The Tragic Death of Edith Betterman

 On the 19^th of April 1902, nine-year-old Edith Emily Betterman was going about her chores while Edith’s mother worked in the back yard milking the cow. Edith stoked the fire in the kitchen stove, filled a kettle with water, and got ready to make a cup of tea for her mother. As she placed the kettle onto the stove, a lick of flame engulfed the clothes she was wearing.
 Edith ran outside to get help. The flames engulfed her, rising above her head. Edith ran out into the road, where Mr Truscott and other neighbours assisted to get the flames out, but Edith's body was burned black. She was still conscious and able to relay to her mother what had happened.[1]
 Local doctors were called, and Doctors Glynn and Myles attended. The young girl was frightfully burned across her entire body. The doctors knew there was nothing they could do for her, so Dr Glynn administered temporary pain relief in the form of morphine.[2] Edith died from her extensive injuries five hours later.[3]
An inquest was not considered necessary. Edith was buried at the Kapunda General Cemetery on Clare Road, in plot E 43.

© 2026 - Allen Tiller

[1] 'BURNT TO DEATH.', The Express and Telegraph, (21 April 1902), p. 2.

[2] 'FATAL BURNING ACCIDENT.', Adelaide Observer, (26 April 1902), p. 40.

[3] 'Great Fire at Inverell.', The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, (25 April 1902), p. 2.

Haunted Kapunda

 

Haunted Kapunda by Allen Tiller

 

  Kapunda, dubbed the 'most haunted town in Australia,’ after a 2001 documentary, is full of history, mystery, and the paranormal. In 2019, MSN.com voted the North Kapunda Hotel the 8th most haunted hotel in the world.  Kapunda’s hauntings were featured in the documentary Kapunda: Most Haunted Town in the Western World and the television series Haunting: Australia.

  What makes Kapunda, a historic mining town in South Australia, so haunted?
Join paranormal investigator, historian, and researcher Allen Tiller as he dives into 20-plus years of research into a town his ancestors helped establish. Read about a one-legged pushbike riding ghost, a haunted lolly shop, murders, mining accidents, the truth about Dr Blood, Haunting: Australia’s paranormal investigation in the North Kapunda Hotel, and Allen's connection to some of the most haunted buildings and ghosts in Haunted Kapunda!

 

HAUNTED KAPUNDA by Allen Tiller

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Haunted-Kapunda/dp/B0DV4R599T

#AllenTiller #hauntedkapunda #haunted #kapunda #southaustralia #history #ghosts #paranormal #trueghoststories

A History of the North Kapunda Hotel: The First 100 Years

 A History of the North Kapunda Hotel:
 The First 100 Years
– by Allen Tiller

  Built in 1848 by the North Kapunda Mining Company, the North Kapunda Arms Hotel opened to the public in 1849. The original building was a single-story hotel with a double-storey accommodation wing for miners and travellers on Franklin Street (now Crase Street). The accommodation building still stands today and is the oldest original structure of the building.

  John Bickford was the first publican of the North Kapunda Arms Hotel, the first licensed hotel in Kapunda. It narrowly beat out James Whittaker at the Sir John Franklin Hotel on Main Street by one week.

  The North Kapunda Hotel, as it is known today, is an icon in the town and has featured in many of its notable historic occasions, including the reading of the Riot Act in 1893 by Corporeal Hugh Gray Queale during local political upheaval.

  This book investigates the building's first 100 years of history, including the many publicans who worked and lived in it and their families, the 1866 reconstruction, the Bachelor’s Hall, Crase’s Assembly Rooms, and the many clubs, foundations, societies, and religious groups that used the hotel as their base of operations.

Available here: https://amzn.asia/d/6HJxVrD

#Kapunda #history #allentiller #Northkapundahotel #southaustralia

 

 A History of the Kapunda Congregational Church: The First 100 Years.

