haunted" house at Paddington yesterday [Sunday]."  It was reported that for the past month, mysterious sounds had been heard throughout the house, "like those made by a slightly built woman moving about."  It had been noted in The Canberra Times article that on one occasion when Mr Norris had heard the sounds, he had run out into the hall to confront the culprit only to hear the footsteps walk right past him!  According to the Norris's, scores of children had been hanging around their house all weekend in the hope of spotting the spook, & countless telephone calls had been received from surrounding residents curious to know whether the ghost was up to its old tricks.  The Courier Mail had also received their fair share of calls from Brisbane residents hoping to wade into the debate...all with their ideas as to the origins of the haunting.   A woman spiritualist had even offered to spend a night in the house in the hopes of identifying the ghost.  On the 29th of July, as the ghostly happenings at Plunkett Street were still occurring, the Morning Bulletin in Rockhampton also made mention of the story as a segue to a similar haunting in a Rockhampton house.

Alas, on the 6th of August the story took a 180° turn, again in The Courier Mail.  According to the quite brief article, given that previous interest in the story had been fairly sensational, the Paddington Ghost had now been "laid."  After scores of people had visited the house in the hopes of witnessing the ghostly goings-on, the haunting had apparently reached its conclusion - it was reported that Mr Norris had heard sounds in the ceiling of the house early on Saturday the 2nd of August, & had gone to investigate...only to disturb a large female possum in his roof building a nest.  So, our article comes to an end with a number of poignant questions - in the July 1952 newspaper articles, it was suggested that the sounds could possibly be the result of possums...yet Mr Norris seemingly didn't check his roof for the proceeding month??  The Norris's, who were not newcomers to Brisbane & the possum population, claimed to be hearing footsteps throughout their house, which on one occasion walked right by Mr Norris...were the couple prone to flights of fancy, & let their imaginations run wild on ideas of spooks & spectres??  Or...had the Norris's grown so tired of the constant visits by surrounding residents, that claiming the culprit was a possum finally bought them peace & quiet from a curious public...even though their resident ghost still walked the house at night??

Whatever the answer, the story of the Plunkett Street ghost still exists in the annals of Brisbane history...whether you choose to believe it was simply a possum all along, or entertain the idea that a possum was a scapegoat to cover up an actual haunting that was drawing unwanted attention.  Regardless, the Plunkett Street residence is not the only Paddington house that has been rumoured to contain a ghost resulting from the destruction of the North Brisbane Burial Grounds...

The "ghost" - published in The Courier Mail on the 6th of August 1952

The greatest story (n)ever told: Brisbane's "2nd Most Haunted" rating...Part II

And so we venture into Part II of Brisbane's "2nd Most Haunted" Scandal - ironically, Part I (found here for those who need a refresher) has become the 2nd most-read article on the Haunts of Brisbane, in just one week.  So, without further ado, here is the rest that you've been eagerly waiting for...

When we left last week, York had just been pronounced "The Most Haunted City in Europe" by the Ghost Research Foundation International in 2002, and were apparently in the running for the global "Most Haunted" accolade.  According to a further article published on the BBC News website on the 9th of August 2002,  "Parapsychologist Jason Karl, president of the Ghost Research Foundation International (GRFI), said the city has more spooks than any other."   However, serious questions were already being asked throughout the global paranormal fraternity as to the legitimacy of York's two "Most Haunted" awards in England and Europe - had every English and European paranormal expert provided solid data on their respective regions, & worked collaboratively to definitively "prove" that York in England, above all other cities, possessed the greatest number of hauntings??  The answer to this question was best summed up in the very first sentence of the above BBC News article - "York has been named Europe's most haunted city by a ghost expert."  So...no collaboration occurred...no poll was carried out...no transparency existed...both accolades were awarded purely on the say-so of one man - Jason Karl.

Without leaving to much too the imagination, only 10 months later, York came through with the goods yet again in the global accolades...miraculously uncovering a further 364 hauntings to push their 2000 total of 140 ghosts to a staggering 504 ghosts by July 2003!  Once again, parapsychologist Jason Karl, under the auspices of the Ghost Research Foundation International, awarded the title amidst international media hype, and in turn named the runner-up cities...which is where our story takes an amazing turn, as Brisbane finally appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, on the "Most Haunted" list.  It was at this point that Brisbane's "2nd Most Haunted" rating hit its first MAJOR snag.  If you remember back to last week's article, I pointed out a crucial detail that was published in the Sunday Mail on the 13th of October 2002 - "He ["Jack" Sim] has 250 Brisbane sites where ghosts have been reported, on a database."  Keeping that rough figure in mind, let's have a further look at the totals in the runner-up stakes, as interpreted by Jason Karl & the Ghost Research Foundation International...

