Stpauli9
Junior Acolyte
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2009
- Messages
- 68
I recently joined Fortean Times here in Sydney and thought in appropriate to post a few of my own encounters. The oldest European part of Sydney is The Rocks, right down on Sydney Harbour, and thanks to hard work in the 1970s, much of the area survives today: Think nearly Dickensian cobblestones, narrow lanes and tenant houses, that sort of thing. All of it is overlooked by the Observatory on the hill. It's obviously held to be full of ghosts, and one of them is a lady in pink.
In the days prior to the twentieth century, The Rocks was home to The Rocks Push, 'push' being a name for any gang. They carried rock and sand-filled socks as a makeshift club, and targeted children as well as men, only leaving women alone. On this particular night, they targeted a sailor and he died when his head hit the ground. The killers saw a young boy witness the attack and chased him up Observatory Hill and killed him. The Pink Lady is both wife of the sailor and mother of this boy, and although I experienced nothing on the ghost tour, I went back to the foundations of her house during the day and took a photograph. I was wearing a backpack, and as I walked back (and a bit of a distance away), I distinctly felt it come against my back. I immediately looked behind me and saw that there was nobody in reach of me, let alone why they would get my attention by pushing me, when they could have tapped me on the shoulder or even spoken to me. The Pink Lady's son is said to haunt Observatory Hill, and I did see something unexplainable on the tour. As the tour group walked away, I turned back to see a small round ball of light briefly up on the hill. I was putting it down to the remains of a camera flash (although digital cameras don't leave flashes), when the ball seemed to intelligently duck behind a tree. It seemed to move as if hiding shyly or as if it was frightened.
In the suburb of Manly, there is a set of buildings that make up the Quarantine Station. From I believe the 1870s to the 1970s, immigrants coming into Sydney by boat could be put up here for days or weeks if there was an illness on board the ship. Conditions were good if you were rich, but a small graveyard betrays the fact that life was not always good. Rumours of the tall ghost of the former head doctor to a returned soldier in the old shower block (where guests were decontaminated with chlorine showers) are common. I did not so much as see a ghost as have an experience. The hospital is the home to the Matron ghost, who once caused a rather arrogant and insulting guest to run from the hospital and vomit on the lawn outside (she's very proud of her hospital so don't insult it). To reach the hospital from the old shower block is via a long steep hill, and I was sweating heavily upon arrival. I decided to lay down on a bed. As I lay there, I was aware of the guide talking and was fully in the present. Yet I realised a leg was going tight, which I decided was surely my jeans simply being sticky. But I suddenly stopped sweating. It was not a gradual ceasing of sweating. One moment I was sweating, then next I was cool. Had a ghostly member of staff just done their job and cooled me down?
In the days prior to the twentieth century, The Rocks was home to The Rocks Push, 'push' being a name for any gang. They carried rock and sand-filled socks as a makeshift club, and targeted children as well as men, only leaving women alone. On this particular night, they targeted a sailor and he died when his head hit the ground. The killers saw a young boy witness the attack and chased him up Observatory Hill and killed him. The Pink Lady is both wife of the sailor and mother of this boy, and although I experienced nothing on the ghost tour, I went back to the foundations of her house during the day and took a photograph. I was wearing a backpack, and as I walked back (and a bit of a distance away), I distinctly felt it come against my back. I immediately looked behind me and saw that there was nobody in reach of me, let alone why they would get my attention by pushing me, when they could have tapped me on the shoulder or even spoken to me. The Pink Lady's son is said to haunt Observatory Hill, and I did see something unexplainable on the tour. As the tour group walked away, I turned back to see a small round ball of light briefly up on the hill. I was putting it down to the remains of a camera flash (although digital cameras don't leave flashes), when the ball seemed to intelligently duck behind a tree. It seemed to move as if hiding shyly or as if it was frightened.
In the suburb of Manly, there is a set of buildings that make up the Quarantine Station. From I believe the 1870s to the 1970s, immigrants coming into Sydney by boat could be put up here for days or weeks if there was an illness on board the ship. Conditions were good if you were rich, but a small graveyard betrays the fact that life was not always good. Rumours of the tall ghost of the former head doctor to a returned soldier in the old shower block (where guests were decontaminated with chlorine showers) are common. I did not so much as see a ghost as have an experience. The hospital is the home to the Matron ghost, who once caused a rather arrogant and insulting guest to run from the hospital and vomit on the lawn outside (she's very proud of her hospital so don't insult it). To reach the hospital from the old shower block is via a long steep hill, and I was sweating heavily upon arrival. I decided to lay down on a bed. As I lay there, I was aware of the guide talking and was fully in the present. Yet I realised a leg was going tight, which I decided was surely my jeans simply being sticky. But I suddenly stopped sweating. It was not a gradual ceasing of sweating. One moment I was sweating, then next I was cool. Had a ghostly member of staff just done their job and cooled me down?
