Night life ... Renata Daniel tells ghost stories on tour in Newcastle.Credit: Simone De Peak
On a dark and stormy night, Ben Stubbs explores a city's shady and spirited past.
Robert Young loved his job. He worked for the Crown in the port settlement of Newcastle, whipping the flesh from the backs of disobedient convicts and prostitutes from 1814 until 1818. Before Young finished, he had inflicted more than 13,000 strokes with his cat-o'-nine-tails on 275 poor souls.
Around the old military barracks in Newcastle East and the site of the former "lunatic asylum" above Newcastle Beach, it's said that if you feel a pinch or a flick on your back on a dark evening, it's the calling card of wicked Mr Young, letting you know he still haunts the streets.
The wind cuts like a scalpel across the cliffs and up the back of my untucked shirt. The electromagnetic field monitors whine and the green lights showing "paranormal activity" dance across the dials as our guide, Renata Daniel, finishes telling her grim story about Young and his victims. We're exploring the darkest corners of the city on a chilly Friday night with Newcastle Ghost Tours.
The cobbled streets and 19th-century buildings of Newcastle East are bathed in a sallow orange glow from the streetlights, giving it the air of a Dickens opening scene. These lanes and alleys are some of the oldest in settled Australia, the scene of convict unrest, murder, torture and incarceration.
This might sound like a checklist of things to avoid but it's a perfect night out for a bunch of ghostbusters, psychics and couples on quirky first dates.
Diana Allen and Renata Daniel run Newcastle Ghost Tours and take private bookings if there's an unwanted guest that needs eviction. As we begin, Allen gives us a spiritual cleansing - it looks like a strange sort of taekwondo manoeuvre as she chops the air. We're assured she is dispelling any evil spirits that might be gathering around our evening tour.
"If you're feeling weird, come and see us," Allen says. "You might have a ghost hanging on to you." Now I think of it, I am feeling slightly weird - after all, I'm preparing to find ghosts with a troop of Casper enthusiasts - but I keep my silence.
We begin in the convict lumber yard opposite the Newcastle railway station. Daniel describes the commandant Charles Menzies, who arrived in 1804 to establish the colony that is now Newcastle, with 34 convicts shuffling along behind him in leg irons. The port became one of the most critical in Australia, shipping coal and cedar to Sydney and abroad. Gangs of convict labourers were used to develop the settlement and the worst of the criminals were sent to burn oyster shells at Limeburners Bay on the Stockton Peninsula nearby to produce lime. With sailors and criminals populating the streets, syphilis was rife.
"The women here only had one commodity," Allen says. "It was a rough life."
Bemused drinkers at the Great Northern Hotel opposite the lumber yard watch as we weave through the shadows looking for signs of afterlife. The hotel has an interesting history. "A man killed himself on the roof there in the 1800s and we still get strong readings from the place," Daniel says.
We drift to the edge of Fletcher Park to scan for spirits and to the site of the military barracks, dating to the 1830s. Above the roar of the ocean, Daniel says this is the spot where Newcastle's first mine was dug. Like many of the convicts who worked it, the mine had an unfortunate end. Before plumbing arrived, residents poured their "night fill" into the mine every evening. After a particularly heavy deposit one night, the gases are said to have caused an explosion in the mine and all the tunnels collapsed.
At his point, I notice a woman walking in circles towards the cliffs, holding a set of metallic divining rods. She walks past and says: "I've heard that they can pick up spirits ... though I can't tell if it's when the rods bend outwards or cross over."
We peer over the edge of the cliffs towards Newcastle Baths, boiling with waves. Daniel says she picks up "activity" here frequently and tells the story of Mabel Hopper, who fell off this cliff in 1944 when her date with a sailor went horribly wrong. "Mabel Hopper still whispers to people thinking of committing suicide here," Daniel says.
The spirit of Alice Bromley is also said to cry out from Fletcher Park. She was chased by a group of men in 1933 and ran straight off the edge and onto the rocks below.
Our next destination is Christchurch Cathedral on the top of the hill. It was damaged by a Japanese submarine in World War II and again by the 1989 earthquake, though it has been restored and is the holy grail for ghost hunters in Newcastle. Beneath its turrets and spires, Daniel recounts the story of a woman found on the steps of the cathedral strangled by her stockings and another across the road who was murdered with a tomahawk. At this point, one of our group says she thinks the paranormal energy from the church is swaying the pendant she has dangling from her fingers. I'm about to suggest it could be the wind when my monitor distracts me and I follow the beeps to the old graveyard beside the church. "There's someone here for sure," Daniel says. The graveyard had 3300 graves, until it was moved across town.
As the moon rises, we head back into the centre of the city. We pass Rose Cottage, one of the oldest buildings in Newcastle, once the home of Black Harris, a businessman who rounded up crew for ships. He was known for shanghaiing sailors and it is said he once dressed up a corpse and wheeled it onto a ship, where he collected his finder's fee before the ruse was discovered.
Our ghost tour ends at the lock-up on Hunter Street. Built in 1861 of Sydney sandstone, it was the site of the Newcastle Police Station for more than 120 years. It now serves as an artists' space and exhibition centre.
The original 1.8-metre by 2.4-metre cells are still here and I find centuries-old graffiti and the scratchings of desperate men on the cold walls and in the privy yard. I look for the padded cell and listen to the soundtrack of monitors echoing along the empty corridors.
The wind kicks up as we leave the lock-up. Allen cleanses us once again, so there are no spirits tagging along on the walk home.
Then I feel something grab my backside as we cross the road. It could be my wife but I don't turn around just in case Robert Young and his whip are trailing behind me.
Ben Stubbs travelled courtesy of the City of Newcastle.
For the night Owls
IF CHASING ghosts isn't your idea of fun, there are plenty of nocturnal activities in and around Newcastle.
■ The Winter Heat Festival will be held in the city centre on Saturday nights from June 11-25, with a free program of fire-themed entertainment (pictured), street art, acrobats, light displays and workshops. See visitnewcastle.com.au.
■ Blackbutt Reserve in Kotara, 20 minutes' drive from the centre of the city, has more than 182 hectares of bushland and walking trails teeming with wildlife. Guided night-time spotlight tours can be arranged to see wallabies, flying foxes, emus, koalas and kangaroos. Phone 4904 3344.
■ For something a little noisier, check out the live music at Lizotte's in Lambton. Open seven days, performances start at 7.30pm. See lizottes.com.au.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
Newcastle is 150 kilometres or about two hours' drive north of Sydney along the F3 freeway. There are regular trains.
Touring there Newcastle Ghost Tours has weekly excursions of Newcastle East, special-investigation evenings and sleepovers in some of the area's creepiest buildings. The 2½ hour Newcastle East tour costs $45 a person. Phone 0411 357 519, see newcastleghosttours.com.au. See visitnewcastle.com.au for more.
Staying there
The Crowne Plaza Newcastle is on the harbour with great views to Nobbys Head. There are 175 rooms, an outdoor pool, valet service and a cocktail lounge. From $295 a night; crowneplaza.com.au.
Eating there
Nor'East, a waterfront restaurant, was awarded the 2010 Australian Hotels Association national award for restaurant of the year and for the best chef (Newcastle and Hunter). At 150 Wharf Road, Newcastle; 4929 6444; noreastdining.com.au.
Jonah's on the Beach has stunning ocean views and an a la carte menu. At the corner of Zaara Street and Shortland Esplanade; 4929 5181; noahsonthebeach.com.au.
Estabar looks over Newcastle Beach and has a laid-back atmosphere. At 61 Shortland Esplanade; 4927 1222.
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