Ghosts of Kapunda
In 1876 Kapunda was a bustling town, full of miners, pubs, and settlers from across the world looking to earn a living or get rich. It was soon to be the town that saved the South Australian colony from disaster with its rich Copper load, and then to become a town of horse and cattle sales...and in this day and age, it has earned the very misleading title of “Most Haunted Town in Australia”.
On July 21st 1876 the Kapunda Herald reported a story titled “Haunted Houses and Ghost Stories”
The newspaper article told the story of a malicious ghost which had been seen around the town, scaring women and children down by the local dam, which is now known as Davidson Reserve (known locally as “The Duck Pond”).
The ghost appeared to be a figure shrouded in white, some people at the time saying the ghost could be Mr Richards, a local School teacher, who drowned many years before in the dam.
Mrs W. Tuckfield witnessed the ghost for herself one Saturday evening. She was coming into the main street of town, near the mill offices, and the ghost rose up out of the newly built culvert, crossed the road in a rush and disappeared into the plantation.
This sighting caused a great shock for Mrs Tuckfield, and the additional telling of her story of the encounter, and those of other witnesses to the ghost, greatly distressed local children and built somewhat of a reputation for the town as a place of ghosts and hauntings.
The Police, worried about the effect the ghost was having on the locals, staked out the neighbourhood for a couple of nights, watching and waiting patiently for the reappearance of the ghost, but it seems ghosts do not manifest for the local boys in blue, as the ghost has not been seen nor heard since...
A practical joke, or a real ghost? No-one at the time was sure...
© 2013 Allen Tiller
first published on The Haunts of Adelaide:
http://hauntedadelaide.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/ghosts-of-kapunda.html
Tuesday 6th August 2013
revised 23 March 2017
Wwww.AllenTiller.com.au
