In my first article about ghosts and superstitions in the Australian tradition (Issue 7), I said that the impression I got from some people was that Australia doesn't have a heritage of ghost stories and superstitions. But, in my research, I have come across a wealth of stories, from both the indigenous Aboriginal cultures and since white settlement. How many of these are true and how many are fiction, written and told simply for entertainment, is anyone's guess. Not all are necessarily ghost stories. Many tell of superstitions or try to explain mysterious happenings, such as strange lights that appear and disappear without any explanation, like the Min Min Lights.
Some of the more horrifying ghost stories come most obviously from those times when people met with cruelty, murder and sudden death. The convict times and the days of the early pioneers are good examples, as is the era of the bushrangers. As well, there are quite a few ghost stories about gold diggers and prospectors. And people living in isolated parts of rural Australia or who travelled outback had their fare share of stories to tell about the times when they were scared witless by weird sounds and ghostly type happenings.
Fisher's Ghost
Probably the best-known ghost story in Australia is “Fisher's Ghost”, which dates back to the 1830s. It is a good old-fashioned murder story, where the victim comes back as a ghost to see that justice is done to his killer. ( note: the complete story as told by Andrew Lang appeared in Issue 6)
Ghost of the Glen
Another well-known murder story, cum-ghost story is the “Ghost of the Glen”. Long before it became sheep grazing country, the Illawarra region of NSW was famous for its cedar forests. All were cut down in the earliest days of settlement by timber-cutters, most of whom were ticket-of-leave convicts. The story goes that a man was travelling from Sydney to Shoalhaven and stopped at Kiama for a rest and a meal. He had plenty of money to spend and was soon befriended by a couple of local sawyers, who promised to show him a short cut through the woods. He was never seen again and neither were the timber cutters.
Some months later, another man was journeying in the same area. He lost his way and decided to camp by a creek for the night. It was a cold, wet, windy, winter's night. Not the sort to be out in. During the night, he is awakened by the sound of the grating of a cross-cut saw. At that same moment, he is tapped on the shoulder by a bloody hand and part of an arm thrust through the grass close to his neck.
A while later, he hears the distant cry of a human being, obviously in dreadful agony and once again, there is the noise of a saw, this time close by. When the traveller looks in the direction of the sound he sees the faint blurred figures of two men. The feet of one looks as if they are over the head of the other. The lower shape seems to be standing in a pit, whilst the other appears to be supported by a platform raised a few feet from the ground.
Suddenly, there is a terrific clap of thunder and out of nowhere a gashed blood-dabbed face appears looking straight at the traveller. About fifty feet away he sees what looks like a black heap, with a dog lying on top of it. During a break in the storm, he hears the voices of the timber-cutters talking loudly over the noise of the saw and then as he is being driven mad with fright a gurgling voice cries out “For God's sake, tell the Sydney people of this!”.
Next he sees a doubled-up body, lying on the ground and a great limbed but wasted sheep dog licking a dead battered face. Distinct in the darkness there is a sawpit, logs, cross pieces and all. Two sawyers, huge rough-bearded men are working in a ring of ghastly light. This time the voice screams:
“Take the money! Take everything! But let me go!”
And a coarse cursing voice shouts
“Let's pitch the – on the fire” and “Cut the cur's throat”.
Lightning brightens the sky, after which there is silence. In the times since, other people camping near that same glen have had similar experiences. Some were not as dramatic, but all led to the same conclusion that a man had been murdered by two timber-cutters in a most cruel and awful manner. The story has since passed into local folklore and the place is now known as Ghost Glen.
Celtic Heritage
The writer, Ernestine Hill was well known for her research into stories about ghosts and other superstitions in Australia. In her opinion, many had come directly from the Celtic heritage of Sennachie, which had been brought to Australia by convicts and migrants from Scotland and Ireland. Hill suggested that the Celts, being a superstitious people, simply transposed their stories and beliefs from one country to the other. For proof, she pointed to the sort of work many of these migrants took once in Australia, lonely, singular jobs as shepherds, drovers, and boundary riders. As an example, there are several ghost stories from Cooper's Creek, all of which all have a definite Celtic Irish feel about them.
