Author Topic: The Goomeri Hotel Ghosts: Goomeri: QLD  (Read 832 times)

Offline KANACKI

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The Goomeri Hotel Ghosts: Goomeri: QLD
« on: August 03, 2022, 11:07:30 AM »
Hello once again all lovers of Australia ghost stories. We have more than our fair share of ghost stories. Go gather around and enjoy the following ghost yarn. Once gain many thanks to Headless finding this story.

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The Grand Hotel in Goomeri was destroyed by fire in 1939 and was rebuilt on the same location. The art deco-style building strikes an impressive pose looking over the intersection of the Burnett and Wide Bay highways. Kristy, one of the bar staff, says the hotel can be a bit unnerving when you're closing up at the end of a long shift.

"Occasionally ... you feel like there is somebody wandering around, especially when you're here by yourself it can be quite intimidating place to be on your own at night," she said. One night I was locking up, I had a couple of plates to drop, and I was the only one here. I went into the kitchen and it literally felt like there was someone right behind me breathing down my neck. I dropped the plates and spun around thinking there was someone there, but there was no one. There are never any nasty things that go with it - it's just that feeling that there is something else here. And most of locals all joke about it."

Some of the apparitions people have reported seeing include a foul-mouthed barmaid, and a woman who stands smoking at the end of the bed.

"We had one guy stay upstairs one night and he said he could see a woman at the end of his bed smoking a cigarette and he could smell the smoke ... so that was kind of scary stuff," Kristy said.

To be continued.......

Kanacki



Offline KANACKI

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Re: The Goomeri Hotel Ghosts: Goomeri: QLD
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2022, 11:09:19 AM »
“One of our old cleaners ... she told us all to stay away from the staircase, we couldn't figure out why. A new cleaner has since fallen down that staircase, she believes she was pushed by something. We had [another] cleaner here too - she had a whole stack of chairs fall off the stage just out of the blue for no reason.”

"I think a lot people that have been here have actually experienced something. But whether the explanations are ghostly or otherwise, it hasn't yet stopped people from staying at the hotel. We've never had anyone leave but we have had people request rooms that are less haunted than others," Kristy said. "Some people are more susceptible to it, other people just laugh at us and say 'whatever'. The blokes don't seem to notice as much, it's mostly us barmaids experience something where they thought 'I don't know'."

To be continued......

Kanacki

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Re: The Goomeri Hotel Ghosts: Goomeri: QLD
« Reply #2 on: August 03, 2022, 11:12:48 AM »
Eight people are now believed to have perished in a blaze which destroyed the Grand Hotel, Goomeri, early on Saturday morning. The remains of at least eight persons have been recovered, but only three bodies have so far been recognised by relatives and friends.

So badly charred were the victims by the fierce heat that the police are continuing the work of identification by studying the position in which the remains were found in relation to the rooms occupied by the missing people, and are sifting the ashes for trinkets known to have been owned by the boarders.

The victims were :—
John William Parker (40) licensee
Mrs. Edith Parker (41) his wife
Mrs Gladys Edwards (24)
Mrs. Pearl Frahan (25)
Miss Kileen Elsentrager (30)
Alan Gordon Carter (35)
Robert Rickson (25)
George Eddie (25 or 26)

To be continued......

Kanacki

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Re: The Goomeri Hotel Ghosts: Goomeri: QLD
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2022, 11:14:53 AM »
Eddie, who was a farm laborer, of Booinbah, was at first thought to have been staying with friends in the township, but no trace of him has been seen since the fire.He told his employer that he would stay at a Goomeri Hotel on Saturday night and return to Booinbah on the cream wagon next morning, but the cream wagon went back without him.

Taylor had worked at many farms in the district in his capacity as a tractor driver. He was seen in town on Friday and had not been seen since. There is a possibility that he may have left for a farm in the district, but the police have been hampered in making inquiries because of the disorganised of the telephone service when the post office was also destroyed in the fire.

Post office experts, who worked tirelessly, had restored a temporary telephone service connecting essential services on Monday night. The police, however, have had to continue their inquiries for the most part by motor vehicle or on foot. Not a single article was saved from the destroyed hotel.

Eye witnesses said that it was a matter of seconds, not minutes, before the entire building was in flames. We could only stand as though stuck to the street watching it all, listening to the screams of those within and feeling entirely powerless to help them, they said.

Though there are indications that the fire broke out on the top floor above the lounge, nothing has been found to indicate the cause of the outbreak. The hotel was built 12 years ago.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

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Re: The Goomeri Hotel Ghosts: Goomeri: QLD
« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2022, 11:17:27 AM »
WAITRESS STORY GOOMERI HOTEL FIRE MAN IN HALLWAY

MUNDUBBERA, Monday. — A man lying on a cane chair with the smouldering end of a cigarette between the fingers of his left hand was seen in the downstairs hallway of the Grand Hotel, Goomeri, a little after 2.15 a.m. on December 23. This i was stated by Freda Schulte (22), single, one of the survivors of the fire at the hotel in which eight people lost their lives, when giving evidence before the Coroner (Mr. F. Shepherd) to-day. She added that she thought the man was drunk.

Miss Schulte,-who was a waitress at the hotel, said later, however, that she could not say how the fire started,' but thought it broke out about the centre of the hotel up stairs. She said she attended a dance that night, and did not get to bed until 2.30. She had only been in bed about ten minutes when her room was full of smoke. With Dulcie Humphries, who occupied the same room, she rushed outside and saw smoke coming out of the dining-room, the coffee room window and the hallway downstairs. She heard the screams of woman upstairs. She could see the flames near Mrs. Parker's quarters, but she did not see any flames downstairs at that time.

