Ghost of Maidenwell Hotel: Maidenwell: QLD

[KANACKI]

Greetings once again to hopeless cases of lovers of ghost stories gather around the fire and grab a favorite brew. The following story is from Queensland and is an intriguing story. Much thanks for headless to finding the following haunting.

Longtime regular patrons, out-of-town visitors and even the level-headed publican agree there’s some form of strange spirit activity in the air at the Maidenwell Hotel – and they’re not talking about the liquid ones behind the bar.

Publican Lisa Parfitt said she’s not usually one to take head of superstition or the paranormal but couldn’t deny there was something unusual taking place in her pub after her daughter and several regulars also mentioned they’d experienced or witnessed something extraordinary.

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

“There’s certainly a lot of noises and bizarre occurrences that go bump in the night and keep us on our toes,” Ms Parfitt said. “On multiple occasions I’ve dead bolted doors and windows only to walk back into the room and find them wide open again and sometimes if you’re here early in the morning you often get a feeling there’s someone just behind you – it can be a very eerie.”

These early morning chills were nothing compared to the scene her young daughter told her mother she’d witnessed.

“Just three days after we moved into the pub two years ago my seven-year-old daughter came to me and told me she saw a man dragging another man down the hallway and out of the pub, Lisa said. I panicked thinking there were some drunk idiots playing silly buggers so I went around checking all the rooms to investigate but I couldn’t find anyone – the place was deserted. My daughter insisted she saw the two men and only just brought it up again the other day when we started discussing all of the other spooky phenomenons that have been going on here for decades.”

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[KANACKI]

After several Maidenwell locals and visitors to the region reached out to her, paranormal investigator Katie Hervey just knew it was a location she had to check out for herself.

“I’ve had six Maidenwell residents contact me saying I had to come and investigate their local pub so I decided to bring my team out and take a look,” she said.

With 25 years of paranormal investigating experience under her belt, Katie said there was immediately something that drew her to the 106 year old pub and hotel.

“Upon my first walk through of the hotel I was picking up on a lot of energies and names. One of the first names that came to me was “Alec” but when I asked Lisa if she was aware of any Alec’s or Alex’s she wasn’t aware of anyone. Then we were sitting at the bar and I noticed there was an old photo of the Maidenwell football team from 1924 and there he was in the front row, Alick King.”

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

“Mr and Mrs King were the original owners a builders of the hotel, which was originally called the Kings Hotel and first opened in 1914,” Lisa said. So there’s a good chance out friend Alick was a relative of theirs.”

A passionate history buff and experienced Toowoomba cemetery tour leader, Katie said she initially doesn’t like to know too much when it comes to investigating a new haunt.

“I try to go in with as little back story as I possibly can so that I can just be in the moment and not enter with any preconceived ideas or names. After we complete our initial investigation, which involves recording devices and infrared cameras, my team and I try to combine as much history and education as we can in the hopes of making it an informative experience.”

Regular patrons Brett Brandley, Frank Speechley and a particularly fearsome fellow known simply as Bushy all agreed the old pub harboured more spooky stories and spectacles than you could poke a stick at. “Me missus used to be one of the cleaners out here and she was certain there was something a bit spooky going on with this place,” said Bushy.

Brett’s wife had also worked at the Hotel and had told him stories of strange noises and feelings she’s get when she was cleaning. “My daughter has stayed at the pub on three separate occasions and each time she reckons she’s had strange nights,” Frank said. On a completely still night one winter when the whole place was closed up tight, she said the bathroom door would constantly bang against the door frame, and after they’d get up to close it sure enough it would start up again.”

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

The paranormal expert is hopeful their upcoming overnight investigation unravels enough mysteries to put a regional tour experience together, but says the outcome of their investigation is ultimately up to the pub’s otherworldly residents. “They are certainly active. I can tell they want acknowledgement,” Katie said. If there’s enough interest we’d definitely be keen to put together a paranormal history tour. We will just have to wait and see what our investigation uncovers.”

Lisa said she’s excited to see what Katie and her team can unearth just out of sheer curiosity.
“I’m not entirely sure what to expect but I am excited to see that Katie can find out and if it can lead to some more tourism opportunities for our region, then that’s a great added bonus.”

