The Ghost of Engineers Past
Mount Crosby has its very own ghost ... or does it?
I have the honour to report that Mount Crosby has its very own ghost. In 1946, rumours began to circulate that the old laboratory building at Low Level (built 1916) was occupied by a ghost who could be heard knocking and whining in the small hours of the night. Newspapers at the time reported people volunteering to stay overnight in the building to experience the eerie sounds. They wrote, “it used to mount the stairway to the top floor of the laboratory night after night and many men including the City Council’s chief chemist (Dr Chamberlain) confess to bad frights from the eerie sound“.
Strange and unbelievable isn’t it? And if there was a ghost, who might it be? That’s another strange thing about the Mount Crosby ghost; nobody ever said. I like to think it was the ghost of Jimmy Hutchins putting the willies up Doc Chamberlain on night shift, but there again Jimmy was still alive at that time. Hmmmmm .. maybe ...
Perhaps there’s a clue in the timing of the ghost story. Just after the Second World War and at the end of Mount Crosby’s age of steam, there was poverty and painful change for many workers and their families. What’s more, ghosts can be a cheap and harmless lark. Ours may be a benevolent ghost that distracts people from their worries and meant no harm to anyone.
Ghost or no ghost, the old laboratory building did hold a treasure that has been lost. When it was built, it housed a perfect scale model of the water treatment plant that was used to predict the right flows and chemical doses for dealing with turbid water. Sometime in the second half of the twentieth century some non-believer turned it into a ghost that never visits.
I remain your ob. servant and chief engineer,
Joe Stewart.
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