Author Topic: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD  (Read 1305 times)

Offline KANACKI

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The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« on: May 04, 2022, 11:44:33 PM »
Greeting once again lovers of "ghosties" and all things ghoulish. Many such stories of ghosts become infused into our folklore mixed with truths, half truths and outright fantasy. The following yarn has it all. So gather round old Kanacki has a yarn for ye!

Firstly I want to commend Matthew Dixon for the research on the following ghost yarn.

He is a history teacher at a private college in Queensland.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Modern History, Ancient History and Archaeology from the University of Queensland, A Postgraduate Bachelor of Secondary Education majoring in Study of Religion, SOSE and Modern History from the Australian Catholic University and is currently completing a Bachelor of Theology through Charles Stuart University.

Mathew gives an interesting and well research account of the following alleged haunted that created a mass assembly of people to view this alleged ghost?

The legend of Victoria Park.  Shrouded in the confusion of over a century of mythology, this location had recently reached the headlines as numerous paranormal tour groups visit to investigate the stories of the haunted and now secluded pedestrian tunnel that lies at its heart. 

This legend has grown beyond the truth, however, as certain people have begun to profit from tours of this tunnel, embellishing the history to help increase their clientele.  Mathew has been at the very heart of  discovering the truth behind this site since early 2008; researching the history and seeking answers to the many odd stories he had been told along the way. Mathew like I  step away from all of the marketing and embellishments of ghost tours to me seem so woefully researched?

But give a better understanding of the historical truth behind this ever popular location.  What Mathew  discovered is that this park holds so much more than what the tour groups tell their paying clients.

Join me now as we explore some of Mathews accounts of the tragic history of Victoria Park.

To be continued......

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2022, 11:46:07 PM »
Victoria Park, originally called York’s Hollow Swamp, has a rich history of tragedy.  Here is a little of the tragedy that surrounds it from my research of the years 1855 to 1965.  We begin this investigation by going back to the early days of Brisbane. 

In 1855 an indigenous man named Dunalli was accused of the murder of numerous settlers in the North Pine area.  In order to set an example to all criminals, he was scheduled to be hanged outside the Post Office at Spring Hill.  According to eye witness accounts, the hills around Wickham Terrace were crowded with many indigenous people from the tribes around Bribie Island; the area from which Dunalli came.  It was a tense time for both the settlers and the indigenous people.  At this time Spring Hill was still mostly untouched by development and many of the settlers feared that violence might erupt at Dunalli’s execution.

To be continued....

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2022, 11:47:21 PM »
The execution, however, went ahead without incident.  It was a short time later that the situation turned ugly.  Soon after Dunalli’s death, his brother Ommuli became the target of a massive man hunt in the same area after he had caused more trouble for the settlers.  The manhunt eventually came to an indigenous camp in the hollow of Spring Hill, very close to where the Victoria Park tunnel is now. 

As the tension grew, Ommuli was lassoed in order to be carried off. Moments after this occurred, the indigenous people of the camp began to fight with the arresting party. According to the official story, in order to escape the conflict, the man who had lassoed Ommuli rode his horse away, dragging Ommuli behind him back down the hill towards the camp.  When the confrontation ended, the records of which are not clear although some believe that a majority of the indigenous camp were killed, it was discovered that Ommuli was dead. 

It must be noted that the history is not complete for it is only told from the point of view of the settlers and was not officially recorded until August of 1930 by The Brisbane Courier, but it seems that something of the legend of an indigenous massacre in Victoria Park seems to have some substance to it.

To be continued....

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2022, 11:48:34 PM »
This was merely the beginning of what would be a long and tragic history for this beautiful park.  It would come to be the place that many people came to commit suicide and others would sadly meet their end in mysterious or violent circumstances.

To be continued....

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2022, 11:50:07 PM »
n the late 1800’s Victoria Park became the location of illegal gambling and other criminal activities involving young men and boys.  Although certain tour groups have claimed that this was evidence of occult activity, research has shown that the truth is something far less menacing. 

In May of 1888 a local of the Spring Hill area identifying himself only as “Paterfamilias”, or father of the family, wrote several complaints to the Brisbane Courier of groups of young men gathering in Victoria Park at night using foul language and gambling, a problem that had apparently been happening for several months. 

