Australian Ghost Stories

by James Doig (Editor), David Stuart Davies (Series Editor)

Murderous ghosts, horrific curses and monstrous beings haunt an unforgiving landscape into which travellers stray at their peril. Journey through the dark byways of Australia's Gothic past in the rare stories gathered in this memorable new collection. Work by acclaimed Australian writers such as Marcus Clarke, Henry Lawson and Edward Dyson appears alongside many lesser-known authors such as Beatrice Grimshaw, Mary Fortune and Ernest Favenc. Many of the stories collected here have never been reprinted since their first publication in 19th and early 20th century periodicals and showcase the richness and variety of the Australian ghost and horror story.

James Doig provides an authoritative introduction full of fresh insights into Australian Gothic fiction with detailed biographical notes on the authors represented.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Gothic, Mystery, Australia

206 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2010

About the author

James Doig grew up in Fremantle, Western Australia. He was educated at the University of Western Australia, and the University of Wales, Swansea, where he completed a PhD in medieval history. He has long been a devotee of horror ficion, and subscribes to the T.E.D. Klein view that interest in such things begins in the crib. He has published articles on obsure writers of supernatural and horror fiction such as R.R. Ryan, Keith Fleming, and R. Murray Gilchrist, and has edited a collection of shot stories by the Australian-born writer H.B. Marriot Watson for Ash-Tree Press. He has completed an anthology of early Australian supernatural fiction, which is currently under consideration by Ash-Tree. He works at the National Archives of Australia, where the research for his article was carried out.

Reviews

[Auntie Terror · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very curious collection, as interesting in respect to the social and scientific ideas of its contemporaries as in respect to actual ghost stories. (Rtc)

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Australian Ghost Stories is a nice anthology of stories that are neither entirely about ghosts (actually barely any of them are) nor entirely Australian (with at least one New Zealander featured).

Nevertheless despite the misleading title, James Doig has compiled a brilliant anthology of neglected Australasian gothic short stories in this ridiculously cheap volume ($3.10 Australian, or $3000 American in two weeks) featuring such authors as well known as Marcus Clarke (better known for For The Term of His Natural Life); Fergus Hume (Mystery of a Hansom Cab) and of course the renowned Australian short story writer Henry Lawson.

The stories themselves differ in quality and many I believe are included merely for curiosities sake but some of them are absolute crackers including "The Death Child", "The Cave" and the rather amusing "A Colonial Banshee" among others. They're a lot of fun, particularly if you've an inkling for gothic fiction and in the end you'll rue the fact that some of these writers are out of print and only a smidgeon of their stuff is available on either the regular or Australian Gutenberg sites and other such venues of public domain works.

[Ashleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read all except the last two stories because 4 pages were missing in the book I borrowed.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must admit I was a bit dissapointed with this collection. It has some nice stories, but most of them seemed more adventure story than spooky, and even when there was something supernatural there was hardly any ghosts. The White Maniac was a nice story about a very crazy woman, it was suspensefull and a horror story but not really supernatural in any way. A colonial banshee was fun, but not really scary in anyway. The death child was sad but not really scary. Hallowe'en was one of the best werewolf stories I've read (which granted isn't many). The devil of the marsh was very good, short and supernatural with an unhappy ending. Not one of the best collections I've read. The only author I'd like to read more of was Rosa Campbell Pread, her story was quite good, but mostly her bio made her sound very interesting. Writing supernatural fiction about a woman she lived with who she believed was a reincarnation of a Roman slave girl.

[Nathalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title may be a bit misleading, barely any stories that are worthy of the name Ghost Stories, but it’s a nice read and a it's lovely anthology of Australian Ghotic stories.

[Bill FromPA · Rating 3 out of 5]

None of the usual suspects for a ghost anthology, but the tales are only of average quality. No lost masterpieces here, I'm afraid.

Mary Fortune - The White Maniac: A Doctor's Tale - A sensational shocker built around a "Who is the madman/woman?" puzzle.
Ernest Favenc - Spirit-Led -A man has a near death experience where he sees a vein of gold in an isolated region. After leading two others to the vein, he dies a horrific unexplained death and one of his companions goes mad.
Ernest Favenc - A Haunt of the Jinkarras -Diary found on a corpse: A quest for rubies leads to the discovery of a race of apemen in a cave,
Marcus Clarke - The Mystery of Major Molineux -An overlong tale of a retired military man who isolated himself in his gloomy house every Thursday. Lycanthropy is hinted at with bogus physiological explanations. The horror remains too obscure to horrify.
Rosa Campbell Praed - The Bunyip - An extended discussion of the titular creature serves as set-up to a story where a little girl dies in a swamp under obscure circumstances. Was it a bunyip?