Witness said that she saw Mrs. Edwards, who was carrying her baby, leaning over the front balcony opposite her room, and she also saw a girl climbing over the balcony near Mrs Edwards. The girl was staying at the hotel overnight, and witness thought her name was Evelyn. Witness then saw Mrs Edwards drop the baby over the balcony. Mrs Edwards then ran screaming to the end of the fire escape ladder. She disappeared after that and her screaming stopped. Witness saw a man climb the fire escape trying to get to Mrs Edwards, but he could not do so because the wooden blinds were nailed. The inquest was adjourned to Goomeri.

To be continued....

Kanacki

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Re: The Goomeri Hotel Ghosts: Goomeri: QLD
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2022, 11:20:54 AM »
BOARDS OVER WINDOWS OF HOTEL

Goomeri Fire Inquest
In addition to veranda blinds being nailed down blocking the way to a fire escape which had been folded back into a vertical position, windows had been bolted up. These revelations were made yesterday when the coronial inquest into the Grand Hotel fire at Goomeri was continued.

GOOMERI, Friday.
The Inquest into the deaths of eight people who lost their lives in a fire which destroyed the Grand Hotel, on December 23, was continued to-day.

John Joseph Hickey, assistant stationmaster, at Goomeri, said he saw the fire while on his way to work. He heard a woman screaming hysterically. She was moving up and down the veranda. He and others called to the screaming woman to go to the fire escape at the end of the veranda. He added : "We went to the escape and found that the lower part had been folded back in a vertical position on a hinge. The lowest part was about 10ft from the ground." Peter Bendel, barman at the Grand Hotel, said he was awakened by cries and heard Mrs Frahan calling for help. He heard her fall to the floor. He opened the door, but thick smoke prevented him from seeing her. He heard gasps when he called to her, but, because of the smoke, he could not get to her.

Witness fell to the floor suffocating from smoke, and when he came to he hung out of a window for fresh air. After recovering, he went through the window, jumped to the lower roof, and then to the ground.

Questioned by Detective Martin, witness said the veranda blinds were of small boards, one inch wide, but not very thick. He did not know why some of the blinds were nailed down. They were nailed down when Parker took over the hotel in August, 1938. The fire escape was doubled back, and, he believed, hooked with some wire, not tied. It always had been in that position, as far as he knew. Witness said the windows outside his room, and that of Mrs Frahan were boarded up with battens.

They had been like that since he first came to the hotel in 1938. The battens were about three or four inches apart, on the lower part of the window. When he escaped he climbed over
the top of the battens. He did not have to break them, nor the window.

Asked by the Coroner the purpose of the battens, witness replied that he was told that someone had jumped out of one of those windows some time ago. They probably had been placed there to prevent a recurrence. These two were the only windows he knew to be battened.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

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Re: The Goomeri Hotel Ghosts: Goomeri: QLD
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2022, 11:22:55 AM »
James Michael Ryan, postmaster, said the Post Office, which was destroyed, was only 10ft away from the hotel, and his house was 25ft from the Post Office. Shortly after he had heard a noise like the collapse of the top floor, flames burst out everywhere, both to the top and the bottom. He heard a sound like someone smashing through blinds on the veranda, where the fire was raging. Parker broke through the blinds, and appeared to come right out of the fire. He crashed heavily to the ground in the lane way of the Post Office. The fire was coming out over him. Witness tried to reach him, but was beaten back by the intense heat. Witness told the Coroner that Parker, the licensee, who lost his life, was employed in building the fatal hotel 12 years ago.

John Edmund English, butcher, said he caught Miss Buchanan as she dropped from the veranda. Mrs Edwards could have jumped in the same way. He described how Boyce smashed through the blinds at the top of the escape. Dense smoke belched out of the hole. He did not think it had been possible for anyone to go on the veranda. It would have been disastrous, as the smoke was too dense.

Sergeant Eiser, recalled, said that if the fire had started on the top story, about the vicinity of the lounge, the occupants of 12 of the rooms would have tried to escape down the fire escape ladder. They would have been cut off from using the main stairway or the back stairs. He did not think that one fire escape was adequate for the occupants of these rooms. In his opinion, the activity of the licensee, his wife, and employees, and the fact that some of the occupants had a few drinks, caused them to sleep heavily. He believed that Rickson and Carter died to their sleep. Their remains were found on or close to the mattresses, and he was satisfied that they never left their rooms. His inquiries did not reveal suspicious circumstances.

Replying to questions, Sergeant Eiser said he knew that blinds on the veranda were nailed, but he never knew that two windows were battened. He had asked the previous licensee to loosen the blinds where the fire escape was. or take It away. These blinds, in addition to stopping access to the fire escape, also had the effect of bottling up smoke on the veranda. The inquest was adjourned till Tuesday.

To be continued....

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

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Re: The Goomeri Hotel Ghosts: Goomeri: QLD
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2022, 11:33:31 AM »
This story is intriguing as the original building was destroyed by fire and 8 lives was lost in the terrible tragedy. But a new building is in its place yet there are ghosts in the new building?  Do the dead even know there is a new hotel there now? or are they still in their mind trapped in the burnt down hotel for eternity?

Here is a picture of the bar maid Pearl Frahm, who died in the fire is she the foul mouthed maid that haunts the bedrooms?

to be continued.....

Kanacki

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Re: The Goomeri Hotel Ghosts: Goomeri: QLD
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2022, 11:40:43 AM »
Does Gladys Edwards, who perished in the Goomeri hotel fire. She threw her 7-months-old baby from the balcony to a spectator, and went back into the building to rescue a friend. She was not seen again. Here picture is below. Is she the ghost frantically moving furniture about as if going through the motions in the last moments of her tragic life?

Kanacki

 


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