A Haunting at Oak Lodge - Richmond, Tasmania

18 Bridge Street 

Oak Lodge was built in 1831 by Henry Buscombe, the younger brother of James Buscombe.[1] The property was sold in 1843 to Captain James Richard Booth. A highly regarded Royal Navy Captain who commanded the H.M.S. Tricuno. Booth’s brother, Charles O’Hara Booth was the former commandant of Port Arthur. In his time at Richmond, James Booth was a magistrate and Churchwarden at St Luke’s Anglican Church.[2]

Oak Lodge was sold to Reverend David Galer in 1855. It was sold again in 1880 to William Stevens and his sister, widow Mary Bedgood. Mary stayed in the house until 1909 when it was sold to Arthur Oglivy. Oglivy rented the property to an American doctor, Dr William Goodwin Chadbourne Clark. Clark used the Lodge for his medical practice until retiring in 1947. 

In 1962, Oak Lodge became the property of the Horsfall sisters. In 1998, Muriel Horsfall donated the property to the National Trust to be a museum. In 2002 it opened as Oak Lodge Museum. Miss Horsfall died in 2008 aged 102. 

Ghosts:

Oak Lodge is alleged to contain a plethora of ghosts. Volunteers and visitors have claimed to witness full-bodied, and partial-bodied apparitions. It has been alleged that the spirit of a young lady was witnessed ascending the stairs. There are claims that one spirit likes to grab people on the arm, and the same spirit may be responsible for a ghostly hand that slides up the inside of people’s thighs.

Some people have claimed to be pushed or pulled as they walked through the building, and yet others claim a spirit has played with their hair! There are also claims of disembodied voices, often calling out swear words.




© 2023 Allen Tiller

[1] Peter MacFie, A Social History of Richmond, (2017), p. 25.

[2] ‘Oak Lodge … and the incredible stories it can tell …’, Tasmanian Times, (2013), https://tasmaniantimes.com/2013/10/oak-lodge-richmond-linzo/, accessed 16 May 2022.