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The Exorcism of Ernest Austin's Phoney Phantom
Ernest Austin,1913 (Truth)(This article is adapted from The Haunting Question: Boggo Road Ghosts?, available as a free ebook here.)Ernest Austin was sentenced to death in 1913 for the vicious murder...
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The Number's Up for Malaita Men on the Boggo Road Gallows
"And the mercy seat is waitingAnd I think my head is burningAnd in a way I'm yearningTo be done with all this measuring of truth."(Mercy Seat, Nick Cave)There was an interesting result to the quiz on...
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Dumbing Down Death Penalty History
Can you imagine reading this in the news?"Today is the 125th anniversary of the death of legendary bushranger Ned Kelly at Melbourne Gaol. To find out more about his legacy, his rise as an Australian...
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Say Hello to the 'Boggo Road Arts, History & Education Committee'
Good morning all,It has been a while since an update here on the situation at Boggo Road Gaol, mostly because keeping tabs on what is happening there is like herding cats on a water bed. Well, now is a...
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A Dirty Dozen: The Boggo Blog's Top 12 Death Penalty Songs
Inspired by the recent 'Hanging in Queensland' month on this Boggo Road Facebook page, here (in no particular order) are the top twelve death penalty songs that I can (a) recall right now and (b) find...
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One Big Mistake to Avoid when Donating to a Museum Collection
While working at Boggo Road Gaol Museum late one afternoon back around 2004 we had a couple of people from Toowoomba turn up asking if the objects they had recently donated to us were out on display...
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At Boggo Road, There Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
This is Eddie. Eddie is happy for me to tell his story but he’s a bit reluctant to show himself on the Internet and Eddie is not his real name. He is, however, a real person. I have known him for...
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The Kindness of Strangers, Part 3
Here's the third installment of comments from our 'Better Future for Boggo Road' petition over at change.org. Once again a big thanks to everyone who has signed so far, especially those who leave...
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Arrividerci Roma, a Guardian Spirit of South Brisbane Cemetery
(This article has been transcribed from notes written this morning) It is, as I put this to paper, 11a.m. on 4 December 2013. I am sitting in the South Brisbane Cemetery. The sky is blue, peppered with...
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Independent Report Recommends Change of Management at Boggo Road
The interim reopening of Boggo Road recently took another unwelcome turn when an independent recommendation to install new interim management at the old prison was ignored by the state government.The...
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The Day They Smashed a Truck Through the Gates of Boggo Road
Many of the escape attempts from Boggo Road prison were subtle affairs, requiring discrete planning, construction of tools such as ropes, grappling hooks, fake weapons, or smuggling of saw blades and...
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Catholics Riot as Mary and Joseph Hit Brisbane
What was the state of play in Catholic/Protestant sectarianism in Brisbane at the beginning of the 20th century? Judging by the angry mob of Catholics who attacked the Protestant Hall in 1900 with...
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No Hooking Way!
John Andrew Stuart.Sometimes you see old prison artefacts and you just stare at them in utter disbelief. This happened last week when I saw, for the first time, a little collection of wire contraptions...
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The New Farm Shark Attack of 1862: Fact or Fiction?
One of my favourite subjects of historical research - no doubt driven by my irrational phobia of being eaten alive underwater - is Brisbane River shark attacks. There are slim pickings in the modern...
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Aliens Are Not History: The Credulousness and Despair of our Times
Remember when the History Channel used to be have shows on about History instead of UFOs, ghosts, unicorns, mermaids, or whatever else is popular this week? I can only presume that the channel...
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The 'Lingering Doubts' of Brisbane's 1947 'Arcade Murder'
The murder of Bronia Armstrong in Brisbane in 1947 turned into a double tragedy when Reginald Brown hanged himself in Boggo Road’s F Wing just a few days after being found guilty of the crime. The...
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The Fairfield History Walk
'A fair field full of folk found I in between, Of all manner of men the rich and the poor, Working and wandering as the world asketh. Some put them to plow and played little enough, At setting and...
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Kentucky Fried Ghosts: The Boggo Road 'Ghost Hunt' Controversy
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Kentucky Fried Ghosts 2
The following quotes are taken from some of the early signatories on the 'Queensland Government: Please stop allowing commercial ‘ghost hunts’ in places where deaths in custody took place' petition....
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Know your Colonial Gaol History #7: The 'Julia Percy' and the 'Proserpine',...
A new Brisbane prison was opened on Petrie Terracein 1860, but a few years later it was already full to capacity and the authorities needed another incarceration facility to cope with the overcrowding....
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