Ghost Creek Wollongong

The Ghost Of Ghost Creek

Story sourced from Forgotten Illawarra Blog

The Ghost of Ghost Creek

This tale is Wollongong’s claim to fame, in the same fasion of Fisher’s Ghost in Campbelltown.
Ghost Creek is located on the Western end of Crown street near the Mount Keira junction, and used to be home to a beautiful wooden and stone bridge.
Our story begins in 1836, when convicts were rife in Sydney. There was a regiment guarding the convicts who were working in a chain gang excavating Belmore Basin.
The convicts were often intoxicated, due to be allowed a reasonable quantity of “Old Jamaican Rum” by the Lieutenants who supervised them, and oftentimes the Lieutenants were highly intoxicated too. One fateful night, the Lieutenant in charge of the Stockade at the Crossroads had far too much to drink. On a whim, he rushed the sentry and tried to diasrm him. The sentry, being a bigger, stronger and less intoxicated man, quickly overpowered him and threw him into the guard room.
As the Lieutenant began to sober, he realised what he had done. Once this incident was reported, he would be dismissed from the regiment. And so, out of desperation, Lieutenant Otway shot himself on April 10 1836.
But that was not the last time he was seen.
Before news of his death, a few passers by saw the man standing on the bridge, but upon greeting him he faded away before their eyes.
One story tells of three gentlemen returning from a meeting in Wollongong who had to cross Ghost Bridge to return home. Upon approaching the bridge, their horses stopped dead. The men urged the horses, whipped and beat them, but the horses simply refused to step foot on that bridge. The men soon realised that something wasn’t right, and so they quickly fled back to Wollongong, choosing to spend the night there and resume their journey the next morning.
Another tale is that of a Wollongong resident sitting on his front verandah with his local minister. As the pair were talking, they heard the unmistable sound of hooves on the bridge and climbing the hill. The sound faded, and the two men were very surprised when it suddenly began on the bridge again. This repeated several times, and prompted the minister to tell of his own ghostly encounter.
One brightly moonlit night, the minister was sitting at the front of his house when he heard hooves approaching. Upon looking up, he saw a man on horseback sitting at his front gate. The minister greeted the man, then watched in disbelief as the man and his horse faded into the night.
Today Ghost Creek is covered by concrete, and there has been no sightings of Lt. Otway in many years. But it is an important part of history. And who knows what you may see on a moonlit night?

Comments

Lemon Tree Passage Ghost - Local legend is alive and well

Lemon Tree Passage is a suburb of the Port Stephens local government area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, located at the end of the Tilligerry Peninsula and surrounded by the waters of beautiful Port Stephens . Ever since I can remember there have been a few urban legends about a stretch of highway named Lemon Tree Passage Road. The story begins when a motor bike rider and his pillion passenger died after colliding with a four wheel drive killing both. This seems to be the source of the ghostly lights and apparition. These sort of events don't stay quiet in small townships. Stories spread fast often not ending up like they started. Every so often this urban legend makes a comeback with a number to people tempting fate and poking the ghost rider. A memorial to Dale Dickens on the Lemon Tree Passage Road / Pic: Robert Mckell Source:The Daily Telegraph The Lemon Tree Passage ghost f...

RICHMOND GAOL - A STONE COLD START

Nestled in the picturesque town of Richmond, about 25 km northeast of Hobart, Richmond Gaol is Australia’s oldest intact colonial gaol—built between 1825 and 1840 using convict labor  Initially erected as a courthouse in 1825 (just a year after Richmond was proclaimed a village), it gradually expanded over 15 years to include a cookhouse, men’s and women’s wings, solitary confinement cells, and a surrounding sandstone wall by 1840  . 🛏️ Facilities & Daily Life: Cold Stone, Brutal Rules The Layout & Buildings include a Men’s wing, chain-gang sleeping rooms, holding rooms, a cookhouse, flogging yard, privy, and the only surviving example of a female solitary cell in Tasmania  Solitary Cells These notorious cells measure just 2 m × 1 m—dark, utterly confined, and completely silent. A bucket and a thin blanket were the only company, with bread and water for nourishment. Prisoners spent up to 21 days inside, forbidden even to speak. For us today even spending an hour confi...

Haunted Gladesville Asylum

In the dead of night on Sydney’s Parramatta River, an abandoned asylum sits cloaked in darkness – Gladesville Mental Hospital, once known as Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum. The History of Gladesville Mental Hospital Gladesville Mental Hospital’s story begins in colonial Sydney with lofty ideals and grim realities. Opened in 1838 as the Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum, it was Australia’s first purpose-built mental hospital. The site – aptly located at Bedlam Point on the river – was initially designed by Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis and meant to house just 60 patients in humane conditions. Early superintendents like Dr. John Thomas Digby and later Dr. Frederick Norton Manning sincerely aimed to “treat” rather than merely confine the mentally ill. Manning in particular, after studying overseas, condemned the asylum’s original “prison-like” atmosphere and worked to minimize restraints and improve diets and recreation by the 1870s. In 1869 the name was changed from “Lunatic Asylum” to Gla...

DIARY OF A GHOST HUNTER

Search This Blog