Ghost Trails - Episode 2: The Boy at Ipswich Cemetery

Many people who grew up in Ipswich in the days before computers considered

ghost

hunting a great weekend pastime and one of the places they frequented was the Old Ipswich General Cemetery. It is a fascinating and morbid museum of Ipswich's past. Ipswich Cemetery has been open for over 170 years spanning two centuries,

ghost

stories date back to its beginnings and feature some of the town's prominent citizens but also crimes, deaths and tragedies that have haunted the town . Visitors to the

cemetery

at night say that the place can sometimes seem quite creepy, others consider it to be just peaceful and quiet, the longer you stay here, the more it seems like you are not alone.

The original

cemetery

occupied the northeast corner and extended west from the corner of Cemetery and Briggs Roads. Since the early 1840s, the cemetery began receiving the city's dead in 1849. There were problems the ground was not what deep enough to bury the coffins the smell of the decomposing corpses rose to the surface the cemetery had to be inspected again the drivers who passed by in the late afternoon and at night claimed to have seen ghostly figures, children and adults dressed with the clothes of yesteryear walking among the tombstones looking for his today it is the resting place of more than 32,000 former residents of Ipswich other ghosts here take many interesting forms black shapes silhouettes of people in motion have been observed running across the tracks and footsteps can be heard walking on the gravel, people say that the tombstones suddenly light up and then continue to glow as the car headlights go out on cold, still nights.

Mist can be seen hanging close to the ground in the oldest section creeping through the cemetery moving between the graves following the paths. and anyone who is on the ground at night buried in a poor man's grave is james ryan in his old age claimed to be dan kelly brother of ned kelly the infamous australian bandit ryan claimed he escaped death and survived the siege of glen rowan before After fleeing to Queensland where he adopted a different name, many locals claim to have memories of meeting the old man and seeing the terrible scars from the severe burns on Ryan's upper legs and back.

His story has never been refuted. Of the many haunted tombs. The most enduring story is that of Piper's memorial stories. of the boy and the mystery surrounding how the young man died have entertained generations of Ipswichites Located in the Church of England section is a notable tomb containing the mortal remains of two children of Stella and Samuel Piper, the couple in their 20s They married in 1889 but unfortunately the following year they lost their firstborn on October 28, 1890. Samuel Claude Piper, named after his father, died when he was only four and a half months old. His pain lessened when a little over a year later the pipers brought another child to the world terence hildebert piper became known simply as bertie the years passed and his son grew up but then fate dealt him a cruel blow bertie died at his home on burnett street less than a month after his 12th birthday the next day he was buried with his brother in

ipswich

cemetery

ipswich

undertaker j.w reed took charge of the funeral arrangements in late 1904, a magnificent monument to the memory of the piper boys was built by monumental batstones of brisbane over several months, combining Sandstone, marble, iron and even photographs, created one of the best examples of Australia.

Of the cemetery art, the most striking feature was a life-size statue of his son standing on a pedestal. The piper's strong Christian beliefs were reflected in the statue being placed facing east awaiting the day of resurrection when Jesus would return with the resurrection. sun to raise the dead they held up their child for Jesus to see first recreated from a photograph was extremely realistic down to the clothes he wore including details like cut off shorts and a handkerchief in his pocket to refine details like eyebrows and hair carved in stone his right hand rested on a broken pillar symbolism of a life cut short his left was clutched in anticipation a little bird's favorite toy tractor was chained to an iron ring at the base of the pedestal samuel piper drove his part of boot shop, department store funds for cribs and feet for the memorial came from generous donations from fellow staff, as well as friends of the grieving couple, on either side of the plinth where lettered inscriptions of lead in which the details of the children's deaths were recorded. equaling the size of fontaine on the east and south faces both fell asleep rather than having died the deep pain of the pipers is evident in a beautiful poem written by sam on the east side of the monument so sweet affection that nair of the earth could noble-minded being yet gentle as a dove, bright rays from heaven to earth shone through you to tell us that love is god and god is love, ah, then all our tears will be put to shame when you return us to our birth in heavenly care and know it as the Equal but more beautiful than the air it was before, carved in sandstone beneath the marble plaque is the line that inconsolably laments the flutist's Christian beliefs and his struggle with his loss is clear from the passages they chose from the Bible.

The statue of the moving boy is the best known haunted grave in Ipswich General Cemetery. The first tales date back to the 1920s, visitors to the cemetery during daylight hours who came to visit their loved ones stopped to admire the elaborate memorial that was particularly popular with children as a reward for being patient. Taken to see the boy while their parents read the inscriptions, the children marveled at the boy who seemed to be as real as they were. In the mid-20th century the boy attracted teenagers and young adults who explored their city on full moon nights, Halloween and Friday the 13th were particularly popular nights for people to come visit.

