Brisbane ghost stories: Haunted places in Brisbane

WHEN a patient at a Brisbane hospital wanted to thank the kind lady in white who sat with him through the night, the nurses looked at him strangely... TAKE A TOUR OF BRISBANE’S HAUNTED HOUSES

EVERY city has its fair share of ghosts, and Brisbane is no exception. This week we take a look at some of our scariest locations. Be afraid, be very afraid …

Royal Brisbane Hospital, Herston

Brisbane’s biggest hospital is home to a number of spirits.

One story relates to a theatre sister who was supposedly murdered many years ago and whose uniformed figure has often been seen through frosted glass windows.

A mischievous spirit also resides in what was formerly a prison ward, pushing buzzers in the middle of the night and luring nurses into darkened rooms.

Best known of the hospital’s ghosts is a female figure dressed in white who keeps vigil beside patients’ beds.

Staff have often been asked by patients to thank the kind lady who sat with them during the night.

No one knows who she is, or was in life, but clearly she brings comfort, not fear, to those who encounter her.

Royal Brisbane Hospital. Picture: Mark Cranitch

Breakfast Creek Hotel, Newstead

Many have felt the ghost of hotel founder and former Brisbane Lord Mayor William McNaughton Galloway, who died after accidentally falling from an upstairs window in 1895.

Accounts suggest Galloway was, like many Queenslanders, partial to a drink and he was locked in his bedroom at the hotel one night to keep him away from a group of distinguished guests.

Galloway tired of being cooped up so he shimmied down a drain pipe.

He fell, later dying of head injuries.

Breakfast Creek Hotel.

Schonell Theatre, University of Queensland, St Lucia

A ghost nicknamed Sophia is regularly seen. She wears an old-fashioned long dress and appears as a real ‘flesh-and-blood’ human.

There are also reports of footsteps and objects moving.

Theatre-goers can rest assured that sightings only happen after shows.

Trevor Holland playing Riff Raff in the Cards 4 Sorrow group's production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Schonell Theatre at St Lucia. Picture: Russell Brown.

Brisbane City Hall

From the 1950s onwards council workers heard strange footsteps and felt a sinister atmosphere in a series of small rooms known collectively as Room 302 on the third floor.

The rooms were close to the spot where a caretaker is believed to have committed suicide in the 1940s.

For a time the area was used as a photographic darkroom, then abandoned when the ghostly activity reached its peak.

Brisbane City Hall.

Archerfield Airport

A lone airman in World War II uniform is said to say “Hi” to passers-by.

He is rumoured to be a passenger on a flight that crashed at the airfield one foggy morning in 1943.

Tragically, 23 servicemen and women lost their lives in the accident.

Inside Whepstead Manor at Wellington Point. Picture: David Nielsen

Whepstead Manor, Wellington Point

It’s said that the house is haunted by the ghost of Gilbert Burnett’s wife Martha Ann Burnett, and her passage through the building can be detected by the smell of lavender perfume.

People have complained of figures appearing in the attic and in men’s room mirrors, strange carpet stains that disappear, items that fly around and then gently land, and lights going on and off.

One of the Burnett’s daughters, Edith Mary, who disappeared without a trace aged 17 in 1877, and one of their sons, a little boy with a stunted leg, have been seen on the central staircase.

Whepstead Manor at Wellington Point. Picture: David Nielsen

Newstead House, Brisbane

Curtains have been seen blowing when no windows were open, strange noises have been heard, chess pieces have seemingly moved by themselves, and lights flicker.

The most notable sighting has been described as a young woman wearing an old-fashioned pink gown.

This ghost is said to be the responsible for the strange occurrences in one of the children’s bedrooms, including a pair of antique shoes placed parallel, which are often found the next day with toes pointed inward.

Newstead House.

Old Tower Mill, Wickham Tce

Brisbane’s oldest building has a dark side to its history.

On July 3 1841, the tower was used as a gallows to hang two Aborigines convicted of murder.

People looking up at the small window facing the street have reported seeing a faint glow and a figure inside the tower, swinging gently from side to side.

Old Tower Mill at Wickham Terrace.

Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Rd, near the junction of Broadwater Rd at Wishart

Drivers coming around a corner at dusk have reported seeing a motorcycle lying on its side, a woman lying on the road and a man kneeling over her.

The sun would always glint off the man’s helmet visor. When people pulled up to stop and help, no one would be there.