12th Avenue Vampire – Toowong Queensland

12th Avenue Vampire – Toowong Queensland

Statue at Toowong Cemetery - © Allen Tiller 2005

Only two cemeteries in the world are alleged to have a vampire that dwells amongst the graves, Highgate Cemetery in London, and Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane.

 It is said that a black shadow with razor-sharp teeth drifts through the trees on 12^th Avenue, a small road lined with graves within the Toowong Cemetery.

 Local legend has it that two gravediggers were called upon to exhume a body; they were puzzled by the softness of the ground, which appeared to have been recently disturbed. Once they had dug down to the coffin, the men were astounded to find the nails of the coffin had been pushed from the inside outward.
  The gravediggers reluctantly removed the coffin lid. They found the woman inside had not decomposed, even after 20 years of internment. It is claimed on the two gravediggers, by far the braver of the two reached into the coffin and touched the face of the corpse. Her head is said to have rolled to one side upon his touch, and as it did, she smiled, revealing two rows of sharp teeth.

The gravediggers dumped the coffin back in the grave, backfilled it, and left never to return again.

Toowong cemetery - © Allen Tiller 2005

 In more recent retellings of the story, the Vampire has gained the name of “Lily”. Retellings now also add an extra element of gore, with claims that her mouth was filled with shark-like rows of teeth, and thick red gore spilled from her mouth as she looked up at the gravediggers.

 There have also been reports of Lily the Vampire being seen during the day. One story claims that she smiled at passers-by around midday one afternoon, revealing her rows of shiny sharp teeth. The witnesses to this event fled the cemetery, only to find Lily had somehow beaten them to the gates and now blocked their way out. Lily the Vampire, then stepped aside gracefully and allowed the witnesses to pass unharmed.

Have you experienced the Vampire of Toowong Cemetery? Let me know in the comments...

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

Bibliography

Oct. 28th, 2007, Hauntings and the Paranormal, (2007) ,https://hauntings.livejournal.com/528101.html

Toowong Cemetery, Abandoned Histories, (2013), http://abandonedhistories.blogspot.com/2013/05/toowong-cemetery.html

Hill, T, Brisbane’s Buried Secrets, Weekend Notes, (2012), https://www.weekendnotes.com/brisbane-buried-secrets/

Schaumann, D, A Strange Thing Happened At Toowong Cemetery, (20 Oct 2010) http://schaumann.com.au/2010/10/a-strange-thing-happened-at-toowong-cemetery/

Sweetman, K, Ghost stories are few and far between at Toowong Cemetery, The Sunday Mail (QLD), ( 15 August 2015), https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/ghost-stories-are-few-and-far-between-at-toowong-cemetery/news-story/0f51bed5a100d0d3223889c5dbc518cc

 ‘Brisbane’s Necropolis’, ‘Black: Australian Dark Culture’. Magazine, Issue 1, (July 2008)

Curses: The Curse of the Devils Pool

The Curse of the Devils Pool

In Far North Queensland, Australia, one can find the town of Babinda, surrounded by lush rain-forests, not far from the northern Queensland city of Cairns.

The Devils Pool is known in local Aboriginal legend as being a cursed place, cursed by an aboriginal woman. Legend has it that the woman was a wife of an Aboriginal Mob leader.
 It is said, during a local gathering event, she ran away with a man much younger than her husband, eventually, she was cornered, about to be captured, and threw herself into the pool, beckoning her lover to follow...

The “Devils Pool” is a beautiful rainforest location, but the pool itself is very dangerous, with numerous signs posted warning of shallow waters and fast currents, this isn’t a place to play casually.

Since 1959 the pools have claimed the lives of 17 young males, is it the fact that younger males are more reckless and willing to take chances, or is the curse a reality?