As for the three beloved barflies, Bushy, Brett and Frank, they’ve all come to agree on one thing.
“There’s certainly some sort of paranormal activity happening here,” Brett said.
“But they’re only going to let us find things out if they want us to.”

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Who was the ghost haunting the hotel? Was it this Alick or Alex?

I think I discovered the identity of the alleged ghost haunting the hotel?

The following picture is of young man called Harry Dale who was involved in the murder of a former publican of the Maidenwell Hotel Fred Hawes. For those guests who cannot see the picture I suggest signing up to the forum.

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

The following article tells of the following murder story.

2020 marked the 100th anniversary of The Cooyar Tragedy, perhaps Australia’s first example of gay panic defence. The newspapers of the day gave that name to the murder north of Toowoomba in 1920 of David Frederick Hawes (Fred). The man charged with the murder, Henry Arthur Dale (Harry), pleaded Not Guilty based on what we now term gay panic defence.

Fred Hawes arrived in Australia from England in 1907. By 1915, he lived and worked in the foothills of the Bunya mountains. In 1919, 42-year-old Fred bought the Maidenwell Hotel and employed 27-year-old bullock driver Harry Dale to cart goods for the pub. Harry began staying overnight and eventually moved in.

Fred proved a poor hotelier. Recognising that, he sold up a year later for the equivalent of $17,000 today. The pair then bought a bullock team. Although Fred probably put up most of the money, Harry, with experience as a bullocky, became the boss. Fred worked as his teamster.

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

They moved to a bush campsite 10 kilometres from Cooyar known as The Palms where other timber workers already squatted. The Palms featured a natural spring surrounded by a small patch of remnant rainforest filled with Bangalow palms and towering fig trees.

Timber was the major local industry. An average of nearly 1,000 tonnes of logs left the Cooyar district by rail every month. Additionally, the trains carried a monthly average of 18 tonnes of sawn timber and over 200 tonnes of firewood. But all that timber didn’t get to the train station by itself. Men like Fred and Harry?

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Fred and Harry shared a tent at The Palms, cooked their meals over an open fire and when they took time off, booked a room in town at the Cooyar Hotel. There, they played cards and drank, though always moderately. Pat Hickle ran the pub. He said they appeared to be good mates. He never saw them argue… at least… not until the night of 14 December 1920. On that night, Fred came into the bar about 10 pm and found Harry chatting with Pat.

“Have a drink, Fred,” said Harry.

“No, I won’t,” said Fred, “I want to see you.”

They went outside and Pat heard them arguing though he couldn’t hear what about. Constable Purcell, who happened by at the time, also noticed Fred and Harry in a heated discussion on the pub verandah.

When Harry returned to the bar 15 minutes later he told Pat, “I had an argument with Hawes. He accused me of telling you something about him.”

Rather than stay the night, Fred and Harry climbed on their horses and returned home.

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Henry McGovern stayed at The Palms that December to look after his son-in-law’s camp. He woke up about midnight on the 14th when he heard a gunshot from the direction of Harry and Fred’s tent. Hearing nothing else, he went back to sleep.

Early next morning, Harry came to visit. He looked like he hadn’t slept. He told McGovern that Fred Hawes took a ‘cranky fit’ overnight and left — on foot — didn’t even take his horse.

“Did you hear anything last night?” Harry asked McGovern.

“A gunshot about midnight. Did you kill a possum or snake?”

“I shot a big brindle dog that was hanging around and burned it on the campfire.”

Later, Harry went into Cooyar for supplies. He ran into Constable Purcell who asked him about the argument the night before. Dale explained that Hawes became cranky at the pub and remained that way when they reached home. He claimed Fred told him, “I am off… You can have everything. I might come back and I might never come back.”

Next day, Harry Dale asked Henry McGovern to keep an eye on his camp while he went away for a few days.

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Henry started thinking about that story of the big brindle dog. He went over for a look at the fire. The pile of ashes indicated a rather large fire just to burn a dog. He noticed bones among the ashes. But then he also glimpsed a belt buckle similar to one Fred Hawes wore and metal trouser buttons.

Poking around, he exposed a skull. Henry began to wonder.

“It was rather a funny shape for a dog’s head.”

Probably by this stage of the evidence in a later court hearing, jurors understood that Henry McGovern was not a man to jump to a hasty conclusion. But even old Henry by now was starting to put two and two together. “I believed it part of a man’s skull.”