Although the Police investigated the complaints, they apparently found no evidence of the gathering crowds.  It may be that by the time the complaints were seen to that the groups had moved elsewhere but it seems more likely that the activity was well known to the police and may have been ignored as it was in a secluded area away from a majority of the population.  There is no evidence of anything occult, but it does shed some light on the underworld of Brisbane in the 1880’s.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2022, 11:51:31 PM »
Victoria Park was not only the location of criminal behaviour but became the location of many sad and unexplainable suicides.  Take, for example, the tragic story of John Davies. On the 17th of November 1871 students of St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace discovered his severely decomposed body in Victoria Park. Medical examinations showed no known cause of death. Oddly his body was at the brow of the hill in a place that was frequented by visitors yet had apparently been lying in the bushed long enough to be in an advanced stage of decomposition.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2022, 11:53:30 PM »
Next comes the tragic story of Ann Smith.  In the early evening on the 2nd of June 1885, a steam train turned the gradual corner of the line which runs alongside Victoria Park.  The Engine-Driver noticed a female figure laying on the tracks but could not stop the train in time. The caretaker of Victoria Park ran towards the train after hearing it come to a sudden stop, blowing its whistle. Seeing what he thought was a parcel laying just behind the train, he snatched it up without thinking, only to realise that he had picked up the woman's severed head.

 It was thought that Ann had fallen while trying to take a short cut across the train line and, based on the eyewitness accounts of the driver and fireman of the train that killed her, she must have been knocked uncounscious as she did not move or react to the train whistle.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2022, 11:54:43 PM »
Then there comes the odd suicide of Martin Rassmusson in November of 1892.  This young man had a dispute with the local Spring Hill post office over some trivial matter and on the 29th of this month promptly shot himself in the head with a revolver in Victoria Park.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2022, 11:55:57 PM »
  On the 20th of March 1895 a young barmaid employed at the Criterion Hotel by the name of Hannah Downey committed suicide by slitting her own throat.  January 6th of 1896 saw young Elizabeth Kenyon leave her home in Spring Hill and head for Victoria Park.  She was found drowned later that day.

To be continued,,,,,

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #9 on: May 04, 2022, 11:57:14 PM »
On April 5th 1913 Clara Jane Sumpton was found hanged in a tree in Victoria Park. Foul play was suspected, as they could not understand how she came to hang from the tree without help, but no culprit was ever found and it was deemed suicide.

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Kanacki


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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #10 on: May 04, 2022, 11:58:33 PM »
Then there is the odd suicide of Polish immigrant Albin Cichon on March 11thof 1954.  He was found hanging 12 feet up a tree in Victoria Park.  It was reported as a suicide despite questions over how he had managed to hang himself so high.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2022, 12:00:14 AM »
In late November of 1960, migrant Karl David Dinass came to Victoria Park at about 10am and sat under a tree near the Centenary Pool.  After slitting his wrists he walked out onto the rail line and lay down. 

A short time later a freight steam train came around the bend and, unable to stop in time, ran him over.  If he had not died from the amount of blood lost, the train completed the job. Karl was a suspect in the murder of Kate Ryan, an elderly woman killed a few days earlier. 

Police had questioned him after an extensive search for a suspect, including images on the front page of the Sunday Mail, but he had not been arrested.  The case of Kate Ryan was closed after his death.  Years later, his death would become part of the mythology of the famous Victoria Park  tunnel ghost.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2022, 12:01:50 AM »
Now let us turn from suicide to murder.  I will not mention the odd murders that occurred in the surrounding streets for, although they are all very oddly similar to one another, they do not directly involve the park itself; other than the fact that each killer or victim loved to spend time in this park.  On October 27th 1934 homeless man James McGrath was found dead in Victoria Park. The coroner’s report stated that he died from injuries to the head caused by an apparent beating.  No killer was found.

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Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2022, 12:03:13 AM »
On February 2nd 1937 relief worker Harry Brown was found murdered near the tunnel.  An inquest in June stated that the killer could not explain his motive. According to the reports, the unnamed killer went insane during the inquest and trial and was sent to the Goodna Mental Hospital. 

To be continued.....

Kanacki

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Re: The Victoria Park Spook: Brisbane: QLD
« Reply #14 on: May 05, 2022, 12:04:20 AM »
This cycle of murders continued when, on September 14th 1952, homeless man Walter Alexander Hall was murdered in the Victoria Park tunnel and then dumped in the lake close by. The Coroner’s report said he died from injuries to the head caused by an apparent beating.

To be continued....

Kanacki

 


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