Allen Tiller's Blog, page 3
March 4, 2025
Adelaide’s Lost Mooring Mast Conspiracy.
Adelaide's Two Clock Towers 1939Recently on the Haunts of Adelaide Facebook page, I had toban a subscriber who often made claims associated with a lost technologyconspiracy theory. While I am mostly happy for people to believe whatever makesthem comfortable, this gentleman’s persistence, inconsistent statements, lackof historical knowledge and context, and often, angry and illogical statements led me to ban him from the page. I thought I might address the conspiracytheory here, to hopefully educate people on some of the quirkier beliefscurrently infiltrating our community.
Adelaide Town Hall 1889 A small sub-genre of the ‘lost technology’ conspiracy, isthat airships (also known as zeppelins) and sky docks, such as the one built atthe Empire State Building in New York, were removed to hide an advancedtechnology from the human race. This is even though it is historicallydocumented that the mooring mast is still on the Empire State Building, and theidea was discontinued due to the constant strong winds and serious safetyconcerns making the application impractical.
One believer in the theory proclaimed that the towers on the Adelaide GPO, andthe clock tower on the Adelaide Town Hall were once used for passengers toboard tethered airships that could travel at great speeds in the sky to othercities.
The first airship was invented in France in 1850 by Pierre Jullien. The first steam-powered airship flew in 1852 and was invented byHerni Giffard.The first round-trip in an airship was flown by Charles Renard and Arthur C.Kribs in 1884. Renard and Kribs flew the electric motor-propelled La France for8 kilometres. It wasn’t until after World War One that airships were capable ofcommercial transatlantic flights. They were considered by some as a quicker andcheaper way to cross an ocean than a ship. However, after the tragicdestruction of the Hindenburg airship in New Jersey in 1937, interest inairships waned and was replaced by fixed-wing commercial aircraft.
Australia’s first airships were bought by Alan Bond in 1987from the UK’s Airship Industries in Cardington (which Bond Corp owned).They were 16-seat vehicles equipped with two Porsche 930-67 piston engines andpainted in Swan Premium colours (Swan Brewery was owned by Bond.) They weresourced from the UK, and flown over Fremantle during the America’s Cup, beforebeing utilised as a tourist attraction over Sydney later the same year.Bonds airships attracted controversy after offering $200 joyrides over Sydneyin 1987. The airship joyrides were short-lived after hundreds of complaintsabout noise, privacy and advertisements for alcohol and tobacco.
As a counterpoint to the conspiracy theory that the technologywas lost, Alan Birchmore said in a 1988 interview with Anne Burns,
Airships were overlooked for so long because the technologywasn't there to make them work. They just had to wait in the queue fortechnology to make the tough new materials available and a brilliant designerto put them to work.
Bonds airships were withdrawn from use in Australia in 1993.One of those airships now flies in Japan, the other in the USA. Airships arestill utilised in the USA as floating advertising billboards, further debunkingthe conspiracy theory of ‘lost technology’.
The Adelaide General Post Office was completed in 1872. Ittook another three years before the clock was installed in 1875. The AdelaideTown Hall was opened in 1866. It was 69 years later in 1935 that former LordMayor, Sir J Lavington Bonython donated a clock to be placed in the tower. Theelectric clock was switched on in 1935.
I am yet to see photographic evidenceof any airship attached to a mooring dock on any Adelaide building. Such agrandiose event would have been documented by one of Adelaide’s manyphotographers of the period. “But those photos were wiped from history,’ I hearthe conspirators say!
Why hide airship technology from the public, what would it achieve? Who wouldtry and delete this part of history – the Illuminati, shadow governments? It isalmost, always a ’them’, a person, government, or secret society with power,that the conspiracy theorist doesn’t trust, often for spurious personalreasons, or to feel a sense of belonging to a larger group of like-mindedpeople.I have no doubt that I’ll now be accused of being a shadow operative orwhatever term is used for someone who doesn’t believe this conspiracy theory isreal!
King William Street 1936
Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2025.
Photographs:
Ernest Gall, King William Street, Adelaide [B 1581],Acre 203 Collection, State Library of South Australia, (1889), https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/re...
King William Street [B 6832], State Library ofSouth Australia, (1936), https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/re...
