The Rocks Ghost Tour

One thing on my list to do in Sydney was a ghost tour of the Rocks.  It's Sydney's oldest neighborhood and full of alot of history.  I though a ghost tour would be a more exciting way to learn the stories of the area then a regular walking tour.  Joel wasn't interested so I went on my own Friday night after work.  I made it to Circular Quay a few minutes early so took the time to catch some great photos of my favorite sights as the sun set.

  

The tour started at Cadman's Cottage, the oldest standing residential building in Sydney built in 1816.  It originally sat right on the shore line of the harbor, but the waterline has since moved.  It was originally home of the Sydney Water Police and a convict who had earned his freedom, John Cadman.  My guide was Ghostguide Lachlan and I got to be one of the lucky two lantern holders on the tour (the other was also a blonde lady, go figure?).  He had the keys to the cottage so we were able to go inside.  Creepy!  Lots of deaths here.  The smaller building to the left is where all the dead bodies found in the harbor were send to rot.  There is still lots of activity in this house.

 

From here we walked into the Rocks through some hidden alleyways and into locked areas that are not open to the public.  Some serious stuff went down in this hood!   In the early days the convicts would move here once they earned their freedom.  It was also full of sailors, gangs and prostitutes.  Sounds like you wouldn't want to be walking around here once it was dark.  There were lots of stories of mutilations and many of the dead can still be found walking the streets or lurking in windows.

This was the coffin makers home.  Supposedly lots of people can catch faces in the windows with their cameras.  Doesn't look like I did.

Back laneway leading up to the Suez Canal.  This was one of the areas you'd want to walk against the walls in just in case someone yelled out "Guardy-loo!".  These lanes tended to get pretty gross when it hadn't rained in awhile...

In the late 1800s there were tons of street gangs in The Rocks, the most famous being the Rocks Push Gang.  They would hide razor blades in their shoes and slide them against the Achilles tendons of unsuspecting sailors hooking up with prostitutes on street corners.  They would then beat them with socks filled with sand till the sailor was unconscious, run off with his valuables, empty the sand from their socks and put them back on to hid any evidence.  They were so good the police couldn't ever catch them or book them for jail time.

Old and new buildings of The Rocks

 This next one was creepy.  A husband and wife lived here and when the hubby went out to work for the day she would have many gentlemen visitors.  One day hubby caught her in the act, cut off her genitals and face and left her hanging from the wall.  He ran away and was never to be seen again.  Supposedly lots of activity here as the wife remains to seek her revenge.  I have some "orbs" in my picture but I think that may camera just needs a clean.

Next stop was The Rocks Dig.  This is a big dig that began in the last twenty or so years and all sorts of interesting history and artifacts have been unearthed.  It sits below the YHA.  All kinds of creepy stuff happened here.  Creepiest story was in the 1900s when the bubonic plague hit Sydney.  People who had caught the plague would develop large cysts from the waist up and starting vomiting green bile.  They would either die or go into a coma.  The doctors often couldn't tell the difference.  Many people were buried alive (as coffins found in The Dig had scratch marks on the inside).  If you were wealthy enough you could have a bell attached to the buried person's wrist so when they woke up and tried to escape a bell would ring, calling people to the rescue.  Hence the saying "Saved by the bell".  I took a few more pics here but still no luck on any faces, smoke or definite orbs.

Next we headed up the hill to the Sydney Observatory.  There was a young boy who was brutally beaten and mutilated on the iron gates here.  Once a month people see a gaunt young boy in old fashioned clothes walking around the Observatory looking for help.  

The hill was also the site of the city's hangings.  People would be tried for crimes (often petty ie stealing sugar or meat) a hung from one of the trees.  I didn't feel too creepy being up here (I had my trusty lantern for safety!).  I did get some awesome night pics of the bridge and the full moon that happened to be out.  Turns out the bridge is haunted as well.  There was a man who literally got built into the bridge during construction!  Sounds like he's a playful guy and people will often see him through the rear view mirror sitting in the backseat of their car.  Also learned that Luna Park (whose lights you can see in the distance) was closed for quite a few years as some people died on a ride that caught fire.

Last stop of the tour was to the Hero of Waterloo Pub, build in 1843.  Young men would come here for the free rum that was served.  They would drink and eventually pass out at the bar, as there was a type of drug in the rum.  They would be thrown down the stairs by the barman where they would be smuggled down a tunnel and taken aboard sailing ships as involuntary recruit.  There was also alot of rum smuggling going on through this tunnel.  The Hero of Waterloo still is a functioning pub today.  It looked pretty cool but I wasn't going to sit at the bar and drink on my own, so headed home.

The tour was very interesting and I learned alot more about early Sydney then my visit to the Barracks Museum, but I was disappointed I didn't see any ghosts.  Leaving the tour I didn't feel scared, but once I got home and retold some of the tales to Joel I had a hard time sleeping!