Ghost of the Bloody Hands: Dorrigo: NSW

[KANACKI]

Greetings once again to all of those addicted to devilish tales of the dark side. Grab a warm Brew to take a chill out of the air and get comfortable by the campfire of lost ghost stories. As old Kanacki has a yarn for ye.

In a part of mountains of northern NSW. in a place that some times quite forgotten in the mountains and waterfalls and green pastures of Dorrigo.

There was once strange tales of a ghost that haunted the area around Dorrigo that often quoted as the ghost of the bloody Hands. Known only to the cattlemen, farmers and drovers as well as the descendants of those who encountered the strange going events in the late 1920's.

To be continued......

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser (NSW : 1886 - 1942), Saturday 29 December 1928, page 8 newspaper, reported the following strange story.

DORRIGO SENSATION EERIE 'GHOST' MYSTERY.

Dorrigo 'Gazette' spins a thriller: — Blood, bullets and weird noises are disturbing the equilibrium of several Bostobrick peaceful residents, and particularly the O'Brien Bro3 and Mark Sackley who have a job cutting timber and have their camp on Mr. Bay Hall's farm.

The three young men mentioned above, like a magnet, are drawing' the attention of some nocturnal visitor who steals up to their tent as silently as a ghost and leaves imprints of his hands in blood on the canvas. These tokens of death executed , (in rabbit gore, no doubt), the 'ghost' takes up its stand a hundred yards or so away and entertains with a series of uncanny moans, groans, sighs and other sounds which only spooks can emit.

One night last week the campers saw a -shadow moving in the distance  and sent a fusillade of bullets in its direction — not to kill, but to frighten.

However, the spook did not take the lesson to heart for it' has silently repeated its performance on a couple of occasions. More blood has: been used and in a repertoire of noises supplemented with shrieking more melancholy than those of tho curlew.

The local police have been informed. No doubt the young men want to be on the safe side in case of an 'accident,' and some idiot is brought into Dorrigo to have a bullet or two extracted from his anatomy. The fact of the matter is when the shadow is again seen they're going to shoot low!

Touching the foregoing, a wire to a Sydney paper says that residents aver that the locality is haunted, basing their belief on the history — a very peculiar one — attaching to the district. In the early 'fifties Bostobriclk Station, on a portion of which the men are camped, was owned' by Messrs. Mitchell and McKenzie. During their occupation of the station Mr. McKenzie suffered the loss of a little boy, aged about six, who disappeared in a mysterious manner.

The boy, a bright little chap, was sent by his mother with some dinner to his brother, . who was shepherding. The brother was the last to see tho little fellow, and it was concluded that while on his way home he had been captured by the Aboriginals.

 Despite diligent search by the entire neighborhood, the body of the boy was never found. Tho crime Was partly admitted by natives, who, it was believed, killed the child and disposed of the body in the Nymboida River.

Several years later a man named Emery found the skeleton of a man within 200 yards of where the men are camped. It was a long time before the neighborhood was able to form any idea of the identity of the man, but, according to disclosures made by a number of blacks, it was fairly evident that he had been a cedar-getter. The natives story was that they came upon two white men splitting timber near Perrett's Pinch, about two miles from Bostobrick. Ono of the men, thinking the blacks were hostile, picked up a gun an old breechloader and, while he was loading it, a spark fell from his pipe into a canister of powder, and caused an explosion.

The natives, who were friendly, saw tho man fall, and at the same time his mate take to the bush. The man who ran off was in the act of sharpening a saw when the natives arrived. The skeleton was lying face downwards, and a rusty- file was lying on the ground beside the remains of tho right, hand.

Who ever the uncanny sounds and actions now creating alarm amongst the bush folk are caused by some person playing a practical joke it is hard to say, but the young men, who have been bush workers all their live3, say that the screeching and other sounds emitted send a cold shiver down their spine. They have rifles, and have often made up their minds during the daylight to rush the place whence the sounds come, but though the flesh is willing the spirit has been weak.

