GHOST TENANT.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10829, 30 March 1932, Page 4

GHOST TENANT.

“HAUNTED HUT” IN WEST. Perth, March 12, The Murchison murder trial at the Criminal Court has brought to public notice a house of terror in a lonely out-back and known as “The Haunted Hut.” This crazy shack, with its decayed and ant-eaten wooden frame and loose sheets of iron is said to be a ghoststricken lair of the vengeful and restless spirit of a big buck native, who was speared to death there about 20 years ago. , And there is another story of a white man "spook” as a tenant. , A prominent witness down for the trial told “The Sunday Sun” that when he passed the desolate spot about a fortnight ago he found a native camp a few hundred yards west of it. “Why don’t you sleep over there?” he asked one of the abos., pointing to a shed just visible through the mulga, and the reply was “No fear. Dead man live that place.” Nothing, it is said, will ever induce a native to stop inside the door day or night. If the haunted hut ever had a chance of outlasting its evil reputation that chance has now gone for ever, and, whatever, the result of Rowles's trial, it will never be forgotten that a party of police raked ashes there for human remains. Thirty Years Ago.

The hut was flung together nearly 30 years ago, a few uprights, a few sheets of iron, a door, and no window completing the job. A buck abo. was speared to death while he slept in the doorway 20 years ago, and his gin, who was inside, was ’"Carried off by the killer, who had been a rival suitor About three years ago the wind blew open the door, and 16 thirstcrazed kangaroos came there in search of water, several entering the hut, to die on the floor, while the rest died just outside, owing to lack of water.

Natives who heard about this incident attributed it to a supernatural tenant and, although the door was locked and held fast, the precaution was needless, as no human being would enter the house of terror.