One local, Annie Wonga, gave this account on Wikipedia:
"There was a tribe that lived here. In this tribe was an elder, and his name was called Waroonoo and Waroonoo was promised to a girl called Oolana. When they got married, they had a big dance. As they went dancing a wandering tribe passed through and they welcomed them. In this tribe was a handsome young warrior and his name was Dyga. Oolana fell in love with him, and he fell in love with Oolana.
While they were dancing, they decided to run further up the creek and camp there overnight. And in the morning, the wandering tribe and our tribe saw that they were missing. So they went in search of them and they said to Oolana, "You've got to come with us." And his tribe took him away. And when she saw that, she just came and she threw herself into the creek. She loved him that much. And there was a mighty upheaval, and rocks were strewn everywhere and where she lay is now called the Devil's Pool. And every now and again she might call a wandering man to her, thinking that it's Dyga."


http://www.cairnsattractions.com.au/a_babinda-boulders.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Pool,_Australia


© Allen Tiller 2012
first published Dec 17 2012
www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Eidolon Investigation - Nudgee Cemetery - QLD 2003/4/5

Nudgee Catholic Cemetery

Location: Queensland Australia

Location type: Catholic Cemetery

Location status: Business Hours

Website: http://www.nudgeecemetery.com.au/

History

 A Roman Catholic Cemetery, Nudgee Cemetery is located in the inner northern suburbs of Brisbane, in Queensland Australia.

Although It is a Catholic Cemetery, anyone of any denomination can be buried at Nudgee cemetery.

The Cemetery opened in 1867 and was Brisbane's first Catholic Cemetery, it still remains Brisbane's largest privately owned cemetery. 

St Vincent's Orphanage was established near the current location by the Sisters of Mercy, under the sponsorship of Bishop James O'Quinn, with a new orphanage and a budding Catholic community it was decided a new cemetery was in need for the burial of parishioners, Priests and orphans and the local community.

In 1867, Bernard McHugh was the first person interred in the cemetery.

 Nudgee Cemetery was very popular amongst the Irish Catholic community, so much so, an Irish Stonemason moved into the district and set up a monumental masons works nearby in the 1890's, "Timothy Wrafter & sons PTY LTD" Many of the older tombstones made by Mr Wrafter still remain.

Brisbane persons of note buried at Nudgee cemetery include: TC Beirne, philanthropist and department store owner. The former managing director of Castlemaine Perkins, Mr George Wilkie Gray. Premier of Queensland and founder of the democratic Labor Party, Vince Gair

Eidolon Paranormal in Queensland

Nudgee cemetery is one of the locations Allen credits as a testing ground when he first started testing equipment and techniques.

This cemetery was located very close to the suburb he was living in at the time and was easily accessible, and not frequented by many people, day or night , which made testing new ideas and equipment much easier.

This is reportably a very haunted cemetery, including full bodied apparitions, vortex's and strange lights (you can see some photos at this website: http://liannamaye.webs.com/ghostphotospageone.htm

Allen never found anything out of the ordinary here on his multiple day and night excursions

Eidolon Investigation - Toowong Cemetery - QLD - 2004/5

Toowong Cemetery 

 

Location: Brisbane, Queensland

Location type: Public Cemetery

Location status: Open during business hours

Open for Tour groups

Website: N/A

Denomination: All

west section of Toowong Cemetery

East section of Toowong Cemetery

History

Officially opened in 1875, Toowong Cemetery lies within the Mt Coot-tha foothills near Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. The cemetery is spread over rolling hills and valleys and covers an area of 257 hectares. It is the final resting place of 120,000 of the dearly departed.
The cemetery is also the home of a “magnetic hill”. A small hill that if you park your car on the road, near a white Mausoleum, turn your car off, and put it into neutral, the car will roll uphill

Queensland’s second governor, Samuel Wensley Blackall was buried on the highest knoll of the cemetery on 3 January 1871. His memorial is the largest and most prominent in the cemetery with commanding views of the city and surrounds

Between November 1874 and August 1875, the Trustees of the cemetery, upon request, allocated portions of the cemetery to different religious communities. Portion No 1, was allocated to the Church of England, Portion No 2 to the Wesleyans, Portion No 3 to the Hebrews, Portion No 7 to the Roman Catholics, Portion No 16 to Paupers and No 17 and parts of No 1 and 7 to public graves, Portion No 15 is reserved for criminals. In 1879, the Chinese were allocated part of Portion 2, then relocated in January 1884 to No. 7; and then relocated again in April of that year to Portion No. 8. The various cultural and religious groups were separated and boundaries were clearly formed by winding roads. There is a strong showing of the Christian section of the graves, supporting the demographic dominance of Anglo-Saxons in Brisbane and the relocation of the Chinese several times (now in Portion 19) demonstrates the disregard afforded to this section of the community, which exhumed many of its dead for re-interment in China