Mr. v W. Sinclair, a resident for 60 years, says that an old Bora ground (aboriginal sacred place) lies about two miles south of the  position of tho camp?

To be continued......

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

North Western Courier (Narrabri, NSW : 1913 - 1955), Thursday 17 January 1929, page 4 newspaper reported the following.

Dorrigo's Ghost screams in the bush.



Refreshed apparently with a holiday over Christmas and the New Year, Dorrigo's ghost has flashed suddenly into the spotlight again.  Screams were heard again in tho bush On Bostobrick Station,  where on this tent of a log-getters camp, imprints of blood.stained hands were recently found.?

Mr, Charles Inskys, a sharefarmer, on part of Bostobrisk, vouches for extraordinary experiences in the last four years, bush Bloodcurdling screams from the bush; the appearance of a grotesque animal, and the apparition of a naked women running through the bush are some of tho things which he tells of.

He says that he heard screams — like those of a child, and certainly not from an animal — in the timber near where the log-cutters were camped. When he investigated, he found nothing. His next experience was' more startling. He and his son saw a bull bellowing loudly, break through the fringe of the same timber.. Pursuing it was an animal as large as a dog with the face of a cat. Mr  Inskys and his son, with their collie dog, which had put its tail between its legs, left the field to the unknown aminal .

On another occasion, his son came j home .unexpectedly from a search for straying cows. His face was chalk white. Ho said he had seen a naked woman, deathly white, running' through the Scrub. The only clothing: she, wore was a hat!

Mr. Inskys said his children, had seemed, to sense evil, and would not leave the house at night? There certainly seems .to be a hoodoo on the district. About six years an aeroplane 'landed In Dorrigo for the first time. It crashed in a paddock. ' The second' one to visit there landed on the golf course recently from Coff's Harbour, In Going up again the machine collided  with a small post. The bottom wing was broken and the propeller is smashed. No one was injured.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

But it seems the events became even more bizarre....


The Following newspaper Manilla Express (NSW : 1899 - 1954), Friday 25 January 1929, page 3 reported the following.....


That Dorrigo Ghost Again

Whizz ! Whack ! : And a ball of wood flung by the Bostobrick "ghost" hit a camper, Silvester. O 'Brien on the shoulder as he was going, to bed last Tuesday night.

The -"ghost" made a sensational reappearance- among the campers. O 'Brien saw ' a man hurrying off in the dusk across a paddock, and gave chase, after the ghost was too fast and soon disappeared. So much has the  ghost and his trail of blood preyed on "the minds of campers that a strange thing happened.

One of O 'Brien 's companions, named Sackley, was keeping lonely, watch for the "ghost" as O'Brien was sleeping when he suddenly, apparently half-dozing, commenced to attack O'Brien. He hit him heavily on the side of the head,- and' O'Brien struggled fiercely ' with his mate, fancying he was the ghost That put their nerves on edge for a day.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

The Casino and Kyogle Courier and North Coast Advertiser (NSW : 1904 - 1932), Saturday 5 January 1929, page 1, reported the following story.

that Dorrigo ghost.

Campers near Dorrigo, who recently had uncanny experiences with a ghost) which left the imprint of a hand in blood on their tent, decided to spend last week-end in town. On returning

to their tent to pack their belongings, they found a blood-stained tomahawk on one of their shirts, which was bespattered with blood. On the previous night, hearing someone walking outside the tent, S. O'Brien, one of the campers, went out and saw a man standing under an oak tree near the tent.

 O'Brien rushed the man, who ducked round the tent, and in doing so endeavored to grab a gun placed outside in case of emergency. He missed the gun and made off. The campers expect something of a sensational nature to happen when they return to camp, either to themselves or to the individual who is endeavoring to frighten them.

To be continued....