Some of these stories passed into the tradition, often as bush verse and the poets and writers, especially of the late 1800s, including Henry Lawson, 'Banjo' Paterson, Will Ogilvie and Edward Dyson added their own stories and poems. One of the Banjo's all time classics is 'Father Riley's Horse', an epic and thrilling ghost story told in verse. His other ghost classic is 'The Geebung Polo Club'. Both are well worth reading. Paterson had a good sense of humour and in "The Ghost Of The Murderer's Hut", he takes the 'mickey' out of ghost stories with his ghost turning out to be a goat!
There's Only The Two Of Us Here
Probably the best known ghost story in verse is Edward Harrington's 'There's Only The Two Of Us Here', a spooky yarn about a bushman who goes into a hut to rest the night and is kept awake by dreadful noises. Absolutely petrified, he jumps out the window and runs away. The poem has become very popular with primary school classes.
The Phantom Bullocky
Two ghost stories that are quite similar to each other are 'The Phantom Mob' by W.M Fleming and 'The Phantom Bullocky', author unknown. Both have passed into the folk tradition as bush poems, though 'The Phantom Bullocky' also reads very well as a yarn.
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“I was boss on Thurloona at the time. The chap who wanted a job was of the all-round run of bushmen and as I needed a bullock driver, I gave him a try-out. I told him that the team he would have to handle was one of eight-yoke, with the wildest cattle in Australia in it, and showed him the graves of fourteen men killed at one time and another by the oxen.
"I'll try 'em," he said. I asked him if he had the language. He said that often when he had been bogged in the timber his conversation had set the stringy barks on fire – not the big ones – but the saplings. I told him he might suit and asked him to give me an example of himself starting a team.
"You take eight panels of the fence of the yard," I said. "Imagine that's your team and get them going."
The eight panels of the yard were new timber, big posts, each with four strands of galvanised wire run through and tied to a four foot stringy bark. He said he would do it. I handed him the whip – the same the fourteen dead bullockies had used in turn. The handle was 6 ft., the lash 18ft. of plaited greenhide and there was a 2 ft silk cracker. He bent the handle over his knee in two or three places to test it for flaws, then ran the slash slowly through his hands as if feeling it for a loose strand. Then he started the team. He walked along and tapped each post with the butt of the handle, as a hint to the bullocks to tighten the chains.
Then he gave a cheer, the whip kept cracking and presently a little blue flame ran along the top wire of the fence. He kept on exhorting the bullocks and cheering loudly. The flame danced along the wire and the whip cracking sounded like the Day of Judgement.
When the outfit fairly started, he cheered like ten thousand and to my amazement the fourteen graves opened and the fourteen killed bullockies jumped out, each carrying a whip. They walked right up to the new man. When he saw them he gave another and louder cheer and the fourteen phantoms hailed him as the King of the Bullockies.
All together the fifteen whips fell on the top wire and the flame ran up and down as if it were alive. Then the posts began to walk forward step by step, straining on the wires. Then the drivers gave a louder cheer than ever, talked faster and louder and the team strained in the yokes until the four foot stringy bark tree came out of the ground and fell in behind. The driver that I had hired cheered wildly and kept on going up the hill with the tree. The others gave him a cheer as he disappeared and all rushed back and jumped in their graves. He went round the foot of the hill and came back.
"I think I can drive your team," he said to me.
I said, "You can have the job. You're the best man with a fence I ever saw."
Then he laughed, gave another cheer and jumped in the air and never came down again."
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The bullocky
The life of a bullock driver was one of the toughest and most dangerous in pioneer Australia. With no roads and only a few tracks, any of which could turn treacherous when it rained, the bullockie was always at risk. If he wasn't in danger of the load tipping over, he might instead be in danger of being caught in a flash flood. He could even die in an accident trying to get his team and load out of being stuck in the thick black or red mud. It was probably because of these dangers that a number of superstitions became associated with bullockies.
Henry Lawson recalled when he was a child, that whenever bullockies came through the town with their huge drays, the children would be called inside. The story goes that bullockies used such terrible language that parents didn't want their children to hear the oaths, so they shut them indoors. But it is as likely that they feared the bullockies themselves.