On the 12th of July 2003, the Irish Independent ran one of the first articles on York's third consecutive "Most Haunted" award, and provided figures for the top three place-getters.  According to the news piece, "Intensive research into ghostly events around the globe found the north of England city had a total of 504 recorded haunted sightings compared to 300 in Los Angeles, the second most haunted city in the survey, and 225 in Brisbane, Australia."  Wait...WHAT?!?  Brisbane was ranked in third place, not second??  A month later, on the 29th of August 2003, the BBC website ran another article on York's award, stating, "Intensive research by the Ghost Research Foundation International (GRFI) of major cities around the world including Los Angeles, Paris and Brisbane has drawn the conclusion that York is the most haunted city in the World - with a total of 504 recorded hauntings!"  In a box alongside the web article, further numbers were provided on other city's rankings - 250 in Brisbane, 230 in Chicago, 120 in New York...Los Angeles' ranking was absent, which gave the impression that Brisbane might just have been ranked second, although the prior Irish Independent article had already let the cat out of the bag on Brisbane's real ranking!

Ultimately though, the Ghost Research Foundation International was to fold soon after, and parapsychologist Jason Karl's reputation was to be seriously called into question.  Ironically, at the same time York was being issued with its 2002 "Most Haunted in Europe" award, Jason Karl was starring in the first season of British TV's "Most Haunted" series - and not surprisingly, Jason's history was being publicly exposed.  Born as Jason Smith, he had made his television debut on a children's game show called Knightmare in 1988.  "After studying media, photography, television and film at North Oxfordshire School of Arts & Technical School in Banbury, he moved into variety work and gained his British Actors Equity Card whilst performing various interactive live theatre shows at Alton Towers and Chessington World of Adventures for The Tussaud’s Group."  After the first season of "Most Haunted," Jason was accused of being an actor playing a parapsychologist - a qualification he did not hold, nor ever had done.  To this day, Jason Karl has earned a reputation for tacky ghost game shows & attempting to sell private "ghost hunts" on eBay.  After his personal demise, and that of the GRFI, history would likely also forget about the "Most Haunted" awards...or would it??

Jump forward six years to the 3rd of February 2009, when, out of the blue, an article appeared in the City News entitled Brisbane claims "spooky city" title.  The write-up claimed that Brisbane was one of the most haunted cities in the world, "according to new book The International Directory of Haunted Places and website www.hauntedplaces.com."  We already know that the International Directory of Haunted Places was not new, and had been published nine years previously - this news piece was nothing more than a simple rehash of the article run in the Sunday Mail in October 2002 (detailed in last week's Part I)...but why on earth was this material being dug up again after so many years, and who was behind it??  Eight months later, the answer became apparent - in the October marketing lead-up to the peak ghost tour date of Halloween, a self-penned advertisement for Ghost Tours appeared on business promotion website Services Recommended - for the very first time, the claim that "National Geographic voted Brisbane the 2nd most haunted city in the world" finally surfaced.  It was clear that "Jack" Sim was responsible, but none of it made any sense - Brisbane had been designated "3rd Most Haunted" by the GRFI six years previously, and National Geographic had played no part in the ranking??

The most amazing revelation in this saga, however, came one year later in 2010, once again in the October marketing lead-up to the peak ghost tour date of Halloween - on the 28th of October 2010, Channel 10's 7pm Project ran with a segment on Brisbane's "2nd Most Haunted" status...not surprisingly, "Jack" Sim and his tours featured predominantly.  Ironically enough, the 7pm Project was quick to add on their website that, "Local historian Jack Sim, who runs Brisbane Ghost Tours, says Brisbane was voted the world's second-most haunted town by no less an authority than National Geographic.  (At this stage, 7PM's Interweb correspondent has been unable to track down the original list.  In the meantime we'll take his ["Jack's"] word for it, like we took that Charlie Chaplin time traveller video dude's)."  So, it was clear that even the 7pm Project were highly suspicious of the claim, but run with it they did...and almost instantly, as though the "2nd Most Haunted" moniker had now been completely validated purely on the authority of the 7pm Project, a ridiculous banner was posted on the Ghost Tours website (located at the top of this article, & also [HERE] on the Ghost Tours website in full form).