Adelaide's two clock towers’, [PRG 287/1/8/28],Robjohns collection, State Library of South Australia, (1939), https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/re....
Tandy Chou, Lost Zeppelin Mooring Mast Of Empire State Building: ForgottenSky Dock, Tourist Secrets, (2024), https://www.touristsecrets.com/travel....
Tim Sharp, The First Powered Airship | The Greatest Moments in Flight,Space.com (2012), https://www.space.com/16623-first-pow....
Jeremy Hsu, The Zeppelin Hindenburg: When Airships Ruled | The Most AmazingFlying Machines Ever, Space.com, (2012), https://www.space.com/16632-zeppelin-....
'Bond's airship gamble', The Canberra Times, (20 February 1988), p.4.
Roger Garwood, ‘146969PD: Alan Bond with a model of the Bond Airship usedduring the America's Cup, Fremantle, 1987’, State Library of WesternAustralia, (1987), https://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b479....
David Monaghan, From the Archives, 1987: Bond’s ‘blimps’ have Sydneysidersup in arms.’, The Sydney Morning Herald, (2022), https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/f....
'Bond'sairship gamble', The Canberra Times, (20 February 1988), p. 4.
‘VH-HAA.’, Airhistory.net, (2020), https://www.airhistory.net/photo/2666....
Jan-Willemvan Prooijen, Conspiracy thinking: A scapegoat is always useful, Unesco,(2021), https://courier.unesco.org/en/article...
February 18, 2025
A Haunting at Olympic Field – Coober Pedy
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Coober Pedy, South Australia is, known for itsopals and underground housing. The outback location was originally home to the AntakirinjaYunkunytjatjara people, who knew the area as ‘Umoona’. Europeans first calledthe area the Stuart Range Opal Field, named after John McDouall Stuart, whoexplored the area in 1858. In 1920 a post office was established at thelocation, so a new name was chosen, ‘Coober Pedy’ which is an aboriginal termfor ‘white man in a hole.’
On the outskirts of the town of Coober Pedysits the Olympic Opal Field. It is claimed that during the late 1980s, in theevening, miners would report seeing the ghost of an old miner wearing a wide-brimmed hat, carrying a lantern, walking across the field. The miners wouldinvestigate, only to see the apparition disappear before their eyes.
It is not known who the apparition may havebeen in life, but 3 men have died on Olympic Field. Those three men, YanniVosvouris, Nick Nathanael and Gregory Digaletos were killed when a cavecollapsed on them in 1980. A cross marks the location of their deaths.
Researchedand written by Allen Tiller © 2025
‘History,’ Coober Pedy Retail, Business & Tourism Association, (2025), https://www.cooberpedy.com.
‘1990 0102,’ Coober PedyHistorical Society, (2023), https://www.cooberpedyhistoricalsocie....
February 15, 2025
Gawler's Unfulfilled Commercial Precinct
In 1954, the Gawler Council was planning forfuture population growth. They estimated that Gawler would soon reach twentythousand people and that the town centre would have to be redesigned toaccommodate the extra traffic.
A survey was conducted and showed that at the time Gawler’s main shopping areaconsisted of 84 Shops, Willaston had 6 shops, Gawler South, had 7 shops, and ‘otherareas' (e.g. Evanston) had 5 shops.
The plan to increase shopping in the town included expandingthe shopping precinct west towards Reid Street and closing Jacob and Tod Streets to vehicles between Murray Street and Dundas Street, forming apedestrian precinct for shopping.
Today we Have the Woolworths Complex and Drakes west of Main Street, and an Aldi opening in 2025. However, no streets have been closed, and the 'shopping precinct' is still unattached, e.g. - no mall or shopping centres like Munno Para or Elizabeth.
'PLANNEDFOR GAWLER OF 20,000 PEOPLE', Bunyip, (5 November 1954), p. 1.
February 4, 2025
A Haunting at Bowden and Brompton
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In 1903 the women of Brompton and Bowden became terrified ofthe vagaries of a ghost! Women, and some men, became afraid to leave theirhomes at night in fear of encountering the ghost haunting the streets. Some menbegan to arm themselves for self-defence if they encountered the terrifyingspirit, but one has to wonder what effect a bullet would have upon thenon-corporeal.
