Ghosts hold court

ONE of the most haunted buildings in town is the historic Goulburn Courthouse, possibly because it is located near a site where public hangings occurred.

The magnificent 1887 Victorian Italianate building, designed by Colonial Architect James Barnet, contains two large courtrooms, offices, a grand foyer, underground tunnels and an old morgue.

And the building is definitely haunted, according to staff, maybe because the courthouse is built very near the site where public hangings used to occur, including the hanging of Mary Ann Brownlow in 1854.

Some of the staff are convinced that she still haunts the place.

“When the Lieder Theatre performed the play The Ballad of Mary Ann Brownlow in the courthouse (in 2005), I got many complaints afterwards from people sitting in the upstairs gallery who claimed they had been touched on the shoulder or that their hair had been flipped by an unseen hand,” Sheriff Vesper Stanberg said.

For the full story, please see Wednesday's Goulburn Post, available from our front office in Auburn St, or at all leading newsagencies across the Goulburn area.