7pm Project's Segment on Brisbane's "2nd Most Haunted" claim...

However, "Jack's" publicity stunt clearly backfired, as residents across Brisbane began to heavily question Ghost Tours about National Geographic's involvement.  2 days after the 7pm Project's segment, The Boggo Blog published the first article questioning the legitimacy of the claim, a topic they again followed up six months later in April 2011 (I strongly advise reading both of these accounts).  Needless to say, "Jack" Sim & Ghost Tours were silent on the matter...however, by May 2011, posts began to appear on the Ghost Tours Facebook page, again requesting clarification.  After ongoing pressure, Ghost Tours finally posted a statement on the 30th of May 2011:

 

Without giving too much away just yet, one detail in the statement was very, very clear - the only time Brisbane had been mentioned in conjunction with Chicago for haunted potential, was in the 2003 web article published by the BBC, where Los Angeles' ranking had been omitted and it "appeared" as though Brisbane had been designated "2nd Most Haunted" by the GRFI!  So it was now clear - "Jack" Sim's entire marketing campaign was teetering on a knife-edge, based purely on a single misleading article published seven years beforehand on account of a GRFI award.  So, what of this mystery National Geographic article??  According to Ghost Tours' statement, a scan of said article, which had apparently drawn on GRFI's findings, would be posted to once and for all set the record straight...yet four more months passed, without a scan in sight, amidst further ongoing pressure by the public.  On the 12th of September 2011, Ghost Tours yet again posted an official statement:

 

After being backed into a corner for non-disclosure, Ghost Tours clearly contradicted their statement published over 3 months beforehand - the company now needed to locate a copy of the article to scan (which they seemed to possess 3 months earlier), and the scan would be posted publicly in the very near future to alleviate any concerns about false advertising on the company's part (the article did exist and was not a lie?!?).  Surprisingly, it was now stated that National Geographic had based their article on data supplied by the Ghost Tours camp, who had "happily supplied information to NG"...this was in stark contrast to the previous statement, whereby information came from a "Paranormal society who they interviewed for an article on The Most Haunted City - which was quoted as York."  To this day, six months later, no scan of the National Geographic article has surfaced on the Ghost Tours site...and has not done so for one very good reason - IT DOES NOT EXIST!

So...what is the truth??  In order to expose Brisbane's "2nd Most Haunted" myth, I took the liberty of writing to the Headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C. with two simple questions - had the National Geographic Society ever undertaken a poll, from which an article was published, on the most haunted cities in the world?  If so, had Brisbane been voted, by the National Geographic Society, as the 2nd most haunted city globally?  The answer, which is best viewed in its original typed and hand-signed form on National Geographic letterhead [right here], was a resounding no!  However...one last detail was provided that would crack the scandal wide open, and expose Ghost Tours and "Jack" Sim once and for all...

According to the correspondence, "the October 2008 issue of National Geographic Traveller Magazine contained a short article titled "The Most Haunted City in the World?" concerning York, England."  The article in question covers 9 pages, and is written purely about York.  And for that matter, the Traveller Magazine is nothing more than a spin-off publication - yes, it it published by National Geographic, but at the same time it is not the National Geographic Magazine.  On investigation, a blurb exists independently at the end of the article on York, entitled Beyond York: More Ghost Cities - and for the first time ever, independent of Ghost Tours and their inability to provide this information, here it is on the Haunts of Brisbane word for word:

"Apparitions have been "sighted" in many spots around the world, but there are certain cities that, like York, tout an abundance of resident spirits. Making the top ten on many lists? Ghost-ridden New Orleans, from the spooky French Quarter to the Garden District and the city's graveyards; the Old World capital of Prague, whose dark streets have been visited by a headless horseman and a wandering skeleton; St. Petersburg, Russia, where sightings have included the ghosts of Russian mystic and royal confidant Rasputin and a social revolutionary, Sofia Perovskaya, who appears on a bridge with a rope burn apparent around her neck; and Florence, Italy, with wraiths that drift along the walls of the Belvedere Fort and various ghosts - a cleaning lady, a woman knitting - at Pensione Burchianti. Then there is Brisbane, Australia, ranked after York by the Ghost Research Foundation International, with more than 240 sightings, including phantasms who wander the stairs and ride the elevators of City Hall."

