Queensland Crime: Ernest Austin, the ghost of Boggo Road Gaol

HE was convicted of a brutal crime against an 11-year-old girl. But that wasn’t the end for Ernest Austin, whose demonic legend haunted an infamous prison for years after his death.

Ernest Austin yhanged in Brisbane’s Boggo Road 100 years ago

OF the 42 inmates who faced the gallows at Queensland’s Boggo Road Gaol, Ernest Austin would be among the hardest to forget.

Partly because Austin would be the last man to be executed in Queensland - the first state to abolish the death penalty in Australia.

But mostly it was due to the ghost stories.

For decades, claims were made of a spectral apparition that passed through walls and into cells, strangling prisoners at night.

It was said Austin had made a pact with the devil, claiming the souls of inmates to avoid an eternity in hell.

Whether he haunted the inmates of Boggo Road is doubtful.

But he did haunt the people of Samford, west of Brisbane.

He left a father who would never recover from his loss — and a once peaceful community would become known for the bloody crime against a little girl.

This is the true story of a ghost — come to life.

Ernest Austin’s prison mugshot.

***

The two giggling girls skipped their way down the road, leaving tiny footprints in the dirt. They were farmers’ daughters, one a head taller than the other.

Eleven year-old Ivy Mitchell had climbed into her parents’ sulky that morning. They’d taken her the two miles to the Frisch property where she’d spent the day playing with the neighbours’ children.

It was June 8, 1913 — long before technology had moved children’s play indoors.

The children had spent their time in the garden — Ivy and seven-year-old Mary Frisch picking posies from wildflowers growing in the paddocks of the Samford property.

At 4.30pm, Mary walked Ivy down the drive. Their little feet left tracks on the road as they made their way towards the Mitchell homestead. Two sets of footprints for two girls, side by side.

After half a mile, one set of feet turned around and headed back the way they’d come.

Ivy walked on alone, clutching the posy she’d wrapped in brown paper to take home to her mother.

Soon, the single set of footprints became two once more.

This new set was bigger.

Much bigger.

A man’s boots.

Read award-winning journalist Kate Kyriacou’s full story by subscribing to The Courier-Mail.

To subscribe from only $2.50 a week, click here.

Already a subscriber? Read the full story here.

Become a member of The Courier-Mail and reap the benefits.