The Kapunda Congregational Church, located on Chapel Street, Kapunda served the local community for more than 100 years. Many of Kapunda’s well-known citizens including William Oldham, James and William Shannon, the Hawke family, and Sir Sidney and Lady Isabel Kidman attended the church.
A Welsh Congregational Church, located on Stow Street, Kapunda also existed in the town, sharing many of the same Reverends’, but preaching almost exclusively in the Welsh language.
This publication documents the first 100 years of the Kapunda Congregational Church, its Ministers, some of its Deacons, parishioners and their lives, giving some insight into the church's influence on the town of Kapunda, its politics and the lives of the Congregational Church community.

Purchase here: A History of the Kapunda Congregational Church by Allen Tiller

#Kapunda #church #congregational #religion #history #allentiller #author #book

Municipality of Kapunda was established on 13 July 1865.

 The municipality of Kapunda was established on 13 July 1865.

The District Council (DC) of Kapunda was established on 5 July 1866

 

An official letter of congratulation arrived 13 July 1865 via magnetic telegraph, it read,

The two members for the Light take the earliest opportunity of congratulating his worship the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Kapunda on the Corporation being Gazetted.    The members for Light hope that Kapunda will now soon become an ornament to the Colony as the second city in importance.

Finis coronat opus - God save the Queen

F.S. Dutton

P. B. Coglin

 K A P UN D A. (1879)

Kapunda, the subject of our illustration, is an important township situate in the electoral district of Light, about 4 miles north of the metropolis, with which it is connected by rail.

Kapunda was originally a mining township, and up to a very short time back active operations were still conducted at its mines, which possess a peculiar interest as having been the first opened up in this colony, and their discovery no doubt stimulated the search for minerals which shortly after resulted in the discovery of the celebrated Burra Mine, and still more recently in that of the world-renowned Moonta and Wallaroo Mines.
  Kapunda is a native term, signifying a place of smoke, — an almost prophetic designation, seeing that for many years after the mines were opened smelting operations were carried on here when the sulphurous smoke from the furnaces of the smelting works justified the name given to the locality by the aboriginals. "During the past few years the mines have been worked by a Glasgow Company, who substituted the precipitating process for smelting ; but operations have gradually been suspended, and over the once famous Kapunda Mine — the copper from which was especially valuable for electrical purposes — " Ichabod " may now be written.

Originally a mining township, as we have said, Kapunda as years rolled on became the centre of a gradually enlarging wheat-growing district ; so that prior to the opening up of the Northern Areas it was the boast of the district that it grew more than one-third of the total cereal produce raised in the colony. This led to the establishment of local agricultural implement manufactories, several of which have flourished to such an extent as to lead one to suppose that the true South Australian gold diggings are to be found in the machinists yards.

Kapunda has also of late years become one of the leading markets for the disposal of horse stock and cattle. Irrespective of the many irregular sales, monthly sales are held, the proceeds of which, on an average, amount to £7,000 monthly.

We have said that Kapunda is connected by rail with the metropolis. For many years it was the most northerly point to which the iron horse travelled, being the depot of the traffic to all the more northerly districts ; and it suffered considerably for a time when the line to the Burra via Roseworthy diverted much of this traffic.

