April 28, 2022 • 33 mins
Content warning: this episode discusses material related to sexual assault.
What if it's not the past haunting us, but the present?
For decades, hair-raising rumours of a tormented soul haunting Wilfred Barrett Drive have put the Central Coast on the map for hosting one of the most haunted roads in New South Wales. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the Jenny Dixon ghost story and look at the cultural impact of urban legends as well as analyse the role folklore plays in societies.
Host and producer: Malin Hägglund
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You are listening to seven Year Spectrum with me Malin
Heglund and this is a phantom hitchhiker on Australia's coast.
This episode contains conversations about sexual assault.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I came to Norville when I was about about eleven.
Jenny Dixon at that stage to us was the girl
that had been hitch hyped and everything.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
So we drove into the driveway of the cemetery and
then all of a sudden, like I just got this
feeling that like we shouldn't be there and we should
turn back.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
And then I looked back up and I saw this
woman standing on the driveway.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Getting caught up in the Is it real or not?
Speaker 6 (00:55):
This is the point of what the story is about,
what it's trying to communicate about the issues we haven't
our society.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Some people say that seeing is believing, and yet there
are things that you haven't seen but believe exist. So
what happens when you're the only one that can see.
In this episode of seven New Spectrum, we investigate the
alleged haunting of Jenney Dixon on the Central Coast in
New South Wales, Australia. The following story is based on
(01:54):
local legends and witness accounts. In March eighteen seven, an
article in Goldburn's local newspaper reads about a ship that
has been wrecked off the coast in Cabbage Tree Harbor.
At the time, coal production was at its prime in
New South Wales. Likewise, the coastal trade, and as de
(02:17):
man grew, so did the amount of coal carrying ships
along the coastline. While many made their destination, some like
the one mentioned did not. The schooner in the article
was Janet Dixon, a one hundred tons coal carrying ship
that had traveled in conditions that only two days before
(02:40):
had been described as rain so thick as to obscure
everything beyond a short distance. Unlike some of its predecessors,
all of Janet Dixon's crew survived and its bell was
salvaged and can be found today at Tougley's Public Schools
Sanitary Garden. According to Greg Barry's Book of Shipwrecks in
(03:03):
New South Wales, the same wreck would later give name
to Noraville's Gene Dixon Beach, a place that is known
today as one of the many haunted spots on the
central coast, and also where this story begins.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Well, yeah, like, I guess being a vocal we kind
of know the story about it, and it was starting
to get dark, and yeah, we were a mom was like, well,
let's go to the cemetery and I was like, oh okay,
and yeah that joke. I was like, don't say it's
just like mucking around, because.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
You know that's Sarah Rawllings. She's talking about the time
when she and her mom, Elizabeth, had driven to Norah
Head to dine over the lookout of Jeney Dixon Beach.
The beach lies one street away from the belief to
be haunted Wilfred Barrett Drive, and although there are many
(03:57):
stories that circulate as to why it's haunted, many lead
back to the beach itself. Some things is connected to
the lives claimed by shipwrecks or killings in the area
over past decades. So whether you believe in the paranormal
or not, the overwhelming spread of witness reports of a
(04:18):
young woman dressed in white along the road would dont
most drivers having to pass the roots at night. Many
claimed the woman to be the victim of a fatal
hitchhiking incident said to have occurred in the nineteen seventy.
The story tells of a young girl who was sexually
abused at Genie Dixon Beach after having been picked up
(04:39):
by five guys on the road. The young woman would
later die from her injuries and the abusers walked free. However,
according to the legend, all five men's freedom would within
a year of her death, follow of a series of
strange accidents and suicides. The girl has seen. It's been
(05:00):
referred to as Jenny Dixon, and stories of the phantom
Headshaker have been passed on until today. It was just
the beginning of autumn and they made it to the
spot just in time for the sunset. Sarah is the
spitting image of her mom, and the pair hold a
close relationship and are almost inseparable at times. To also
(05:25):
share something quite unusual to some, They say they can
communicate with people who have passed Elizabeth.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
When I moved up this area like twenty three years,
I've never heard the story because it's about it's probably
about thirty minutes away from my place, and it was
my sister in law who said to me who lived
close to to that there's supposed to be a woman,
Jenie Dixon, who gets into people's cars and I said, oh,
you know, and I didn't really know the story of
(05:55):
what it was all about. And when we got in
the car getting that, so I said to my joy,
I just said jokingly. I just looked at her and
I said, Jenny Dixon. And you know, if my mom
don't say that, you know. Anyway, we just took off
and said we're driving, and I said to her, let's
(06:15):
go into the cemetery. We're only going to do like
a quick driving tribing that out. We're are going to
kind of like stop because you don't know who's there
human mi.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
The Noraville Cemetery was opened in the eighteenth century and
has over four hundred granite markers, having lived in the
community's folklore. It's today a place associated with the Jenny
Dixon urban legend. Stories claim she was buried at Noraville Cemetery,
but without a headstone. Some people even say that it
(06:50):
is a place where you can call on Jenny herself.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
So we drive into the driveway of the cemetery and
then all of a sudden, like I just got this
feeling that like we shouldn't be there and we should
turn back. And it was a really kind of like
overwhelming feeling, and I was like, oh, And I looked at.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Mom and she was like, yeah, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
And then then she started telling me like she was
describing like a woman she was there.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Still inside the car, Sarah and Elizabeth remained surrounded by
only the night sky. Sarah was behind the wheel and
Elizabeth in the seat next to her. Sarah says she
remembers having felt overwhelmed, and once she'd seen the look
on her mother's face, she figured that something wasn't right.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
And then I looked back up and I saw this
woman standing on the driveway and she had her arms outstretched,
like you're not coming here at all.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
And I said to my daughter, just remember what i'm
telling you. I'm describing you as i'm looking at this
woman now. And I described this woman to my daughter
and she couldn't.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
See the woman, and I said, I don't think we're
going to go in there, you know, because I could
kind of like get this telepathic feeling.
