Former long-time Head of English at Auckland Grammar, now involved in research and education projects at the Old Melbourne Gaol, Trevor Poultney has previously written books on the hangmen of Victoria and their victims.
In 2011 he developed a new Gaol tour in which he tells some of the gaol-centred ghost stories he has collected.The highly popular tour at the Old Melbourne Goal is entitled Ghosts - what ghosts and this book has come in response to demand from people on the tour.
Here is the author in his Introduction:
It’s said that everybody loves a good ghost story – unexplained occurrences, eerie noises and spooky figures all in a macabre, nightmarish setting.
It would be difficult to imagine a more macabre, nightmarish setting than a cavernous, cold, grey, Victorian bluestone building. The Old Melbourne Gaol is such a building, and its history is full of the sorts of terrible and grisly tales that feed the ghost story genre.
It is also often said that truth is stranger than fiction – and that is exactly what we find when we look closely at some of the weird stories associated with the Old Melbourne Gaol. There is no need to make up ghost stories about the Gaol, because the truth is eerie enough.
This book presents some of the Old Melbourne Gaol’s weird stories and photographs, and invites you to ask yourself, Ghosts – what ghosts?
Enquiries to tpoult@bigpond.net.au