Where are the most haunted places on the North Shore?

“Most people have never seen a ghost, and never want or expect to,” the horror novelist Shirley Jackson once wrote.

“But almost everyone will admit that sometimes they have a sneaking feeling that they possibly could meet a ghost if they weren’t careful”.

Here on the North Shore there are some corners and dark rooms you might want to hesitate before, according to locals.

When we reached out for your stories earlier this month, here are the best we heard:

Tarella House, Cammeray

Now the site of an Early Learning Centre, the Victorian-era Tarella House in Cammeray was built in 1886 by Sir Joseph Palmer Abbott as a private residence.

The blog of local ghost hunter Daniel Phillips’ claims that it is a “focal point for eerie phenomena” such as the apparitions of two children who died of cholera in the 1800s, alarms being activated for no ostensible reason, and the smell of cigars and French cooking emanating from unused rooms at strange times.

Spotted Gum Road, Westleigh

One Lorikeet reader wrote to us with the story of a spectral encounter she had on Spotted Gum Road in the upper North Shore suburb of Westleigh:

“I saw a woman in a brown A-line coat and headscarf (very much like the attire my late mother used to wear) walking towards me in the distance on the left-hand side of the road. I noticed she crossed the road and entered my driveway. I slowed right down and turned right into my driveway expecting to see her at my front door. The woman was nowhere to be found.”

Royal North Shore Hospital

Hospitals on the North Shore may be haunted by more than just bungled privatisation.

One former receptionist at the Royal North Shore Hospital told the Lorikeet she often felt quite “spooked” leaving the premises late at night when she worked there in the 1990s. 

“I worked in an old dark brick building that is now gone, and I used to have to go into the medical records unit there. It was so creepy down there because the walls would creak, and it would almost feel like the walls were talking to you. My hair would stand up on the back of my neck. You’d just feel a presence. And there were all these underground tunnels that would connect different buildings at RNSH back then too.”

Q Station

There's only one station scarier to Northern Beaches residents than a train station. That is the Quarantine Station found on the south of North Head. Though technically not a North Shore location, this spot is notorious for its ghostly nature. The site was used as a quarantine facility for those arriving in the Colony of New South Wales, particularly during the cholera pandemic of the 1820s and 30s. 

According to the site's state heritage listing, an estimated 572 people died and were buried at the station.

Wakehurst Parkway

Wakehurst Parkway, running through Frenchs Forest up to Warriewood, has had numerous reports of ghost sightings through the years. These include sightings of a nun, as well as a young woman known as “Kelly”.

Do you have a story to add? Let us know: email [email protected]

Image credit: Adam.J.W.C, Privatemusings via Wikimedia