According to TheAdvertiser (newspaper), the ‘ghost is everywhere, and nowhere in particular’.The ghost appeared in East Street Brompton at midnight, as witnessed by a youngman in the neighbourhood.
Shortly after midnight on Saturday, the same young man witnessed the apparitionagain. This time the witness provided an odd statement about the ghost, whenhe stated, ‘The ghost of someone hath appeared to me two severaltimes by night—at Brompton once, and this last night here inthe Bowden brickfields. I know my hour is come."
At 9pmTuesday, the screams of a child shouting on Drayton Street, Bowden were heard.‘The Ghost! The Ghost! It’s gone up the street!’ the child screamed, which attracted a smallcrowd of onlookers. None of the crowd were brave enough to chase the ghostdown. Frightened women, who were witnesses to the ghost claimed it attacked thechild, clasping it in its ghostly arms and almost scaring the child to death…the child lived, and theghost escaped into the night.
The police later ascertained that the ghost was an ‘unfortunate woman’ who could not heldresponsible for her actions. She was dressed in a ragged and torn white dress,with unkempt hair, and a sullen white face, which gave her a spooky appearance in the moonlight.
'AGhost at Hindmarsh.', The Advertiser, (4 February 1903), p. 4.
'AGhost at Hindmarsh.', The Express and Telegraph, (4 February 1903),p. 2.
February 3, 2025
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 inthe 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, sohaunted?
Join paranormal investigator, historian, and researcher Allen Tiller as hedives into 20-plus years of research into a town his ancestors helpedestablish. 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, andAllen's connection to some of the most haunted buildings and ghosts in HauntedKapunda!
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
January 31, 2025
A History of the Kapunda Congregational Church
The Kapunda Congregational Church, located on Chapel Street,Kapunda served the local community for more than 100 years. Many of Kapunda’swell-known citizens including William Oldham, James and William Shannon, theHawke family, and Sir Sidney and Lady Isabel Kidman attended the church.
A Welsh Congregational Church, located on Stow Street, Kapunda also existed inthe town, sharing many of the same Reverends’, but preaching almost exclusivelyin the Welsh language.
This publication documents the first 100 years of the Kapunda CongregationalChurch, its Ministers, some of its Deacons, parishioners and their lives,giving some insight into the church's influence on the town of Kapunda, itspolitics 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
January 30, 2025
A History of the North Kapunda Hotel:
Built in 1848 by theNorth Kapunda Mining Company, the North Kapunda Arms Hotel opened to the publicin 1849. The original building was a single-story hotel with a double-storeyaccommodation wing for miners and travellers on Franklin Street (now Crase Street).The accommodation building still stands today and is the oldest originalstructure of the building.
John Bickford wasthe first publican of the North Kapunda Arms Hotel, the firstlicensed hotel in Kapunda. It narrowly beat out James Whittaker at the Sir JohnFranklin Hotel on Main Street by one week.
The North KapundaHotel, as it is known today, is an icon in the town and has featured in many ofits notable historic occasions, including the reading of the Riot Act in1893 by Corporeal Hugh Gray Queale during local political upheaval.
This bookinvestigates the building's first 100 years of history, including the manypublicans who worked and lived in it and their families, the 1866reconstruction, the Bachelor’s Hall, Crase’s Assembly Rooms, and the manyclubs, foundations, societies, and religious groups that used the hotel astheir base of operations.
Available here: https://amzn.asia/d/6HJxVrD
#Kapunda #history #allentiller #Northkapundahotel #southaustralia
January 7, 2025
Dumb Criminals - Car Theft.
In July 2019, a 34-year-old man, and a 23-year-old woman, stolea blue Holden Commodore from Blakeview, in the northern suburbs. The criminalduo drove to the Christies Beach courthouse, parking at McDonalds across theroad. The man was due to face charges that morning for stealing a car. A policeofficer noticed the car and recalled that one of a similar description had beenreported stolen, so they ran the plates.
The man, from Whyalla Norrie and the woman from WhyallaStuart, were both arrested and charged for stealing the car after facing thecourts for the original charge, of stealing a car! The man was also charged fordriving while disqualified.
