Author Topic: The headless ghost of salt pan creek  (Read 13572 times)

Offline KANACKI

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The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« on: January 12, 2013, 06:55:33 PM »

The following story was briefly mentioned in ghost book I read years ago, about a headless ghost of Salt Pan Creek and a strange illustration of headless female. Strange enough I thought the story location because of the name was somewhere in western N.S.W. And the version said 1927.

An opportunity arose for me to dig deeper into the legend. Salt pan Creek is a small creek located in the Salt Pan Creek catchment area, in the south of Sydney in the state of N.S.W. It is located between the suburbs of Patstow and Riverwood and feeds into the George River. The catchment area covers about 26 km2, with 11.7 km2 of this being located in the local government area of Bankstown.

Prior to 1926, Salt Pan Creek was the site of an Aboriginal squatter’s camp consisting of refugee families of the dispossessed and those seeking to escape the brutal policies of Aboriginal protection Board. From 1926 to 1935, it became a focal point of Aboriginal resistance in N.S.W.
In 1917 a headless body was found there. Later it turned out to be the body of Silva Francis James. She was a French woman who disappeared from Cabramatta railway station while waiting for the return of her husband. Clearly the woman had been Murdered and decapitated.

For many years’ reports of bush walkers and Fishermen of a strange apparition of headless women in an old fashioned dress stands motionless near the river bank. Some says it waivers a little. The story of the headless woman was well known around the suburbs adjoining the salt pan creek area. Is the ghost waiting for retribution for the unsolved murder or perhaps still wanting to find her unfound head?
 
Perhaps not, a later newspaper reported the discovery of the skull some distance away. Clearly she was not a victim of an accident and the story by her last moments by her husband is suspicious. Especially when they were as it appears living apart..

If ever venturing along the remote trails around Salt Pan Creek in the early morning hours it may pay to keep an eye out along banks of creek for the ghost of Silvia James.

Kanacki

Offline Christine

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2013, 09:59:59 PM »
What a sad tale indeed.
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Offline KANACKI

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2013, 12:05:42 PM »
Hello it s sad story indeed.

One thing that amazes me is complicity of the police. I managed to find an original police Gazette telling of the disappearance. It seems like they was not overly interested in examining the case. I found correspondences of her in the Mitchell library under her Pen name.

Her husband, it was hard to confirm he was married to her at all? in searching the records the nearest Thomas James was living in the area which was married to another women a few years before the murder. Was it the right Thomas James? Or is there a motive for murder?

Stranger still in the same area a body of a young girl aged 13 was found murdered in 1913 4 years earlier wearing the same type clothes with head injuries. She was last seem walking from a railway station.
Was this the work of what we call today a serial killer? None was sexually assaulted and with both robbery did not appear to be the motive?

Both cases was never solved, Coincidence?

Of course both murders may or may not be connected?

Salt Span Creek was a hangout for all the down and out outcasts of the day. There was ,many caves and humpys in the bush along the creek. In 1900 an inmate of an asylum who escaped with three others was found dead in Salt Pan Creek.

Clearly if the reports of this Headless ghost is true . Then perhaps the restless soul of Silvia James is trying to convey to the living perhaps some important clue to her murder, from beyond the grave?

Kanacki

Offline violet

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2013, 08:22:53 PM »
Seems a complex circle of incidents worth researching. It has a great story feeling.

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Offline KANACKI

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2013, 11:58:54 AM »
Hello violet

Yes it is amysterious case. A headless woman ghost haunting an area of Sydney that was a home of the poor and destitute. A haven for the mentally ill and the later dissilusioned Aborgines. There are a multitude of different senarios that could of happened?

Another twist in the research Silvia James " Strange Pen Name as Dulcie Bell" Strange enough it was the name of a women teacher  Dulcie Bell who allegedly fell from a horse and died of massive head injuries in western Australia in 1914.

Coinicidences perhaps?

Offline Zilch5

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2013, 02:45:01 PM »
Thanks for that - I am well familiar with Salt Pan Creek as I live nearby and have gone fishing in the area many times.  However I never saw anything unusual happening there.  But one thing I can tell you is that when my in-laws first moved into the area in the 1950s, people where still squatting there.  The area was considered a bit remote then and nothing much changed until the Railway was extended out to Campbelltown.

Offline KANACKI

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2013, 11:17:00 PM »
Hello Zilch5

Thanks for the information. See any bull Sharks out in the water of Salt Pan Creek when out there fishing? There has been one or two people taken by sharks there in the past. Recorded in old newspapers.

Kanacki

Offline Zilch5

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2013, 09:16:18 AM »
I've seen them in the Georges River (which is where the Creek ends up) - not so in the Creek itself - it is fairly shallow these days - at least in the dry conditions we have.  It is not really in a remote spot these days - lots of suburbia around, but they have built some excellent boardwalks around the creek now and it is a great spot to go walking

Offline KANACKI

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2013, 08:18:58 PM »
Hello Zilch5

Many years ago the water must of been a little deeper but bull sharks can still lurk in fairly shallow muddywater. Its good to hear the area is being used for recreation with pathways and boardwalks,

Kanacki

Offline Simon2

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2013, 09:48:06 PM »
KANACKI, such a sad story, made even sadder when I read abouth the death of the 13 year-old girl.

I've had a bad weekend, but these stories make my problems insignificant. Thank you also for the detailed work around both cases; must have taken some time.
To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue;

These five are gravity, generosity of (the) soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
(Confucius)

Offline Christine

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2013, 11:12:44 PM »
Kanacki, you might like to take a look at the Gatton murders. The Murphy's, unsolved to this day. I have been fascinated with them for more than 20 years now for some queer reason.
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.
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Offline KANACKI

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #11 on: February 06, 2013, 05:49:22 PM »
Hello Christine

Thanks for the tip. It seems a real mystery of history of what happened. There is a very good website on the topic. My first impressions that there was more than one murderer. Sadly police incompetence at the time with the investigation allowed the murders to get away with it.

Kanacki

Offline Christine

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #12 on: February 06, 2013, 10:04:19 PM »
 think I have seen that website. I'd juts love to know!
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.
Douglas Adams


Offline KANACKI

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2013, 06:42:28 PM »
hello Christine

It is an interesting mystery indeed.

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

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Re: The headless ghost of salt pan creek
« Reply #14 on: November 17, 2021, 12:04:54 PM »
It would be interesting to hear if anyone has had encounters there?

Kanacki

 


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