Is the Victoria Barracks Museum in Paddington, NSW, haunted? You be the judge. Photo by Cpl Cameron Jamieson, Army newspaper

The good ghost of Vic Barracks





By Cpl Cameron Jamieson

There are believers and disbelievers when it comes to the supernatural.

But if there are such things as ghosts, the old military cells in Victoria Barracks are a good place for a haunting.

The cells are part of the Army Museum of NSW, located at Victoria Barracks, Paddington NSW.

The museum has a unique collection of colonial uniforms and memorabilia, as well as items from both world wars.
But perhaps its greatest fixture is its ghost.

Assistant Museum Curator Norm Harries is a former RSM who knows the story well. He believes the spectre is the ghost of Pte Crowley, of the 11th North Devonshire Regiment.

The Regiment were the first troops into Victoria Barracks in 1848.

Pte Crowley had shot a sergeant and fled to hide in the swamps that were located in the modern area of Leichhardt.

“They apprehended him and brought him back to the barracks, then placed him in an upstairs cell awaiting trial,” said Mr Harries.

“He beat the trial by hanging himself off the balcony with blankets.”

Mr Harries believes Pte Crowley is a good ghost.

“I’ve been in and out of here for years and he’s never worried me,” he said

Museum Manager-Curator, Capt Linda Graham, believes the story is a furphy. “Apparently there was a soldier from one of the British regiments who had killed a sergeant and then later hung himself,” she said

“But the evidence would suggest he was already at Darlinghurst Gaol when it happened.”

Nevertheless, there have been reports over the years of strange goings on in the vicinity of the building.

So the controversy continues, but there is one thing for sure.

Nobody is in a hurry to spend the night there.

• The museum is open on Thursday 10am- 1pm and Sundays 10am-4pm. Call (02) 9339 3330 for visitor information or group bookings.
  

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