Author Topic: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW  (Read 1366 times)

Offline KANACKI

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One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« on: January 23, 2022, 04:31:10 PM »
Greetings lovers of ghost stories and urban folklore. The following story in various versions have been haunting the local folklore of Sleepy town of Dapto nestled near mountains behind lake illawarra since the 1950's. A story of a ghost girl haunting a cemetery. Of a young girl killed by a train and a unquiet spirit haunting a cemetery eager to go home but alas the dead cannot pass.....

As the title of this yarn states.....

One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW. One ghost story 2 real life tragedies got mixed up together....and in  the wrong location.

And retold in various versions involving the catholic cemetery in West Dapto and a old dilapidated farmhouse that should look to be haunted.....

But alas if it was only that simple.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

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Re: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2022, 04:48:18 PM »
So what was the real story behind the urban legends.....

Well the most common version is the ghost girl who was killed by a train that haunts the catholic cemetery in West Dapto. Over year hordes of teenagers and not so teenager have haunted the cemetery in west Dapto hoping to get a glimpse of this ghost girl this unquiet ghost of the dead. For many years it was no even fenced and hoards of would be ghost hunters scared themselves silly. However some took their night time liberties to far vandalized graves. By 2008 the council fed up with damage put up a iron fence around the cemetery.

Attention then to an abandoned ruined old farm house up the road from this cemetery which certainly had the look of classic haunted house? However it became the target for would thrill seekers and ghost hunters. However been private property I do not advocate trespassing on the property.

However the house does have a connect to a tragedy.

You can see pictures of catholic cemetery and old farm house below. For those guests that cannot see the pictures below I suggest you sign up to this wonderful forum to get an amazing insight into haunted places in Australia.

To be continued......

Kanacki


Offline KANACKI

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Re: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2022, 04:58:12 PM »
Stories shifted to the abandoned house of this ghost girl........

While indeed the house did once have a connection to a tragic death....

Many thanks to Headless for hunting down this tragic story.

Illawarra Daily Mercury (Wollongong, NSW : 1950 - 1954), Wednesday 20 September 1950, page 5 newspaper reported the following.

SCHOOLGIRL KILLED BY TRAIN AT KEMBLA GRANGE .

Rayonie Myree McPhail , 14, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. McPhail , of West Dapto, was fatally injured when struck by a train at. Kembla Grange Railway Station yesterday morning.

As was her custom, she had ridden her bicycle to the station to catch a train on her way to the Wollongong Home Science School. Children riding their bicycles, to the station are in the habit of leaving them in a spot on the western side of the line and then walking across the line to the platform on the eastern side.

It is believed the girl was either walking along side the line or about to step on to it when a passenger train passed through, on its way to Dapto. Some portion of the train, struck her. on the side of the head, throwing her to the side of the track. Dr. J. Maude, who lives nearby, was summoned. She was placed in an ambulance, but died on the way to the Wollongong District Hospital.

Her family the McPhail family once lived at the abandoned old farm house.

So urban stories connecting the catholic elementary down the road and the house seemed natural I think the dead school girls ghost is trying to leave the cemetery to go home down the road?

But there is a slight problem with that hypothesis...

Kanacki

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Re: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2022, 05:06:16 PM »
Headless had done some excellent research that shows that Rayonie Myree McPhail was never buried in the West Dapto Cemetery but in Wollongong City Memorial Gardens and Crematorium Unanderra   as you can see below....

Detail Source

Name:   Rayonie Myree McPhail
Birth Date:   1935
Birth Place:   Wollongong City, New South Wales, Australia
Death Date:   19 Sep 1950
Death Place:   Kembla Grange, Wollongong City, New South Wales, Australia
Cemetery:           Wollongong City Memorial Gardens and Crematorium
Burial or Cremation Place:    Unanderra, Wollongong City, New South Wales, Australia
Has Bio?:   N
Father:   George Colin McPhail
Mother:   Grace Pankhurst McPhail

While indeed a tragic story it is not the sources of young girl killed by a train haunting a cemetery....

Wrong tragedy and wrong place...

However urban legends are strong to break...

To be continued.....

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

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Re: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2022, 05:22:02 PM »
What of the other story?

Dapto train station opened in 1887, along the South Coast Line in the Illawarra. While many commuters use it every day, few know of the tragedy that happened here many years ago.

On July 15 1913, schoolgirl Nellie Mary was walking along the Dapto platform when she slipped and fell onto the tracks below. Before the unfortunate girl had time to realise what was happening, a train passed through killing the girl instantly.