Senior Constable Rebecca Stokes told the ABC, ‘He'd actually stolen a carand turned up to court to face charges of car theft. We're hoping that when hispartner attends court next month she catches the bus, and we just break thisvicious cycle!”
Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2024
BrendanCole, ‘Man Facing Car Theft Charges Turns up at Court in Another Stolen Car,Gets Arrested,’ Newsweek, (2019), https://www.newsweek.com/adelaide-car....
‘Manfacing car theft charges arrested after allegedly arriving at court in anotherstolen vehicle,’ ABC NEWS, (2019), https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-3....
December 23, 2024
William Williams and the Missing Christmas Day Goose!
In 1845William Williams a 37-year-old brickies labourer was charged with theft forstealing a goose, the property of hairdresser, Alfred Cooper. Williams saw thegoose being cooked at Birrell’s bakery on Rundle Street. He decided he would like to eat it and stoleit.
He thentook it to the house of Henry Brooks, a bricklayer. The men and some friendsdined on the goose. Cooper, missing his prized goose, suspected that Williamsmay have stolen it. He arrived at Brooks's house and caught the men eating it,then went to find a police officer. Williamsknew he was in trouble, and asked Brooks for a loan of 5s 6d. – enough to payfor the goose.
The SouthAustralian newspaper reported that Cooper “came in and saw his goose in thehands of the Philistines. He then got a policeman, who took Williams intocustody”.Williams offered the money he had borrowed from Brooks for a goose, but Cooper declined,and Williams was arrested and taken to the police station where he wascommitted for trial.
At courtthe following day Birrell was asked to give testimony. He stated that onChristmas Day Williams came into his shop and asked for a light for his pipe.He went through the shop into the kitchen to get a light. On his way there, he passed through a small room where he saw Birrell’s wife stuffing a goose. Williams stated he would like to dine on the goose, as he was, ‘out for aspree’. The goose was taken into the kitchen to be baked. Williams leftBirrell’s and went to the adjoining house, owned by Brooks.
Mrs Cooper came to the shop to get hercooked Christmas goose but returned home without it. So, Mr Cooper and his wife went to Birrell’s to find their goose. They then stopped at Brooks's houseand witnessed Williams and other men eating a goose.
The men dining denied stealing thegoose, but after Cooper called the police, Brooks and his wife admitted thatWilliams had brought the goose to their house. Williams had then offered Cooperdouble the value of the goose so he would not press charges against him.
JamesBirrell, the baker, stated to the court that Cooper came to his house seeking a Christmasgoose but got none. He told Cooper there were more geese than one -"twogooses" - and that Williams had taken one away on a plate; leaving the tinin which it was brought behind. There was nothing else missing but the goose.
Williams and Brooks came in together whilst he was drawing the baking, andsaying the goose was what he wanted, it was handed up to him.
HenryBrooks stated to the court that he went to Birrell's for his dinner and was followedby Williams. He assisted Mr Birrell in taking out the dinners, and when he leftwith his dinner Williams had left the shop. Afterwards, Williams came to hishouse with a goose on a plate and stated he had bought it overnight for sixshillings. They ate the goose together. When Cooper came with the police, Williamscalled him into the next room, told him he had got into trouble about goose stealing,and borrowed some money from him to try to arrange payment for the goose andavoid gaol. Instead, he was then taken to the station-house.
EllenBirrell, wife of Mr Birrell, deposed that Williams asked for one of the twogeese, and took one away. A girl came and fetched the other goose. When thepolice arrived, she recalled Williams saying to Cooper, “I will pay you anyamount you like rather than go the office.”
The Defence argues that there had been noproof that the prisoner had taken, nor stolen the goose. Identification of thethief was insufficient. The defencecontinues, ‘Mr Birrell had stated there were ‘two gooses’ at most it was only a"spree" and having seen Mrs Cooper stuffing a goose, he perhapsthought he might as well stuff it too, only in a different manner; he was sorryMr Cooper should have been prevented dining off the goose, and also that heshould have been such a goose us to lose it: it was at most only a case for theResident Magistrate.
Mr Cooper then argued that if MrFisher, the defence lawyer had lost his Christmas dinner, just as it wascooked, and he was ready to eat it, he would not have made so light of it.