So, there you have it - one measly, generic sentence regarding Brisbane!  National Geographic has never run a poll on the world's most haunted cities, National Geographic has never voted Brisbane the 2nd most haunted city in the world (and nor did the Ghost Research Foundation International for that matter), and National Geographic has never published an article on the most haunted cities in the world in which Brisbane featured (a small blurb tailing an actual article in a spin-off publication does not count).  In Ghost Tours' statement above on the 12th of September 2011, they are very quick to point out that "Accusing us of lying is unacceptable on this webpage" - well, Ghost Tours, where do you stand now??  Ultimately, for "Jack" Sim and Ghost Tours, Brisbane's "2nd Most Haunted" rating was nothing more than a fraudulent marketing campaign...and can now hopefully be laid to rest once and for all.

The greatest story (n)ever told: Brisbane's "2nd Most Haunted" rating...

If you read one ghost story this year that stands your hair on end and drops your jaw, this is definitely the one!  Over the next two weeks, the Haunts of Brisbane will embark on a 2-part article, 'laying' what has been one of the most sordid ghost tales in Brisbane to rest...for good.

This tale anchors its roots all the way back in mid-1998, when a small-time tour company lurched onto the scene in Brisbane.  Registered under the simple, generic name of Ghost Tours by Cameron (a.k.a. "Jack") Sim, local Brisbane "goth clubs" were bombarded with flyer hand-outs to drum up interest, and almost instantly the media's attention was piqued.  Ghost tours in Brisbane were a new concept, a venture that had only existed in southern states like Melbourne, through operations such as Drew Sinton's Haunted Melbourne Ghost Tour (established in 1997, & clearly mainland Australia's longest running ghost tours, unlike Brisbane's Ghost Tours claim).  [2022 Edit: at time of writing the Haunted Melbourne Ghost Tours were still running - they are no longer] The original Brisbane ghost tour, and there was only one, took tourists on a 60 minute walking tour via a handful of sites in the city for a sum of $10 a head.  In June 1998, local newspaper The Queensland Independent published the first article promoting Brisbane's new tourism venture, detailing a tour that journalist Louise Rugendyke had taken with "Jack" Sim - "decked out in a black fedora hat, a dark pinned-striped jacket and matching pants."

In the article, "Jack" was directly quoted as stating, "Brisbane is probably the most haunted city in Australia" - clearly a massive declaration from a completely inexperienced tour operator who had just launched an untested tour operation, in direct competition with other well-established and successful interstate ghost tours.  It was clear from the get-go that "Jack" Sim was determined to earn long-ranging notoriety for his new tour venture...and the seeds for Brisbane's greatest rumour were finally sown...

At the same time in 1998, American author Dennis William Hauck had embarked upon a bi-monthly periodical entitled the HAUCK REPORT - a small-time web-based journal promoted through his U.S.-focused Haunted Places Directory website.  Both the report and website were comprised of reader-submitted supernatural encounters, book reviews and plugs for paranormal organisations and ghost tours.  Dennis had cut his teeth as an author in the 1970's, writing numerous articles on UFO's and Sea Monsters for various pulp magazines.  However, by the mid-1990's, Dennis was known predominantly for two books - William Shatner: A Bio-Bibliography, & Captain Quirk, which, amongst other things, detailed William Shatner's UFO abduction experience in the Mojave Desert shortly after the cancellation of the "Star Trek" television series - a premise ironically paralleled in the 1999 sci-fi comedy movie Galaxy Quest.  However, in 1999, Dennis began to compile material for a book which would attempt to list as many haunted places around the world as possible.

 The International Directory of Haunted Places, published in 2000.

Released in September 2000, the paperback edition of the International Directory of Haunted Places listed "more than 750 geographically arranged entries on haunted houses, sacred sites, UFO landings & other supernatural locations" around the globe.  14 sites around Brisbane were listed in the Directory - 7 cemeteries & 7 buildings, and virtually not a single ghost story between them.  Even very basic details such as suburb and road names were incorrect for the majority of listings, which begged the obvious question - who on earth had supplied this information on Brisbane for the listings??  The answer was quite simple, clearly stated by the author on page IX of the book's Introduction - "I would also like to thank...[J]ack Sim for the material from the Brisbane Ghost Tours."  So, once again, "Jack" Sim was trying to convince the world that Brisbane was the most haunted city in Australia...by blindly listing as many potentially haunted sites in Brisbane as he could (all 14 of them, half of which were cemeteries!), in an attempt to get the jump on any other Australian city.

