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?

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