Louis Becke - Lupton's Guest: A Memory of the Eastern Pacific - An escaped murderer takes refuge with a trader "gone native" in the South Pacific. A native "Soul Catcher" intuits his story.
Edward Wheatley - The Haunted Pool: A Tale of the Blue Mountains - The tale of a close encounter with a water nymph is told to an English visitor.
Fergus Hume - A Colonial Banshee - A somewhat humorous tale of a familial benshee, speaking in stage Oirish, who emigrated with the last survivors of the cursed family.
H. B. Marriott Watson - The Devil of the Marsh - A fin de siècle femme fatale lures the narrator to a marsh at night; not an obvious Aussie setting.
Edward Dyson - The Accursed Thing - A renegade miner is almost suffocated by a flood of slime he sees as a living creature.
Henry Lawson - The Third Murder: A New South Wales Tale - Spending a night in a reputed haunted house, the narrator witnesses the ghostly reenactment of a murder. Years later in the US, he discovers from an old newspaper it was an actual murder. Atmospheric.
Guy Boothby - The Death Child - A distraught mother attaches a curse to her small daughter, taken by slavers. All who befriend the girl die and she becomes notorious. A gruesome ending, improbably witnessed by the narrator.
Guy Boothby - A Strange Goldfield - The survivor of a remote, long-abandoned mining camp which was devastated by influenza continues to work and socialize with his dead associates.
Roderic Quinn - Sea Voices - More prose-poetry than story, evocative of Steven Millhauser, but a flat ending, quoting the overused "more things" line from Hamlet
Beatrice Grimshaw - The Cave -Nocturnal dinosaur ghosts on an small remote island reveal a hidden fossil and copper deposits.
James Francis Dwyer - The Cave of the Invisible - A Dutch archaeologist recounts the death of a Russian mystic in a sealed temple room he discovered in his search for "ancient air". The climactic attack is effectively described as the sounds of an otherwise invisible entity.
Dulcie Deamer - Hallowe'en - More of a prose poem, describing the last night of a she-werewolf in a medieval village that reads like the description of a Rackham illustration.

[Елена · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 ⭐

Here are short reviews of some of the stories in this collection~

"The White Maniac: A Doctor's Tale" — Mary Fortune

Going into this story, I knew nothing of the author (save for a brief description of her life in the beginning of the story) and I certainly did not know what this story would be about. The first few pages were not boring per say, but they were not breathtaking either. But that soon changed when our protagonist met a strange girl in a strange white, white room. The author keeps us guessing, who is the mad person here? The girl in the white room, or the one who's keeping her there. And I must say, I loved the story. It was imaginative. But the ending, the ending should have been more gruesome.
Rating: 5/5 ⭐


"Spirit-Led" — Ernest Favenc

I've never read anything by this author in my life, or I have, I certainly don't remember it. His "Spirit -Led" story didn't compel me to go search for more of his works. The story was okayish, it wasn't predictable. But it was filled with racial slurs and casual racism, as one might expect a book set in 1880-something to be.
Rating: 2/5 ⭐


"A Haunt of the Jinkarras" — Ernest Favenc

This story was by no means any better than Favenc's "Spirit-Led". Yes, it did have a more interesting premise, but it was incredibly racist. Though the story did manage to make me interested in the creatures so called "jinkarras."
Rating: 2/5 ⭐


"The Mystery of Major Molineux" — Marcus Clarke

The first 10 pages of this story were fascinating enough. But the story was too long and by the end I didn't care anymore. It was incredibly slow, but it had all of the beloved elements of the Gothic genre. It was too "medical" and I didn't care too much about the characters.
Rating: 3/5 ⭐


"The Bunyip" — Rosa Campbell Praed

The tale of the Bunyip was fascinating enough. More than half of it was just info dump and native Australian lore. But then we get a story and the Bunyip finds itself a victim.
Rating: 3/5 ⭐


"Lupton's Guest" —

Finally, a non racist story! The author has spent time with natives from the Pacific islands and his writing is clearly educated and non-discriminatory.
The story itself is interesting, but not breathtaking.
Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐


"The Haunted Pool" — Edward Wheatley

My favorite thing about this story is the mystery of the author himself. He doesn't appear anywhere and probably his name is a pseudonym, but no one knows. The Haunted Pool is a very short story. And I like how straight to the point it is. Yes, there's a pool, yes it is haunted.
Rating: 4/5 ⭐


"A Colonial Banshee" — Fergus Hume

Are 19th century people too sophisticated to believe in ghosts? I guess we find the answer to that question in this story.
Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐


"The Devil of the Marsh" — H. B. Marriott Watson

Ah... Tragic love.

Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐


"The Accursed Thing" — Edward Dyson

I guess If you dig too deep you'll find something. This was a fun story, written vividly - it was almost like a movie.
Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐


"The Third Murder: a New South Wales Tale" — Henry Lawson

This story was not at all what I expected to be, which was welcomed surprise.
Rating: 4/5 ⭐

[Kathryn Castles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hit and miss but interesting collection. Very pleased to find out about the life of Rosa Praed! And enjoyed A Colonial Banshee enough to check out The Mystery of the Hansom Cab. Guy Boothby's A Strange Goldfield conveys a strong image.

A Colonial Banshee - Fergus Hume

It is amusing how very mixed one's geographical ideas become in the colonies. Her for instance you sail up the Maori-christened lake of Wakitipu, stay at Queenstown, the name whereof smacks of Cork, and see from the top of an Antipodean Ben Lomond, the range of the Southern Alps which have nothing to do with Switzerland. It is a trifle confusing at first, but when one gets used to the oddity of the thing it is handy to have spots so widely apart within hailing distance. it is only in Otago that you can go from Queenstown to Ben Lomond in ten minutes.

Sometimes in such a place you met a man, more often a goat. I preferred the former myself as he sometimes invited me to have a drink whereas the goats were all distinctly hostile.

How can you be so superstitious? This is the nineteenth century. Ghosts went out when gas came in.

The Cave - Beatrice Grimshaw

So lonely it was, that you could hear yourself breathe; out of the wind, you could listen to your heart beating.

[Jovana Iv · Rating 1 out of 5]

Barely kept my attention. Every story is interesting at the beginning, and then the plot just plummets.

[Shannon T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's disappointing that this only caters to a colonial narrative but mostly enjoyable.