Unfortunately for "Jack" Sim and Ghost Tours, the International Directory of Haunted Places was just that - a very long list of "haunted" sites around the globe.  Not once in the book were cities ranked as to their haunted potential, nor was a "Top 10 Most Haunted" list published.  So, imagine everyone's surprise two years later when the Sunday Mail published an article on the 13th of October 2002...just over two weeks before the peak ghost tour date of Halloween.  Entitled, Ghost town! - Is Brisbane one of the world's most haunted cities?, the article stated that, "Brisbane has been voted the most haunted place in the southern hemisphere by international ghost-hunters.  [T]he International Haunted Places Directory and New Zealand association NZ Ghost ranked Brisbane above even the former Tasmanian penal colony Port Arthur for eerie activities.  Their websites list Toowong Cemetery, Boggo Rd Jail, City Hall and former hospital Whepstead Manor, at Wellington Point, as the area's most haunted spots."  But how could this be?!?  The International Directory of Haunted Places paperback had at no stage made any such claim about Brisbane's haunted potential two years previously??

Unfortunately, the "International Haunted Places" section on Hauck's Haunted Places Directory website had...although not quite to the extent of the Sunday Mail's report.  According to said page, "Brisbane in Queensland is the most haunted city in Australia and locations covered from that city will include the Old Government House, the Parliament House, and the Brisbane Arcade, and City Hall, where at least three ghosts haunt the hallways.  One is an elegant woman, another a maintenance man who continually rides the elevator that killed him in a freak accident, and the last is an American Sailor stabbed to death in a fight with another sailor in the downstairs tearoom.  Brisbane cemeteries are also hotspots of paranormal activity."  Very amusingly, New Zealand association NZ Ghost, still a small-time website in 2002, had cut and pasted the exact same statement on their website as if it were their own!  So, no..."International ghost-hunters" had not voted Brisbane the most haunted city in the Southern Hemisphere - Hauck's website had made the outlandish claim that Brisbane was "the most haunted city in Australia," which in turn was blindly regurgitated on a New Zealand amateur ghost-hunting website...a far cry from the Sunday Mail's "most haunted city in the southern hemisphere!"

So, who on earth had supplied this misinformation to the Sunday Mail about Brisbane's "most haunted" ranking??  Once again, the answer was clear - Ghost Tours operator "Jack" Sim, who was extensively quoted throughout the Sunday Mail article, making every effort to promote his business alongside the completely ridiculous claim that, "500 people a month are signing up for night trips to Brisbane graveyards and city murder sites, or sleepovers at Boggo Rd Jail."  Choosing to publish the bogus information they'd been fed by "Jack" Sim, the Sunday Mail clearly ran with the story without making the slightest effort to verify the claim.  However, one choice statement towards the end of the article stands out - a crucially important detail that will play a major part in next week's PART II of this article - in the Sunday Mail report, "Jack" was quoted as saying that, "He has 250 Brisbane sites where ghosts have been reported, on a database."

Meanwhile...in England...the city of York was attempting to earn itself yet another "most haunted" title.  Two years earlier in 2000, York had vied for the title of "Most Haunted City In England," a title it apparently "won" with over 140 hauntings.  However, by 2002, at a time "Jack" Sim was desperately trying to earn a marketable commendation for his Brisbane business, York again was making the news.  In the same year, York was "pronounced" the "Most Haunted City in Europe" by the Ghost Research Foundation International, according to the British newspaper The Guardian, on the 10th of August 2002.  "Sweeping aside the wailing nuns of Rome and a range of marshland manifestations in Scandinavia, York's ghosts are also now in the running for the global "most haunted" accolade. Jason Karl, president of the Ghost Research Foundation International, which awards the titles, said yesterday: "My colleagues and I have travelled extensively for the last decade and nowhere have we found more ghosts.""

So...exactly who was Jason Karl and his organisation Ghost Research Foundation International?  On what grounds was Jason Karl and his organisation qualified to "award" such titles of "most haunted?"  How on earth could York with its 2000 title of "Most Haunted City in England" with 140 ghosts challenge Brisbane with its 2002 claim of 250 ghosts for "Most Haunted City in the World?"  And, most importantly, how the hell did National Geographic get tangled up in all of this mess???

Stay tuned for next week's PART II, when everything will finally be revealed!