 At present it is passing through the throe of another somewhat similar crisis, its railway having been just extended to the banks of the Murray at the North-West Bend, which some fear will have an adverse influence on the prosperity of the town, whilst others again hold than the influence will be beneficial rather than otherwise, and have evidenced their faith by the expenditure of large sums in building business and other premises. Like Adelaide, Kapunda may be called a place of churches ; the Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Wesleyans, Baptists, Congregationalists, Primitive
Methodists, and Bible Christians, each living their own places of worship. The town, which possesses a very capacious, well-arranged Model School, and an excellent Mechanics' Institute, also boasts a local newspaper, the Herald, which has entered on the sixteenth year of its existence. For some years past Kapunda has had the advantage of local gasworks, and before the present year has passed away will have in operation what will prove a greater boon — a well-arranged system of water supply. Of public offices Kapunda has a capacious court house and a commodious post and telegraph station.
  The National Bank of Adelaide, and E., S., & A.C. Banking Companies have each a branch in Kapunda ; and there are several large well-conducted hotels, as also a number of shops, stores, agricultural implement manufactories, a flour-mill, & c..
 The affairs of the town are managed by a Mayor and Town Council, half of the members of which are elected annually for a term of two years. The population of Kapunda proper is about 3,000 ; but in addition there are several suburbs largely populated, and the district as a whole is closely settled. Within the past year or two the greatest wants of the town have been supplied, chiefly through the liberality of Mr. F. H. Dutton, of Anlaby, a large estate situate about ten miles east of Kapunda. These are a hospital and a recreation ground ; the former was erected at a cost of £4,000, and has been of great utility ever since it was opened in Nov. 1877. Dutton Park, which was the name given to the recreation ground in recognition of Mr. Dutton's liberality, contains 40 acres of land immediately abutting on the western boundary of the town. Half of this has already been planted and laid out as a park and cricket ground, the local club having recently completed the construction of an oval at an expense of about £100.

On the whole, Kapunda may be described as being both a thriving and pretty town. Owing to the demand for timber at the mine the neighbourhood has become tolerably bare of trees, and up to a few years back a notion prevailed that neither flowers, fruit, nor vegetables could be grown within a certain radius of the mines ; but during the last few years this has been shown to be a fallacy, and the appearance of the place has
been considerably improved by the number of trees which have attained a goodly size, as also of the neat gardens which are now so common.

'OUR ILLUSTRATIONS.', The Illustrated Adelaide News, (1 February 1879), p. 6., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224815221

 

H.B. Hawke & Co. Seed-Sower 1878

Attention is directed, to the following selection from a number of Testimonials received.

Port Pirie, August 30, 1878,

Sir — The Seed-Sower I purchased from you last year sowed over 800 acres for myself and others, and performed its work in a very superior manner, giving satisfaction to myself and the others that used it. By elevating it, it casts the seeds fully a chain wide, which at the time was considered too much, but after the crop came to maturity was found highly satisfactory. I, therefore, have great pleasure in recommending the same to anyone requiring such a Machine. — Yours, See.,

Mr. H. B. Hawke, Kapunda.                                                                                             Thomas Magor.

 

Linwood, August 23, 1878.

Dear Sir — The Seed-Sower I had from you last season did its work splendidly. No farmer ought to be without one if he has any quantity to sow ; he will save the price of one in time and labour in one season. — Yours, &c.,

Mr. H. B. Hawke, Kapunda.                                                                                                       James Bold.

 

Condowie Plains, August 4, 1878.

Dear Sir — The Seed-Sower we had from you did its work exceedingly well. It sowed much better than we did by hand. We sowed a thousand acres with the Machine last season, and it is as good now as when we got it. One man can sow 80 acres a day with it. — Yours, See.,

Mr. H. B. Hawke, Kapunda.                                                                                             W. Painter.

For more testimonials please visit:

'Advertising', The Illustrated Adelaide News, (1 February 1879), p. 13., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224815229

 THE KAPUNDA MODEL SCHOOL.

This fine structure, which is uniform with the Government school buildings in Adelaide and other parts of the colony, was opened lor the reception of pupils in January 1878. It will accommodate 500, which number is the average attendance; there are 650 names on the roll.

The land upon which the building is erected was given for educational purposes many years ago. The building consists of a boy's schoolroom 54 x 24 ft., a girl's department 54 x 22 ft., and the infant's room 50 x 24 ft., with a recess and gallery capable of seating 70 children. There are two class-rooms 24 x 18 ft., and two 22 x 18 ft., besides three lavatories, passages for hats, cloaks, "&c., and the Head-master's private room. The whole of the buildings are lofty and well-lighted, and are ventilated on the Tobin system. Each large room has two fireplaces, so that the teachers and scholars can be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. _