His eyes were said to glow a brilliant emerald green if he waited and watched long enough. People stayed all night to see if his eyes moved as dawn approached and fatigue took hold of many. He claimed that he would suddenly look at you no matter where you stood in front of the statue. It was said that his eyes followed some memories. The entire statue glowed green. Bernie was also said to turn his head and look at people. A popular trick was to stand up and turn your back keeping the statue behind you but out of the corner of your eye and then it was said that it moved some stories say that his right hand rises from the column others say that his statue follows the people and walk through the cemetery at night the circumstances of birdie's death have long been a mystery an inscription on the western side of the monument has fueled more than 120 years of speculation vengeance is mine i will pay says the lord the words carried The monument was severely damaged by vandals in 2001.

Dozens of headstones and monuments were destroyed. There have been numerous occasions of vandalism at the cemetery which are of great distress to me because I am looking after the place. There are times that I and I have come here. and the sexton has raised about 100 graves that have been vandalized, put the headstones back up and tried to preserve the place, it's a big shock, I mean all these headstones and monuments are irreplaceable, they would pick something up from a grave and use it . That completely destroying the tombstones was incredible at that time a lot depended on the tombstone to find the grave and without that tombstone you couldn't find it, the family couldn't find it.

I get very excited about the cemetery and I get very upset about it. Any of the damage, I mean, my job was to see that piper birdie won, it's a beautiful statue to find it vandalized in 2006, that was very, very disappointing. His head broke, I think they even used his head to try. and breaking other things on the grave, you know, so, it was really heartbreaking when you see things like that, especially such a popular headstone. Everyone loved it. To everyone who came here, the first thing they would look at would be that. of statue because it is unique, there are no other monuments like it in any of the other cemeteries, the little birds are one and it is unique, it really is in the ipswich area among all our cemeteries, absolutely four years after the monument was damaged by Vandals, a group of three women entered the cemetery at midnight, one was celebrating her 40th birthday, the last time they were here was for her 18th birthday, they were delighted to find the statue just as they remembered it, but although they stayed all night to his disappointment.

She never moved, the thing is that even though they couldn't have seen the statue, the woman was adamant about the date they were there, don't forget your 40's, she told me when she explained to her that she couldn't have seen the statue. statue. Having been vandalized four years earlier in 2001, she was left speechless after the vandalism. The boy's broken pieces were given to Vince's great-nephew when Vince passed away. His family didn't know what to do with them. Bertie must have wanted to do it. be restored i approached alan hawkes, manager of ipswich cemetery, to try to fix the monument.

Allen thought he had lost the family's contact details, but then, in a strange twist of fate, they turned up just in time, I think he was inside. a coat pocket nowhere I expected to look, but I happened to pull it out and I was floored if it wasn't there and to say, um, I'm a bit of a hoarder, I collect all those things I have every diary from my entire time on the council, every notebook and that was the one that was not with the rest and it was just a pure coincidence that we found it when we did and we were able to contact the family and recover it, otherwise it would have been lost in 2010 the monument was restored by bat stones 106 years after they originally built it.

I operate a stone masonry business in Brisbane. I am the fourth generation. It's something that's in your blood and you just can't. I have to keep doing it first, it was hard to understand why it happened, um, but I guess this has been going on for years and years and it's going to be hard to stop that from happening. It certainly stands out. and yes, it is exceptional, you can see where it was built with love. It's very rare that you see a bus like that, there are certain circumstances where people have made them in bronze or then put them in the cemetery, but as far as we're concerned, it's very, very rare that we would make one there to begin.

I knew that my grandfather would be involved in its construction and that was a proud moment to think that we had the opportunity to restore it after the vandalism the statue of the boy was reinstalled on the pedestal the work was commissioned and paid for by my company it goes to his limited property and to Ipswich Town Hall to commemorate the town's 150th anniversary Bertie once again waits for the rising sun so what killed Bertie for four weeks the boy suffered a terrible fever his parents called a doctor but in 1904 there was little he could do The next day he fell unconscious and never woke up.

Enteric fever, also known as typhoid fever, is recorded in Birdie's death, certified as the reason for his death. Today we know it as food poisoning caused by the Salmonella bacteria. It is still fatal. Most likely, the boy became ill from drinking contaminated water or eating spoiled food. His parents could only watch as he died a slow and horrible death. words, vengeance is mine, i will repay is a quote from the holy bible, saint paul's letter to the romans, chapter 12, verse 19. the scriptures say that revenge or wrath is an act only for god, who is The only one who can fix things, I will pay, it means God will do it. day make up for loss and pain death is God's will and Christians should try not to be bitter the pipers were able to see their children again sam died 10 years after bertie and was buried in a grave near his children his mother Stella went to live with her family in Brisbane, she died in 1951, aged, Piper's monument remains standing in Ipswich Cemetery.