The Paddington Cemeteries Act of 1911, authorised the Government to resume the several cemeteries at Milton and, upon the request of any relative of any person buried therein within 12 months, to disinter the remains of the deceased. The remains were removed together with any memorials to any cemetery agreed upon with associated costs borne by the Government. Of the 4,643 identifiable graves at Milton, there were 178 applications made. 139 remains and 105 memorials were relocated from Milton to Toowong throughout the site, with the greatest concentration to be found in Portion 6

In 1936 the last available block, Portion 30, was laid out for burial purposes. To allow for more burials, the plot sizes were reduced from 9’x5’ to 8’x4’. By April 1975, all burial plots in the Cemetery had been sold and the Cemetery was closed except for burials in family graves.

Paranormal Legends of Toowong

“The Black Prince”

In 1886, a boxer named Peter Jackson became the Australian Heavyweight Champion under the moniker of “The Black Prince”.
Jackson won many fights in the U.S.A. and England and would have been world champion except John Sullivan refused to fight him because of the colour of his skin. It is rumoured if you visit Jackson’s tomb at midnight, by yourself, you will hear the sound of a ring bell sounding…


Mr. Macgregor

The proprietor of the Lyceum Theatre, Edward Macgregor was a patron of the arts. A statue of him was erected after he died in 1939. It has been reported by countless groundsmen that the statue has been seen walking amongst the headstones at dusk. That his coat can sometimes be seen swaying in the wind as he sits thinking, and that the statue's eyes move and blink as he casually watches those watching him….


Mayne Family Crypt

In the early 1840s, Patrick Mayne was a slaughterman in Brisbane. Whilst drinking in a local pub, Patrick overheard a conversation with a drunken man who was boasting about large sums of money he was carrying. The next day the boaster, Robert Cox, was found butchered. His finger was found in a gutter, his disembowelled torso in the street, and his head near a local hotel.
 William Fyfe was arrested for the murder, convicted, and subsequently hung for the crime, all the while protesting his innocence.

A year later, Mr Mayne improved his butcher shop on Queen Street, Brisbane. His butcher shop became so successful he was able to invest in real estate and create a sizeable investment portfolio.
In 1865, on his deathbed, Mr Mayne confessed his sins, one being the murder of Mr Cox.
At the bottom of the Mayne family crypt are air vents, which allow liquids and gases from decomposition to escape the vault. At various times, the thick red liquid is seen oozing from the vents and down into the gutter on 12th Avenue…

12th Avenue Vampire

Only two cemeteries in the world are known to have a vampire that dwells amongst the graves, Highgate Cemetery in London, and Toowong Cemetery, in Brisbane. It is said that a black shadow with razor-sharp teeth drifts through the trees on 12th Avenue within the cemetery; that homeless people will walk a longer path, choosing to encounter the cemetery's other ghouls, rather than face the shark-like razor teeth of the Toowong vampire.

Local legend has it that two gravediggers were called upon to exhume a body; they were puzzled by the softness of the ground, which appeared to have been recently disturbed. Once they had dug down to the coffin, the men were disturbed to find the nails of the coffin had been pushed from the inside out.
 They removed the lid, only to find the woman inside the coffin had not decomposed at all, after many years of being dead. The braver of the men reached in and touched her face, her head rolled to one side and she smiled, revealing two rows of sharp teeth. The gravediggers dumped the coffin back in the grave, filled it back in and left….


Angel of Death

A dark-cloaked man has been seen in the cemetery since the great depression era. Jack Sims has dubbed him “The Angel of Death”. This ghost has been witnessed at least 11 times since 1998 when tours started.


References

http://www.toowongwest.org.au/heritage_register/cemetery.htm

Black: Australian Dark Culture. Magazine, Issue 1 July 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toowong_Cemetery

http://www.ghost-tours.com.au/Pages/tour_toowong_cemetery_details.htm
http://www.toowong.cemetery.org.au/