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Casino and Kyogle Courier and North Coast Advertiser (NSW : 1904 - 1932), Wednesday 2 January 1929, page 1 newspaper reported the following story....

Dorrigo "ghost" takes a holiday. '

Dorrigo's spook appears to be either deeply religious or suffering from indigestion. due to materialistic duff. Or perhaps he believes that Christmas is a time for peace on earth, and has retired to the nether regions, or wherever ghosts go to plot more mischief.

Since his vigorous few days' Activity about a fortnight ago, when he went about in the dead of night, leaving prints of a blood-stained hand, and howling execrably, he has been neither seen nor heard. The identity of the prowler is a mystery.

Armed parties have searched the district without ever sighting a footprint. Those traversing the bush at night carried a gun or something to test the phantom hide of the nocturnal one, but they met him not. A warm reception awaits the ghost's return.


To be continued......

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Uralla Times (NSW : 1923 - 1954), Monday 28 May 1928, page 4 newspaper reported the following......


GHOSTS AT DORRIGO.

There have been many peculiar atmospherically disturbances recorded on Dorrigo, but none stranger than something which occurred at Maynard's Plain on Wednesday (says the Dorrigo 'Gazette'). What it was those Maynard's Plain people who heard it (and there were not a few of them) would like to know. Mr W. Francis was non-plussed and asking on Wednesday for enlightenment, but could not find anyone to explain the phenomenon.

Mr Francis informed us that he and other members of the family were busy milking when their attention was attracted by a noise in the air, which might easily have been mistaken for forceful roar of an aeroplane engine or an approaching hurricane. The sound was coming from the direction of Mrs J. Schmitt's farm, on the mountain top, and traveling towards the west, and as it got closer and closer, grew in volume.

There was no wind in evidence, for when the 'roar' as Mr Francis described it, passed overhead not a leaf in the neighborhood flickered. It was some extraordinary invisible occurrence that the Maynard's people would like to fathom.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Many questions was asked.....

The following newspaper Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Monday 31 December 1928, page 5 reported the following.

WHERE DOES HE GET BLOOD?

Dorrigo Spook May be Madman "Gone Bush"

DORRIGO, Sunday.,The "phantom of the night," who writes cryptic messages in human blood, still awes visitors to Bostobrick, but determined efforts are about to be made to run the -sinister prowler to earth. The weird sequence of events that have occurred,the imprints of blood-stained hands and axes, reached a dramatic climax over the week-end, when a party of campers returned to find a shirt saturated in blood, and a tomahawk similarly stained.

A Madman's Rites? Where does the blood come from? The theory has been advanced that a madman has gone "bush," and that the blood is that which pours from self-inflicted gashes on his own body. Whatever may be the mystery behind this uncanny drama of the lonely bush outpost, police and civilians are organizing to clear up the mystery finally, by capturing the "ghost" — sane or insane

To be continued......

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

So my friends around the camp fire of lost ghost stories?

Whats was behind these events of 1928-1929 at Dorrigo?

Was it just a hoax to sell newspapers by various reporters?

Or was it high jinx practical jokers over the 28-29 Christmas period?

Maybe some thing more sinister?

Yet theories abound

But are there any explanations? 

There is one straight out of twilight zone.....

To be continued.....

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

One theory is that natives of the past new of sacred spot as a portal to the paranormal....

Hence their Bora Ground to appease the earth spirits of the dream-time. Yet in the years of 1928-1929 the portal opened and for the short duration of being open released paranormal activity. Just like the famously alleged Skin walker ranch in USA.

Perhaps with strange animals, naked women a ghost or crazy madman encounters was all part of negative energy released induced such hallucinations.

The events continued until 28th of may 1929 they the strange noise? Perhaps a portal to the unknown closed up?

But who really knows? Do we really know the answers to anything? Perhaps that is why such stories intrigues us so?

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

The question remain if the site was haunted? Is the location still haunted today?

Kanacki