Noticing drag marks leading to the ash heap, Henry followed the trail over logs, through a fence, past the tent and to a path that led out to the road. There he discovered two pools of blood covered with scattered ashes.

Harry returned on Saturday and next morning Henry went over for a chat. Frank Carey, another resident of The Palms, was staying in town over Christmas. He came by on a bicycle and they told him about Fred leaving. However, when Frank popped into the tent for a glass of water, he saw Fred’s false teeth sitting on the table. Now, a man might leave without his horse, but his teeth?

Later that day, Harry Dale packed his things and left for a Christmas and New Year’s holiday break in Brisbane.

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Just before the New Year, Frank Carey returned to camp with 16-year-old James Hurley, his teamster. Henry McGovern took Frank and James over to Harry Dale’s campsite and showed them the fire. They looked at the skull among the ashes and they too thought it looked human. Poking around the dead fire, they also discovered a number of boot eyelets.

Harry Dale returned to the camp mid-January. McGovern noticed that he raked up the ashes from the fire, piled more wood on top, and set it alight again.

By this stage, McGovern, Carey and Hurley thought that Harry probably murdered Fred but they kept their suspicions to themselves.

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Constable Purcell saw Harry occasionally over the next few months and always asked after Fred. Harry inevitable answered that he hadn’t seen or heard from Fred but that someone sometime said somebody saw him someplace.

In May, Harry Dale ran into trouble with the law. He was convicted of stealing £56/10, an enormous amount of money, ‘from the person’ of James Funney. Being his first offence, he escaped with a suspended sentence. Unfortunately, no further details of that case are available. Knowing more about how he came to steal that money from Funney’s person might provide insight into the later murder case.

In August, young Hurley finally told Constable Purcell that he and his mates suspected Dale of murdering Fred. Purcell went to The Palms and saw for himself the trouser buttons, boot eyelets and fragments of bone amidst the ashes though no sign of the skull. The second fire probably disintegrated that. A sergeant from Oakey joined Purcell and together they put the ashes through a sieve. They sent the bone fragments and remnants of burnt clothing items off for scientific analysis.

A few days later, the police collected Harry Dale from where he was working and brought him to the campsite.

Detective Senior Sergeant O’Sullivan asked him, “Will you show me where you shot the dog?”

Harry pointed out a spot near the tent.

“Will you show me where you burnt the dog?”

Harry indicated the fire. They all walked over and looked in silence at the ashes. For at least three minutes, the three cops and Harry stood wordless and contemplated the rubble… a funeral pyre… ashes… to ashes… dust to dust…

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Harry broke.

“It is no use. I must tell you the truth. This has been worrying me since. I must get it off my mind.

“I shot Hawes and I burnt him there, but he forced me. He tried to commit sodomy on me on more than one occasion.”

And so Harry Dale invented the gay panic defence.

“I am not sorry I shot him, but I am sorry I burnt him. I reckon a man like that deserves shooting.”

Dale told the police that when they returned home from the pub on the 14th, he sat down on a log out the front of the tent. “Hawes came over and put his hands on me for a certain reason. I told him to go away. He caught hold of me and said certain things.

“I tried to go away from him, but he caught hold of me and… [the records go suddenly coy, and avoid spelling out exactly how Fred allegedly touched Harry].

“He threw me on the ground. I wrestled with him and got away from him. I rushed in and got my gun, put a cartridge in it and came out and shot him in the head.”

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Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Dale’s trial took place in the Supreme Court in Brisbane before Justice Lukin. Born in Condamine, Lukin was the first local-born Judge of the Queensland Supreme Court. He possessed remarkable commonsense. He analysed evidence forensically, not allowing prejudice and hysteric moral judgements to cloud his thoughts.

All the witness statements and forensic evidence pointed to guilt. Dale’s counsel, James William Blair, needed a compelling argument to save Harry Dale from the gallows. All he had was the defendant’s statement to the police that Hawes attempted sodomy on him. However, Blair, later Chief Justice of Queensland, wouldn’t risk putting his client on the stand.

Novelist Frank Hardy described Blair as “a fat jovial whisky-drinking fellow who married a barmaid [and] didn’t take life or justice very seriously.” The truth in that statement kept Blair off the bench until relatively late in life but also gifted him a worldliness which served him well as a defence barrister.

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Kanacki