She was buried at St. Luke’s Cemetery. St. Luke’s is a small cemetery on Prince Edward Drive in Dapto. Many of the graves date back to the early 1900s, including Nellie Mary’s. While this cemetery is beautiful in the daylight, it take s brave soul to venture there by night.

 Legend has it that if you walk around the cemetery at night, you can hear the whispers of the ghosts who are confused that they are dead. And if you dare to venture into St. Luke’s Church, at midnight you will hear the agonising scream of Mary Nellie as she realised her encroaching fate.

This is where the original cemetery where the ghost story originated from. Over time the ghost story drifted west connecting itself to the other tragedy of the  McPhail family in 1950 and West Dapto cemetery.

You can see pictures of St Lukes cemetery and Church below. For those guests that cannot see the pictures below I suggest you sign up to this wonderful forum to get an amazing insight into haunted places in Australia.

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

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Re: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2022, 05:25:29 PM »
Once again thanks Headless I hope I have done the ghost story justice...

Kanacki

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Re: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2022, 05:40:11 PM »
With ghost stories nothing is as it seems?

There is an update version of this legend, courtesy of Amy Rose of Secrets of the Illawarra:

Victim: Nellie Mary Bright, 15 Cause of death: Accidental Death site: In between Coniston and Unanderra rail Date: 15 Jul 1931

School girl Nellie was in the company of friends traveling aboard a train. One of the girls in her company, Hazel May Parish, 13 years, went out to carriage platform to wave to friends as the train was travelling between Unanderra to Coniston.

Was she the alleged ghost of St lukes or was there a death in 1913 or just a memory typo?

Nellie was with her. She was standing with her back to the guard chain, and playing absent mindly with the chain which must have come unfastened as the girl fell backwards between the carriage and the guards van onto the railway line. The poor girl was horribly mutilated and several carriages had passed over her before anything could be done.

Police were told that the two rear end carriages were reserved for school children and that girls and boys were to remain in separate carriages unless accompanied by a parent. Rail officials told Police that teachers and staff had told the children it was not acceptable to be on the platform while the train was in motion however one school girl says there were about 100 girls onboard that day.

 There was a slight curve in the track where the tragedy occurred and this is where the body was recovered from. Cause of death was lacerations to the brain. Nellie is survived by her father, Frederick John Bright, a mother and two sisters, Ethel and Rita.

It seems deeper research into story is needed?

Kanacki

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Re: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2022, 06:20:31 PM »
For some of us old enough we can remember the tongue in check nick name for a train that used to service illawarra line until electrification came in. Many who raveled on the trains back then will know the nick name for the train on the south coast line?

It was called the Red Rattler...Because it shook the crap out of you and everything in it. It was a rail motor built in the 1920's or 1930s and used right up into the late 1980's. Door would open by themselves old WW2 black bling would fall down. And most of all between two carriages it was open with two chains and small plat form. Some times people would ride on the open platform between the two carriages. With the pitching and tossing of the two carriages it was dangerous place. One misstep and you could fall between the moving carriages.

So it is not surprising a young girl slipped between the carriages to a horrible death.

In fact there was another nick name to that train a much darker one the red rattler of death. In 50 odd years of service God knows how many lives it claimed? The train cut a bloody trail of death from waterfall down Bomaderry and everything in between.

In the picture below illustrated how dangerous its was.

You can see pictures of Red Rattler and platform between the carriages below. For those guests that cannot see the pictures below I suggest you sign up to this wonderful forum to get an amazing insight into haunted places in Australia.

Check out the cow catcher on front of the train? I wonder how many bodies that train mangled over the years?

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

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Re: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« Reply #8 on: January 23, 2022, 06:35:01 PM »
Here is the headstone below of Nellie Mary Bright, it appears he father was later buried next to his daughter.

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

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Re: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2022, 06:37:20 PM »
Old Kanacki is slipping....

Here is the picture below.

Kanacki

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Re: One Ghost Two Tragedies One Wrong Location: Dapto : NSW
« Reply #10 on: January 23, 2022, 06:46:52 PM »
And how did the ghost story evolve? Perhaps the school girl friends that remembered Nellie Mary Bright, through a cautionary tale of a tormented ghost to their own kids in regards the dangers with trains...Over time the meaning was lost and as the population of Dapto shifted west so did the story of ghost girl killed by a train shifted west....

One thing for sure the cautionary tale never helped Rayonie Myree McPhail , 14, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. McPhail , of West Dapto in 1950.

That said.....

Maybe indeed Nellie Mary Bright's memory still haunts St Lukes Cemetery in the forgotten whispers of memories?

Kanacki

 


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