In the 1800’s, if you were travelling down Victoria Pass at night, there was the added risk of encountering the Ghost of Victoria Pass, which haunted Mitchell’s viaduct, also known as the second bridge, on Victoria Pass on the eastern side.
Travellers reported that their horses would become restless as they approached the bridge, then the figure of a young woman dressed entirely in black would suddenly appear in front of them. Some reported that her long, dark hair streamed out in the wind and that her arms were raised in a suppliant gesture. Some said that her eyes shone in the dark like a tigerโs and a few said that she was headless. As suddenly as she appeared the spectre would disappear, leaving travellers anxious to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the scene of their harrowing experience.
History can put a name to this ghost. She was born Caroline James, and at the time of her death she was Mrs William Collits. Caroline married into a respectable family: the Collits, proprietors of the inn at Hartley Vale.
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๐ต๐ฟ๐ด๐ถ๐พ๐ป๐ธ๐ด๐๐ป ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ช๐๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ง ๐ฝ๐ค ๐ผ
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Unfortunately for Caroline, the Collits who took a fancy to her, was the black sheep of the family, William, described by his father as a โspendthrift idiotโ. William Collits and Caroline James were married in 1840, but their marriage was anything but blissful.
Carolineโs younger sister was married to a thug named John Walsh, who was Carolineโs as well as her sisterโs lover before and after their marriages. When her new husband turned out to be a poor substitute for Walsh, Caroline left him and moved in with her accommodating sister and brother-in-law in a menage-a-trois.
A postman delivering mail to Hartley came upon the battered body of Caroline Collits beside the road on Victoria Pass, about five kilometres from Jaggerโs tavern.
Caroline Collitt, was about seventeen years of age and she had been married for about eighteen months.
Her skull had been smashed with a large stone which lay, stained with her blood, nearby. John Walsh was arrested for her murder but pleaded innocence, accusing not William Collits as you might imagine but Joseph Jagger, the tavern keeper, of committing the heinous crime. The jury at Walshโs trial did not believe him. He was convicted and hanged at Bathurst on 3 May 1842.
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๐๐๐๐๐๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐ค ๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐
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Caroline was destined to spend an eternity of cold and windy nights haunting the Mitchell’s viaduct, also known as the second bridge, on Victoria Pass, spooking horses and terrifying innocent travellers.
Some comfort may have come to her in the 1880s when Henry Lawson and his father came to live in the nearby village of Mount Victoria and the young poet wrote a sixteen verse poem about her entitled The Ghost at the Second Bridgeโ.
Some say that Caroline Collits put a curse on the village of Mount Victoria, but its current prosperity belies that. No one has seen the Ghost of Victoria Pass for many years, which is hardly surprising.
The urban legend of โThe Woman in Blackโ.
Youโd call the man a senseless fool, โ
A blockhead or an ass,
Whoโd dare to say he saw the ghost
Of Mount Victoria Pass;
But I believe the ghost is there,
For, if my eyes are right,
I saw it once upon a neโer-
To-be-forgotten night.
This section of road is the setting for the 1891 Henry Lawson poem,
The Ghost at the Second Bridge
YOUโD call the man a senseless fool,โ
A blockhead or an ass,
Whoโd dare to say he saw the ghost
Of Mount Victoria Pass;
But I believe the ghost is there,
For, if my eyes are right,
I saw it once upon a neโer-
To-be-forgotten night…
Source: Blue Mountains Local Studies