 All the rooms used for instruction are provided with raised platforms, the London school board desks, and a plentiful supply of maps, charts, diagrams, &c.; outside, the schools are provided with large sheds, yards, and the usual outhouses. The supply of water is obtained from two large underground tanks. The girl's playground is divided from the boy s playground by a 6-feet galvanized iron fence, and the whole of the buildings are surrounded on three sides by a substantial stone wall and by a picket fence in front.
 The Head-master's dwelling, a neat little cottage of five rooms with verandah back and front, is separated from the school buildings by a paling fence.
The staff consists of the Head-master (Mr. W. L Neale), Head-mistress (Miss Smith), Messrs. V. J. Pavia and A.H. Neale first and second assistant masters boy's school respectively, the Misses Davie and Whitridge first and second assistants girl's school, and eight pupil teachers. The building cost about £5,500 and the contractors were Messrs. Manson & Munro.

'THE KAPUNDA MODEL SCHOOL.', The Illustrated Adelaide News, (1 February 1879), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224815226

 Kapunda: Soldiers World War One

'Machine Gun Corps at Kapunda' it is suggested by a researcher that the men are part of the 23rd Light Horse (as evidenced by the number badge on the hats). The photograph appears in The Chronicle (Adelaide, SA) under the banner 'Light Horsemen Under Training: The Camp at Kapunda' (1914, March 28) -  SLSA [B 21690]

Spectators watching a parade of soldiers and a brass band in front of the Kapunda Primary School, South Australia; possibly an army recruitment campaign. SLSA: [PRG 280/1/14/147]

This photo appeared in 'The Chronicle', Saturday 28 May 1914, page 31, under the general heading 'Light horsemen under training: the camp at Kapunda'. The photo is captioned 'Group of officers at Headquarters'. It is believed the following individuals in the middle row are: Major B.S. Connor (2nd from left); Major W. De Passey (4th from left); Colonel Hancock (5th from left); Lieutenant L.A. Lewis (third from right) and Captain Rev. G.W. Kendrew (on right). SLSA [B 21691]

 Kapunda General Cemetery - Clare Road.

Entrance to the Kapunda General Cemetery on Clare Road, circa 1900 [SLSA B 69054/84]

A closer look at the Kapunda General Cemetery Commital Service Shelter within the cemetery ground, circa 1900 SLSA [B 69054/83]

  St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: 
Burial Records: Old and Early Section:
 T-Z

Researched and compiled by Peter Swann

I would like to acknowledge the support of local historian and former caretaker of St John’s Cemetery, Peter Swann for supplying the cemetery records, and his ongoing support.

Surname                        Christian Names                        Age            Date of Death       Row/ Location

  St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: 
Burial Records: Old and Early Section:
 O-S

Researched and compiled by Peter Swann

I would like to acknowledge the support of local historian and former caretaker of St John’s Cemetery, Peter Swann for supplying the cemetery records, and his ongoing support.

     Surname                        Christian Names                  Age            Date of Death       Row/ Location

  St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: 
Burial Records: Old and Early Section:
 J-N

Researched and compiled by Peter Swann

I would like to acknowledge the support of local historian and former caretaker of St John’s Cemetery, Peter Swann for supplying the cemetery records, and his ongoing support.

Surname                        Christian Names                        Age            Date of Death       Row/ Location

  St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: 
Burial Records: Old and Early Section:
 D-H

Researched and compiled by Peter Swann

I would like to acknowledge the support of local historian and former caretaker of St John’s Cemetery, Peter Swann for supplying the cemetery records, and his ongoing support. 

     Surname                      Christian Names                      Age            Date of Death       Row/ Location

St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: Burial Records: Old and Early Section: A-C

 St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: 

Burial Records: Old and Early Section:

 A-C

Researched and compiled by Peter Swann

I would like to acknowledge the support of local historian and former caretaker of St John’s Cemetery, Peter Swann for supplying the cemetery records, and his ongoing support.