Speaker 8 (08:05):
And hearing you're not coming in here.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And as my daughter drove reversed, I looked at her
back and she was sitting in the seat.
Speaker 8 (08:16):
Behind my daughter driving, And you know what, of all.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
The spirits that are crossed over, moved on. This woman
would not.
Speaker 8 (08:26):
Go, and so she sat in the back of the
car and my daughter's going to please Mum.
Speaker 7 (08:31):
Get her out, get her out.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
So we had this plan that we would like I
straight away turned around because it's like a turning circle.
Speaker 7 (08:37):
Where the gate is.
Speaker 8 (08:38):
And so at this point I'm like, oh, she's in
the car. Mom said she's in the car.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
And I could feel like definitely someone was in the car.
Regardless of whether you believe in.
Speaker 9 (08:59):
Ghost, there are a few tools every respectable ghost.
Speaker 10 (09:03):
Our wife and mother, whose life in Sydney's western suburbs
has been anything but even falls.
Speaker 9 (09:08):
To so ever since I was a young child, I
was fascinated with death. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
That's knitting Gray, a paranormal investigator of ours a shell
together with a group of women called Haunted Down Andrew.
Speaker 11 (09:30):
Yeah, I'm just sorting between f M and AM frequency.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
I'm just trying to find one.
Speaker 11 (09:33):
That works for the acoustics.
Speaker 7 (09:37):
The mount comment. Listen, here was the kid's dormitory. There's
just one be through that.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
They all just.
Speaker 9 (09:46):
That that's it.
Speaker 11 (09:48):
Can you get and stop?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
In the program? The group visit locations said to have
the paranormal activity and try to communicate with what she
refers to as the other side.
Speaker 11 (10:21):
I was always watching the ghost shows with my dad
growing up, and I got into paranormal investigating many years ago,
and from there we decided we wanted to try and
show other people what it's like to investigate. So we
had so many family and friends that wanted to come
with us that we just couldn't take everyone along. At
(10:42):
least this way, we got to film our adventures and
they got to watch it see what was about, and
that's how it started.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
The show has attracted close to nine thousand subscribers on
YouTube and produced two seasons. Along with exclusive investigations, Followers
of their channel get to virtually come along into locations
believed to be haunted. To group then tries to communicate
or capture evidence on the other side with help from
(11:10):
a range of devices. Nadine explains that equipment varies on
what activity occurs at the location and that some devices
are known to be experimental, So.
Speaker 11 (11:22):
With the Oracle Box Mini, it's an experimental device. It
uses different inputs to try and communicate with the other side.
One of my favorite devices to use with that is
our Spirit box, which.
Speaker 9 (11:33):
Uses white noise.
Speaker 11 (11:35):
It scans radio channels at a rapid rate to create
that endless band of white noise so that spirits can
communicate with it. What that oracle box does is it
takes out that extra noise that makes it harder to hear,
and we just get the words all the sounds coming
through instead.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
The spirit box is a common tool to come across
in paranormal investigations. In fact, the use of radio equipment
to contact spirits tracks back decades, and its result has
been recognized by some as paranormal evidence. The device is
believed to be triggered by electric magnetic frequencies, something that
(12:14):
spirits are believed to be able to manipulate to produce words.
Nadine categorized this device as experimental. She therefore likes to
use this type of equipment with other technologies so that
it's harder to debunk. An example would be to use
the spirit books together with this standard audio recorder.
Speaker 11 (12:36):
We hit the record button, we ask questions, we play
it back in real time. Then we hear a voice
that was there that wasn't ours.
Speaker 9 (12:42):
We didn't hear it with our ears.