Lawson wrote several poems and stories about ghosts. His poem “The Waterlily”, is said to be based on a true story, which he heard as a child. It was to have added meaning for him in later life when he grieved over the death of his friend Hannah Thornburn. He also wrote several short stories about ghosts including “The Ghost” and “The Ghost At Second Bridge”.
The Drover
Droving also had its dangers. Besides the likelihood of having a fatal riding accident, there was always the possibility of the cattle being spooked and rushing. There are many yarns and verse about drovers having to rescue a herd and almost as many about those who died in the attempt.
The traditional "Mustering Song" tells of one such incident as does Will Ogilvie's " The Last Muster ". Another by Will Ogilvie is the thriller "The Coach Of Death", well worth a read. Ogilvie was from Scotland, but spent quite a number of years in Australia in the late 1800s, working on stations and as a drover. He wrote many fine poems and ballads about his experiences, several of which have passed into the tradition as folk songs and bush ballads.
Then She Turned And Rode Away
Mary Gilmore was another to write about ghosts and superstitions. In her story "Then She Turned And Rode Away" from her book Old Days, Old Ways, published in 1934, Mary Gilmore begins by writing :
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"One of the wonderful things that memory shows is how far, how very far we have travelled in thought on this last half century of ours. Had the world gone as fast in its earlier ages, where now would history have to place us of the later centuries? To what might we not have risen?
Sixty years ago there was a ghost behind every bush, a hound in every shadow and let it be added a prayer before every undertaking. Now the ghosts have departed, the haunts have peace and a prayer … Let it go at that. The elders tell no tales now of an old woman crossing a field and when you looked again there was only a hare sitting there washing its face. You can be an old woman in perfect safety today; you can keep as many black cats as you like and no one regards it as a sign of witchcraft ……………….".
“But, when I was a child ghosts still walked and spectres haunted the cross roads."
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It is then that Mary Gilmore tells the tale of the Spanish woman, who was a mid-wife and nurse on the Diggings in Victoria. The woman was greatly admired in the community, because regardless of the weather, she would answer every urgent call and would often ride many miles on her fine pure-bred stallion. The horse only responded to her commands and if she left it standing waiting for her, she always warned people not to handle it.
One man thought he knew better and ignored the woman's instructions. He tried to take the reins. The horse reared up and the man was struck a fatal blow. Afterwards, even though everyone agreed that what had happened was an accident, things were never the same again. There were many who believed that the horse should have been put down to give the dead man's soul its peace.
You see, they believed that everywhere the horse went the dead man's spirit went too and that whenever they saw the horse they would see the dead man standing next to it. In the end, the woman had no choice but to take her horse, leave the district and find work elsewhere.
The Triskelion
Christina Stead wrote a story titled 'The Triskelion' as part of The Salzburg Tales. This three-legged object would appear rolling across the countryside near Lakes Entrance in NSW often heralding some form of disaster. One wonders where she got the idea from. Was it an Aboriginal story, a folk tale or an imported superstition? Whatever! It is well worth reading and is just one of a long list of fictional yarns written by Australian authors, including Barbara Baynton, Marcus Clark, Edward Dyson, Ernest Favenc, and Randolph Bedford from earlier times and more recently Dal Stivens, Ethel Anderson, David Rowbotham, Lucy Sussex, Sean Williams and Terry Dowling.
Conclusion
No doubt there are other writers and probably many other ghost stories and stories about things ghostly and inexplicable that deserve a mention such as “A Bush Legend”, “The Kroombit Boys”, “Salt”, and “Two Phantom Ships”, to name a few titles to do with such topics as haunted houses, ghost ships, coincidences and goodness knows what else. But, as always, I have only been able to give you an idea of the rich diversity of Australia's folklore.
Two books worth looking out for in second-hand bookshops are Frank Cusack's Australian Ghost Stories and Ken Gelder's Oxford Book Of Australian Ghosts Stories and if you ever get the chance, go and listen to Anne E. Stewart, story-teller extraordinaire, especially when it comes to telling tales of mystery and imagination!
Til the next time, I'm David Mulhallen
© David Mulhallen