 St Johns - A Ghost Story

This is a similar story, but not the same as, the one published in Valerie Laughton’s book, "True Barossa Ghosts"

 

"In 1980 fourteen students from Kapunda went to Saint John’s Cemetery and reformatory at night. They heard a rumbling, bumping sound; they saw a marble slab move back from one the graves. they could not see any ropes or wires attached and saw nothing emerge. The vases began to move, and the flowers were flung into the air. The students saw a semi-transparent girl with a long white gown, with long dark hair carrying a hurricane lantern that had a yellowish glow moving through the cemetery. Gravestones could be seen through her. the figure glided through a fence and headed towards the old reformatory ruins. She entered the ruins moving through the rooms and passageway and could be seen by the students through the broken windows. After a period of time, the figure headed back down the hill and back to the cemetery. She rose from the ground and her feet could be seen, she thinned into a yellowish-white light and spun herself and drove speedily into the earth. The students worked up the courage and slowly moved into the area where the ghostly figure disappeared. They found a circular spot with strange markings imprinted into the soil."

 

Would you believe the validity of a group of school children who are out thrill-seeking and drinking, who then come home from a "spooky" cemetery and tell this story?

 The Myths of St Johns

 

St John's Cemetery and the reformatory ruins have attracted a great deal of attention over the years, from ghost stories in True Barossa Ghosts (gathered with good spirit) by Valerie Laughton to documentaries by Warwick Moss, plus websites, Facebook pages, you-tube videos and newspaper stories.

Research is being conducted by many paranormal teams, genealogists, independent researchers, paranormal enthusiasts and a myriad of journalists, reporters, and authors. Many of the stories currently found, particularly on the internet, are grossly distorted, personal points of view or lies. It isn't hard to dig for the truth about the place or its people, one only needs to venture into the Kapunda Public library or the museum archives to find the facts.

 

 Sorting fact from fiction. 

It is my goal to educate the masses of people interested in this location with facts, not rumours, innuendo, or fiction.

Here are some of the rumours and fiction I have come across on the internet and through hearing stories from the public at the Cemetery.

 

·       Father Martin Murdered Ruby Bland - Myth

·       Father Martin Got Ruby Bland Pregnant - Myth

·       Babies were thrown in the reformatory furnace - Myth

·       Ruby hung herself - Myth

·       Vera was in the reformatory - Myth

·       A girl hung herself from the palm tree - Myth

·       A girl hung herself on the large tree in the field - Myth

·       The Girls were placed in the reformatory for being pregnant - Myth

·       Father Martin and nuns conducted abortions - Myth

·       Father Martin became crazed and killed everyone on-site, then himself - Myth

·       Nuns were killed - Myth

 

Obviously, some of these rumours are far-fetched, some plain ridiculous, but all fuel the urban legend being perpetuated by misinformed individuals. I believe it is part of our job as Paranormal Investigators to educate people about the truth of this, and other locations, and to instate a feeling of respect for the cemetery and the people buried within, who all once lived, and now only have a tombstone to mark their life story.

The Truth:

• FACT - Father Martin did not kill Ruby Bland - Ruby died in the Kapunda Hospital from complications of what equates today to "gall bladder stones".
• FACT   - No Girls died whilst in the reformatory.
• FACT   - Ruby DID NOT die from hanging.
• FACT - Vera was born after the reformatory had closed and was a local celebrity of sorts whose life can easily be traced in the Museum.
• 
  
• FACT - No one was hung from the palm tree - it would be mighty difficult to do so.... think about it.
• 
  
•  FACT - The large tree in the middle of the field has been estimated to not be old enough to have been there at the time of the reformatory. This rules out that tree being a "hanging tree".
• 
  
• FACT - There are no records of girls being placed in the reformatory for being pregnant; girls in such a state would have been placed in the Women's Asylum ( now the Migration Museum). Instead, girls in the Reformatory were usually in for breaking curfew and petty crimes.
• 
  
