The twisted tale of romance and tragedy behind Melbourne’s Mitre Tavern ghost

Scorned mistress Connie Waugh is said to have hanged herself at the Mitre Tavern, where her ghost remains to this day. But how much of the chilling tale is true?

Connie Waugh, whose ghost is said to haunt the Mitre Tavern in Melbourne.

The haunting tale of a spirit in a long white flowing dress peering out from the Mitre Tavern is one of Melbourne’s spookiest ghost stories.

It’s said to be the ghost of actress Connie Waugh, the mistress of Sir Rupert Clarke, a businessman and MP from one of Melbourne’s most prominent families of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

But how much of the story is true?

Connie is the subject of the third episode in the Haunted Melbourne series of the In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters, out today.

Her ghost is said to haunt the hallways and rooms of the Mitre Tavern, one of Melbourne’s oldest pubs, with some people reporting feeling a cool breeze or seeing a “cocoon of light”.

Ben Oliver, founder of Melbourne’s Drinking History Tours, says Connie’s ghost has also reportedly been sighted on the tavern’s top level, looking out at 12 Bank Place opposite.

Now home to the Savage Club, 12 Bank Place was built in the 1880s for Sir Rupert’s father, Sir William Clarke, Australia’s first baronet, and it’s said Sir Rupert and Connie had secret rendezvous there.

The Mitre Tavern in Bank Place, Melbourne, in 1956.

It was a scandalous affair, given Sir Rupert’s prominence as an MP, wealthy businessman and one of Melbourne’s elite, while Connie was a poor but beautiful working-class woman.

The Clarke family owned Sunbury’s well-known Rupertswood mansion, and were instrumental in the creation of the Ashes legend when they hosted the English cricket team there.

After Sir Rupert’s wife divorced him in 1909, he and Connie took a months-long “honeymoon” to Egypt, Portugal, Spain and London, though Oliver says it appears they never actually married.

Sir Rupert Clarke

Connie Waugh

But Oliver says the relationship soured after several years, and Sir Rupert gave Connie money and land on the condition she left Australia, so she headed to the US, but later returned.

It is sometimes claimed Connie worked at the Mitre Tavern and hanged herself there, while others say she died of the flu.

“This whole idea of a woman being scorned by her lover, and then tragically taking her life, and then haunting across from the building where she once shared a bed with her lover, it’s this really romantic, sad, tragic tale,” Oliver says.

But he says a question mark hangs over the story, with no evidence Connie worked at the tavern, no death record, and no coroner’s report, suggesting suicide is unlikely.

“A lot of people believe there is a ghost there and it is Connie Waugh,” Oliver says.

“If you do believe that there’s a ghost there, I’m wondering if it’s actually not Connie Waugh at all.

“This idea of Connie Waugh working at the tavern, hanging herself, could be the product of a very imaginative mind.

“It’s romantic, it’s tragic, and probably not true!”

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW WITH BEN OLIVER IN THE IN BLACK AND WHITE PODCAST ON ITUNES, SPOTIFY OR WEB.

Don’t miss the earlier stories and podcasts in our Haunted Melbourne series: The spine-tingling tale of Federici, the Princess Theatre ghost, and does the ghost of Jack the Ripper haunt Hosier Lane?

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.