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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 988, 17 October 1868, Page 3

Frightful Accident at the Sydney Heads. — On the afternoon of the 11 lh, an accident of the most frightful nature occurred at the Heads. Ifc appears that twofmen and a woman, said to be a girl of the town — some say the party consisted of two women and a man— took a cab in Sydney, and went to South Head. Thoy got skylarking on the edge of the cliffjust below the flagstaff, when the hat of the unfortunate deceased blew off, and in making an attempt to catch it she fell over the rocks into the abyss below — a depth of several hundred feet. In her descent her body was frightfully mangled ; her head, face, and lower jaw being completely smashed. She also sustained a terrible gash across the groin and lower part of the stomach. The joints of her shoulders and arms were also broken. As soon as the affair became known the boats of Messrs. Rice and Playfair (butchers) put out and recovered the body, which was conveyed to the police-station at Watson's Bay. A telegram was then sent to the water police at Sydney, and seniorsergeant Ferris and a boat's crew at once proceeded down the harbor and conveyed the body of the deceased to tho deadhouse, Circular Quay. When the body was picked up there was not a stitch of clothing on it, with the exception of a blue ribbon round the neck, and the boots ancl stockings on the feet. The clothes caught in the edges of the rocks in the fall, aud so were torn'from the body. Portions of the clothes still remain attached to the rocks. Strange to say, the two persons who were with deceased, immediately on seeing their companion go over the cliffs (so we are informed,) took to the cab, and as if panic-stricken, wero making off when they were stopped by Mr. Gibson, telegraph station master at the Heads, who procured their names and addresses, which we,have been unable to learn. The death of the unfortunate girl must have been.instantaneous.