• FACT - Father Martin died of Senile Inertia, meaning, he became so senile he could no longer fend for himself, letters held by Peter Swann show that the Father lived on in the Presbytery of the Reformatory for another ten years after it closed, Former interns (girls) often came to check on him and help feed him, he died alone in his bed. He killed no one, although his state of mind is questioned in newspaper reports; it is because of his senility, not because he was a crazed schizophrenic madman; he was a man slowly losing who he was.
• 
  
• FACT - Nuns were never killed at the reformatory; however, at least one Nun is buried in the Cemetery who had worked at St John's, but she died of natural causes and also worked at St Rose of Lima and the local Nunnery.
• 
  
• FACT - Ruby Bland was not one of the 87 Reformatory Girls who resided in the Reformatory over a span of 20 odd years.
• 
  
• FACT - Ruby Bland was a NURSE in Kapunda hospital. (documented in her sister's diary).
• 
  
• FACT - The Reformatory had been earmarked to close on the date of its closure 6 months previously, as stated publicly in South Australian Parliament records!

 

If you hear of any other crazy rumours or stories, please let me know by emailing eidolon@live.com.au, and I will get to the bottom of it!

 GIRLS' HOME (ST. JOHN'S), KAPUNDA.

A very successful retreat for the inmates of St. John's Home has just been concluded by the Rev. Father Mclnerney, S J. (says the " Southern Cross").

The holy and zealous priest did not spare himself in teaching these poor children to love and serve God, and in helping them to raise themselves to better things. The girls attended well during the whole time, and the good spirit which now prevails proves the advantage gained by this much-needed retreat—the first that has been given since the home has been established.

Father Mclnerney has sown the good seed, and there is every hope of a fruitful harvest in the future. In concluding, the good priest advised the girls to keep a spiritual flag flying bearing the following mottoes: -

"All to the greater glory of God," and beneath, in respect to sin and evil, "No surrender!" These two watchwords have been readily taken up by the children of the home, and their prayers will often ascend to heaven for the kind father, who was the means of bringing to their young hearts grace and peace and consolation.

Citation:

'GIRLS' HOME (ST. JOHN'S), KAPUNDA.', Kapunda Herald, (27 February 1903), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110275217.

(This article is from the Kapunda Herald, and recreated here for research purposes.)

 A Timeline of events at St. Johns

1849:

• ·       Government grants land 5kms southeast of Kapunda to Catholic Church.
• ·       Father Fallon ordained
• ·       July 1849 Father Fallon appointed to St. Johns
• ·       Father George Michael Williams was born in Mauritius

1850:

• ·       2nd April The foundation stone of St John the Evangelist Church was laid by  Bishop Francis Murphy
• ·       presbytery built

1854:

·       30 April 1854 that the church was finished and officially opened

1857

·       Father James Martin was born in County Galway Ireland

1859:

• ·       School opened

1860:

• ·       25th March Death of Father Fallon, died suddenly aged 40
• ·       Father Michael Ryan appointed parish priest
• ·       All church services moved to a small barn on site of future St. Roses Church Kapunda

1861:

• ·       Lower cemetery opened
• ·       "St. Johns church" graveyard close

1862:

• ·       13th July The Saint Rose of Lima foundation stone was laid in Kapunda
• ·       8th Feb First church service held at St. Roses's newly completed church

1864:

• ·       3rd April Father Ryan performs the wedding ceremony for Horace McKinley and Martha Craig
• ·       10th Oct. Father Carew performs the wedding ceremony for Joseph J. Walsh and M.A. Carley

1865:

• ·       24 August Death of Father Michael Ryan who died from apoplexy
• ·       Father Jeremiah Moynahan appointed parish priest

1867:

·       St Johns post office opened

·       21st December death of Father Jeremiah Moynahan

1868:

• ·       Sisters of St.Joseph start teaching at school
• ·       13 April death of Father Thomas Hyland

1869:

·       presbytery converted to a convent and school

1878:

·  Eugene McMahon Glynne was born in County Galway Ireland

1879:

·       post office closed

 1881:

·       New school built in Kapunda - children from St. Johns school transferred to a new school

1890:

·       James Martin becomes ordained priest and arrives in South Australia

1891:

·       Father Fallon's remains removed from the graveyard and re-interred in Cemetery

·       Ruby Olive Murray Bland was born near " Lake Victoria"

1895:

·       Act proclaimed by State Children's Council to place Catholic State Children in private institutions if they were away from Adelaide.

