As the old saying goes “From ghoulies and ghosties, long-leggety beasties, and things that go bump in the night, good Lord, deliver us!” Depending on your frame of mind, the list below will either provide a DIY ghost tour of Melbourne’s most haunted places, a list of places to avoid at all costs – or maybe just some interesting trivia. However you view it, we hope you enjoy it!
Flinders Street Station
Flinders St Station is probably the most recognisable landmark in Melbourne and is used (in non-Covid times) by around 100,000 people a day. Next time you’re waiting for your train, look over to Platform 10 – the one closest to the Yarra River. If you’re there late at night perhaps you’ll be able to see the ghostly figure of a fisherman, holding a fishing rod and gazing out over the river.
Nick-named George by station employees, the ghost is believed to be the spirit of Ernest Leahy who drowned in a boating accident in 1902. Ernest was boating with friends on the Yarra when their boat hit a snag and started to sink. Three of the party were rescued, but Ernest and a young woman both drowned. The accident happened a few kilometres up the river in Hawthorn so we’re not sure why Ernest would want to hang around a train platform, but it is said to be built on a popular fishing spot, and I know of a few people who would be happy to spend eternity sitting on the bank of a river, fishing rod in hand.
Young & Jackson’s Hotel
Just across the road from Flinders St Station stands Young and Jackson Hotel, one of the oldest pubs in the city and haunt of one of the more gruesome ghouls.
Leaning against a light-post outside the pub can be found the ghost of a beautiful young woman. Until you get closer. The nearer you approach the older and more hideous she becomes and she exposes her neck to show you the horrifying slash across her throat.
Whilst no-one seems to have any theories as to exactly who this spirit, it is generally assumed to be one of the many prostitutes who worked in the area in the late 1800s. Given the apparent manner of her death, maybe she had an encounter with our next ghost….
Hosier Lane
Hosier Lane is famous for its street art, but it has another claim to fame as being one of Melbourne’s most haunted places. If you feel cold, clammy fingers wrapping themselves around your throat while strolling through the laneway, you may have just encountered the ghost of Frederick Bailey Deeming, a man believed by many to have been notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper.
Deeming was born in England and started a life of crime at an early age. He murdered his first wife and four children in England by slitting their throats and buried them under the house. He moved to Australia in 1891 with his second wife, Emily, where he quickly disposed of her in the same manner.
When Emily’s body was found Deeming was convicted and hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol. His presence in Hosier Lane is felt or seen mainly by men, in contrast to his life where his victims were female.
Pink Alley
Pink Alley, off Little Collins St between Russell St and Exhibition St is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young girl who was murdered in the area in 1921. Unlike Frederick Deeming in Hosier Lane who makes his presence felt by men, this ghost is most often felt by pregnant women who experience feelings of great sadness.
Alma Tirtschke was only 12 when she was murdered and her body dumped in Gun Alley, close to where Pink Alley now is. Alma was running an errand for her aunt in the city but never returned home. Her body was found the next day. The crime generated an outpouring of sympathy and curiosity throughout Melbourne. People came to the alley to see the place where the body had been found and leave flowers. The pressure was on the police to find the murderer and bring them to justice.
Alma’s most notable feature was her flaming red hair. When a man, Colin Ross, previously known to police for domestic violence and running a seedy bar was found with a blanket containing several strands of bright red hair, they figured they had their man. At the trial an employee of Ross came forward to claim that he had confessed the murder to her. Despite apparent flaws in the case and several people seeing Ross during the time the murder was apparently committed, Colin Ross was found guilty and hanged in Old Melbourne Gaol.
Tragically, they got the wrong man. Ivy Matthews had a grudge against Ross for unpaid wages and DNA testing conducted in the 1990s showed the hair on the blanket did not belong to Alma Tirtschke. Unfortunately that was 70 years too late for Colin Ross and for Alma whose actual murderer has never been discovered.
It is said Alma’s ghost haunts the area waiting for the real culprit to be brought to justice.
Princess Theatre
No article about ghosts in Melbourne would be complete without talking about the Princess Theatre’s resident ghost, Frederick Federici.
The Princess Theatre is a beautifully ornate building on Spring St and over the past year or so has been home to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. But the Hogwarts’ ghosts are not the only spirits hanging out there. Federici has been the chief ghost in residence since 1888.
Federici was born Fred Baker, but used the much more theatrical Frederick Federici as his stage name. He was making quite a name for himself on the Melbourne theatre scene when he landed the leading role of Mephistopheles (the devil) in a production of Faust, to be performed at the Princess Theatre.
On opening night, everything was wonderful. Federici’s performance was marvellous. In the final scene, his character wraps his scarlet cloak around his victim, Faust and descends (via a trapdoor in the stage) to the pits of hell with his final line – “It might be”. Everything worked as it was supposed to, except that Federici had a heart attack during the descent and tragically died.
The rest of the cast were not immediately told and swore that he was on stage with them at the end, taking his bows to a standing ovation. Reporters who covered the play certainly didn’t notice his absence when the wrote about the play the next day either.
Many believe that Federici has never left the theatre. He has appeared as a tall, distinguished looking man in full evening dress. Performers and stagehands have felt something, or someone, brush past them in empty corridors. Strange lights have been seen flashing on and off during performances. Even some of Australia’s most respected actors including Bert Newton and Marina Prior have reportedly seen him.
So much a part of the Princess Theatre is Federici that the café at the theatre is named after him and a seat is saved for him in the dress circle on opening nights. So if you’re sitting in the dress circle on opening night of a play with an empty seat beside you – it might not be as empty as you think…