Mr Fisher then replied, “By no means!he was sorry for both him and Mrs Cooper; and would further say that if shecould dress geese as well as he could hairs, they must be a very clever couple.
The Magistrate said, he feared it wouldprove a serious "spree" for Williams, as he should commit him to takehis trial, though he would admit him to bail.
On Monday, March 9, 1846, Mr Williams facedtrial for ‘Stealing a ready cooked goose, value 5s., the property of AlfredCooper, on 25th December 1845, at Adelaide.” A handwritten note on the side ofthe record indicates that Williams was found Not Guilty.
© 2024Allen Tiller
'DEC.26.', South Australian, (30 December 1845), p. 3.
'Law And Police Courts. Police Commissioner's Court.', AdelaideObserver, (27 December 1845), p. 6.
GRS12820 Criminal record books, Supreme Court of South Australia
December 17, 2024
Cold Case Files: Patricia ‘Susi’ Schmidt
Cold Case Files: Patricia ‘Susi’ Schmidt
At 2 a.m. onSaturday, December 18, 1971, Patricia ‘Susi’ Schmidt finished a double shift atthe Darlington Burger King on the corner of South Road and Marion Road.Susi went outside to wait for her dad to pick her up. According to the CanberraTimes newspaper of 1971, Susi was a 16-year-old girl who had taken a jobat Burger King to save money so she could buy Christmas presents.Driving from their Seacliff home, Mr Schmidt ran 10 minutes late and never sawhis daughter alive again.
4 daysbefore her murder, Susi had worked the night shift at Burger King. She toldher girlfriend that after she finished her shift, she had started walking homewhen an older man, probably in his 30s, with a flash car, pulled over and askedif she needed a lift. Susi had accepted the lift and made it home safely toSeacliff.
Susi’s bodywas found dumped near Adams Street, at Hallet Cove, she had been raped andstrangled.Traces of weathered pink and white paint were found on her body. There werealso traces of nickel and nickel-silver on her body, which led police tobelieve at the time, she may have been in an engraver or key cutter workshop.Susi’s kangaroo skin purse was never found.
Darlington Burger King Adrienne Peele photoInDecember 2021, marking 50 years since Susi’s murder, South Australian Policereleased a news article via ABC News that 8 listed key points about the case:
Gold, brass, nickel, and other metal filings from key cutting. Microscopic particles from a shoe repair business. Welding slag (by-product left from the welding process). Particles of electrical waste from Phillips Industries (at Henley Beach at the time). Iridescent blue paint from a 1971 blue Holden Monaro. Small paint flakes — pink on one side and white on the other. Missing necklet with "Susi" engraved on the back. DNA from unknown men.
Policebelieve there may have been more than one person involved in Susi’s abduction, rape,and murder. The culprits, they believe, would be in their 60s today, if stillalive. There is a reward of up to $1 million foranyone who provides information that leads to the apprehension and convictionof the person or people responsible for Susi's death.
Anyonewith information about her murder is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333000 or report online at https://crimestopperssa.com.au/ .You can report anonymously.
Researchedand written by Allen Tiller © 2024.
‘Remembering Burger Kingin Adelaide,’ The Advertiser, (2023), (RememberingBurger King in Adelaide | The Advertiser (adelaidenow.com.au).
'Murdered', The Canberra Times, (20 December1971), p. 3.
Rebecca Opie, ‘DNAbreakthrough and eight clues could solve 1971 murder of Seacliff teen SusiSchmidt,’ ABC News, DNAbreakthrough and eight clues could solve 1971 murder of Seacliff teen SusiSchmidt - ABC News
Meagan Dillion, ‘The 45-year-old murder of PatriciaSchmidt will head across the Tasman Sea as SA Police remain determined to solvethe mystery,’ The Advertiser, (2016).
'Murdered', The Canberra Times, (20 December1971), p. 3.; Nigel Hunt, ‘The cold case files – unsolved SA murdersreopened,’ Sunday Mail, (2025), Thecold case files — unsolved SA murders reopened | The Advertiser(adelaidenow.com.au).
Hunt, ‘The cold case files,’Sunday Mail, (2025).; Opie, ‘DNA breakthrough,’ ABC News.