1897:

·       Mary MacKillop arrives at St. Johns to oversee renovations - stays 3 months

·       Church site opens as Girls Reformatory under the supervision of Sisters of St. Joseph

·       4th June Mary MacKillop installs Miss Mary O'Brien (Sister Helena) as first head matron of Reformatory

1899:

• ·       reformatory extended to include cells

1901:

• ·       Annual Council report states that the reformatory is kept in splendid order, girls well cared for, receiving good religious, moral and practical training.

 1903:

News Story: 'GIRLS' HOME (ST. JOHN'S), KAPUNDA.', Kapunda Herald, (27 February 1903), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110275217.

1908:

• ·       June Sister Helena transferred to Victoria
• ·       Miss Mary Coxs (Sister Berchams) appointed Head Matron

1909:

• ·       Aug: Father O’Reilly approves the closure of reformatory
• ·       15th Nov. Ruby Bland admitted to the Kapunda Hospital with a suspected stone in the bile duct from the liver

• ·       Ruby Bland was operated on by Dr Eugene McMahon Glynn, head of surgery at Kapunda Hospital
• ·       16th Nov Mr Gray, the Secretary of the Children's Department arrives at the Reformatory. announces in the "Kapunda Herald" that St. John's reformatory will be closing.
• ·       28th Nov Death of Ruby Bland from Cholithiasis Operative Shock in Kapunda hospital
• ·       29th Nov. Reformatory closed by Archbishop O'Reilly
• ·       29th Nov. Ruby Bland buried at St. Johns cemetery
• ·       Girls transferred to Redruth Girls’ Reformatory in Burra

1914:

·       death of Dr Eugene McMahon Glynn aged 48 years

1920:

·       13th Feb: Death of Monsignor George Michael Williams (aged 71)

1921

·       Jan: Death of Father James Martin

1936:

·       Headstone erected on Father Fallon's grave

·       4th Oct Headstone revealed by Father Killian

1938:

·       Window removed and placed in St. Rose's church Kapunda

 2001:

·       Sept. Warwick Moss releases documentary "Kapunda: most haunted town in Australia"

2002:

·       Catholic church demolishes Reformatory after constant vandalism

·       Peter Swann, St. Johns Curator, finds a grave monument to Ruby Bland buried under a pile of dirt and begins restoration of her grave

·       Vandals break Father Fallon’s gravestone

2010

·       Curator, Peter Swann erects a memorial to children buried at St. Johns

·       Blessed Mary MacKillop is Canonised to be Australia's first Saint

2011

·       Trees along the fence line, near the entrance are felled

·       Broadband lines are laid along the reformatory road from Moppa to Kapunda

2012

·       New trees planted along the front fence line

·       Graves in rear section restored

2013

·       University of Adelaide Students begin study into the site, including mapping of the former graveyard, Church, and presbytery. They find several interesting artifacts and raise a few new puzzles about the usage of the site.

·       New rear entry gate is installed by the Church, plus fence repairs

2014

·       Father James Martins Headstone Stolen for 3rd Time

·       Ghost Crime Tours at the request of Allen and Karen Tiller begin raising money to help Cemetery rejuvenation.

·       Allen Tiller assists with documenting a Flinders University dig of the St Johns Church ruins.

2015

·       restoration begins on headstones situated in the northwest corner

 

​

 

 

 Many thanks to local historian Peter Swann for all the information he has passed on to me over the years.

Allen Tiller

(please note, this is an edited version of the time line first published in 2010, then updated periodically on the Eidolon Paranormal website - corrections and omissions have been made since that time.)