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Rumors of a ghost at Ascot House in Queensland, Australia, have been circulating as far back as the 1890s. It wasn’t until some one hundred years later, that the ghost could finally be put to rest. Ascot House was built for wealthy businessman and politician, Frederick Holberton, in 1876, and was originally named ‘Tor’. Situated in Newtown, a suburb of Toowoomba, it once stood on 13ha (32 acres) of land. It eventually changed hands, and the new owner renamed it Ascot House and undertook numerous renovations. Ascot House contained a gothic tower, sweeping staircase, and large high-ceilinged rooms. Many years later, the house would fall into a state of disrepair. During the 1940s, flats had been added, which housed people looking for cheap accommodation. It was not until the 1980s that the house was sold to a successful renovator, who proceeded to bring the house back to its former glory. No sooner had the new owner moved into Ascot House, that she would hear footsteps walking down the hallway at night but see no-one. Once, during the early hours of the morning, she felt fingertips brush her shoulders. One warm evening, she leaned against a wall where the surface was icy cold. The cold patch lasted for months and defied explanation. There have been numerous eye-witness accounts, including one man who saw the apparition of a young woman that looked as if her neck was broken. It had been rumored that a young servant girl had hung herself within the house. After many years of searching, the owner identified the young woman as Maggie Hume, who had worked at Ascot House as a housemaid under the employ of the original owner, Frederick Holberton. At 23 years of age, she committed suicide, not by hanging, but by taking strychnine. According to the police reports, it was believed she suicided after learning she was pregnant. At the inquest, a couple of male staff members confessed to having ‘connections’ with her. As a single woman committing suicide, Maggie was buried in an unmarked grave. Now, a headstone has been placed at the site, giving her the sympathy she never received in life. Source: debbie-johansson.com/2021/09/29/the-ghost-of-ascot-house/

In the early 1900s, people began riding up to Mt Glorious from the eastern valleys below and began growing bananas and other crops. The first building at Mt Glorious, erected around 1909, was Tom Lindsay’s “Gentle Breezes”. In October 2009 the Mt Glorious community celebrated the centenary of European settlement at Mt Glorious. Preparation for the centenary included some historical research and gathering of stories concerning Lindsay and others who followed. The following is an extract from resident Ruth Lowe’s, Tom Lindsay: first settler’s house on Mt Glorious, Centenary celebrations 2009. "Helen Horton’s book Brisbane’s Back Door mentions the early development of Mt Glorious and describes how Thomas Lindsay “rode up the Cedar Creek spur by Mt O’Reilly to a place he liked on the top of the range. He called it Gentle Breezes.” After taking over the selection in 1908 he moved up to the land and lived in a tent. He appears to have worked, with the help of Charles Patrick in clearing the land and putting in a dairy herd. Helen Horton continues: “Later Charles Patrick accepted Lindsay’s further offer to take his family and live in the five-roomed slab hut, with separate kitchen, which had by this time replaced the tent. (See above photo). With a verandah at the front, it was reasonably comfortable, but it had a separate kitchen made of stringybark sheets that was quite some distance from the hut.” “The first house on Mt Glorious was built ‘around 1911’ [erased and replaced with ‘1909’] by Mr Tom Lindsay. The house took him from 12 to 18 months to build …” The letter continues: …”the family accepted the offer and moved to Mt Glorious around 1912.” At that time their family numbered eight children. In his description of the eventful wagon trip up the mountain with the furniture Bill Patrick mentions ‘the baby’, who was probably Phyllis Patrick, born 16.5.1910, mother of Pat Berlin the author of the letter." Source: www.mtnebo.org.au/history-of-european-settlement/

Fire on the northern side of Murilla Street in Miles about 1937. The blaze destroyed nine buildings including the Hotel Australia on Train Street, the chemist, two auto garages, a cafe, hairdresser, grocer and office buildings. The fire was made worse by the lack of reticulated water available to fight it. Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_raging_in_Miles_in_1...(8736947472).jpg