Speaker 11 (12:44):
That's harder to debunk, especially when the camera captures just
us talking and doesn't capture another voice talking. So it
depends on a lot of it is belief as well,
But in terms of debunking, the harder to debunk to me,
the more accurate the equipment's going to be.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
For Sarah and Elizabeth, communicating with spirits is different. They
say that they're not that familiar with technologies, but have
seen some used in TV shows.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
You're feeling that's what we're used for capturing the voice.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
They do, however, agree with Nadine that to some extent
belief it does play a role in paranormal investigations even
if you can see spirits or sense energies.
Speaker 7 (13:28):
For me, who knows, you're not there, You're not seeing it,
you know, as.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
We thought, there was a real discrepancy between like these
machines were going off and they even had.
Speaker 7 (13:36):
What's it called, is it the word box where like
it says like.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
What the spirits are saying, like it comes up on
the screen and I think so when because it was
saying on the screen like they would have one word
like they were saying like high or dog or something.
Speaker 8 (13:50):
Can you remember that?
Speaker 9 (13:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (13:51):
And it was like Mum was like not even sensing
anything when it was all.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Going off, and it was really odd, like it was
a discrepancy between like what we're experience.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
See, you're also true with those kind of machines, if
you put your mobile phone near them.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
They go off, so I don't have to see.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I don't know if spirit energy is exactly the same
as like the fields that those machines. I think they're trying,
but I don't know if it's picking up the exact
same like it's really told somebody, oh yeah, this is
spirit saying there.
Speaker 8 (14:20):
They can't see it, they can't see what they're going.
Are you lying to me or you for real?
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Back to that night on Wilford Barrett drive inside the
car with Sarah and Elizabeth. Sarah continued to drive while
Elizabeth attempted to remove the spirit she says was sitting
in the back seat of their car. According to Elizabeth,
the spirit was different from any that she had handled before,
(14:55):
as she would not leave the car, or not just
yet at least.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
So we drove about probably four or five kilometers up
the road.
Speaker 8 (15:05):
I said to my daughter, part, he will go across
the coals.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
So we went into calls for about fifteen minutes and
we came back out and she.
Speaker 8 (15:16):
Was in the backseat still she had it roomed.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
So then I continue to drive towards time and it
wasn't until we got to way Word that she all
of a suddenly jumped out. Then, yeah, it was pretty
wild actually, looking.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Back at their experience, neither Sarah nor Elizabeth believes that
the spirit was evil, but according to Elizabeth, that doesn't matter.
She talks about boundaries and precaution and tells me that
there is a fine edge between dark and light and
that people who are not experienced don't understand that you
(15:55):
can't go to the dark side on anything.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
And her spirit was It wasn't angry or anything like that.
Speaker 8 (16:04):
She was just surprising us by not moving on.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
And so when we got home, my daughter and myself
said we're going to connect her and try and find
out what's not that we wanted to bring her back in,
it wouldn't have mattered because we would have been hopefully
sent her back away again. So we did like a meditation,
and we brought her through and her reasoning to us
(16:32):
what she was doing, she said, I'm.
Speaker 8 (16:35):
Protecting all women.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
So I think the reason why we couldn't pass her
over across her over was she had a journey to
fulfil to protect women.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
So whether it was Jenny Dixon from the urban legend
that Sarah and Elizabeth say to have encountered that night
on Wilfrid Beret Drive, no one can say for sure.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
However, I have heard the stories, the stories along them.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I've never seen the back heard lacks stories we heard
more frequently.
Speaker 7 (17:18):
Than Jenny Dixon.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Stories of the phantom hitchhiker. Aren't you just known? Among locals,
multiple stories like Sarah's and Elizabeths have spread like wildfire.
But in between claim the encounters with the famous Jenny Dixon,
there's also people who haven't experienced anything. Local conveyancers Charmeay
(17:49):
Gormley have lived in the area for around thirty years
and traveled the road and been to the beach countless times,
but never seen anything.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I came to Norville when I was about to about eleven,
so as kids, we would go to Jenny Dixon Beach
on a Friday or Saturday night for you know, beach parties,
which started when we were about fourteen until we're about seventeen.
Because there was really nothing else to do, so I
used to go to the beach parties and sometimes you know,
(18:26):
as kids, the graveyard was right at the end of
Brisbane Street, so we would go there. And then as
we all got to say, about fourteen fifteen, we heard
more frequently about Jenny Dixon the ghost, so and they
chose her grave was in the cemetery.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I got into contact, which IMI through a two clear
Facebook page where I'd ask people for their thoughts on
the urban legend. While most respondents were familiar with the stories,
not all agreed with the ghost's existence.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And there was always a big grave, a really old
one at the back of the cemetery, under this big tree.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
That's hers.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
That's hers, and we'd be in there, that's hers, and
not having the concept that.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
There are actually two different people.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Jenny Dixon at that stage to us was the girl
that had been hitch hyped and everything along that road.
Speaker 7 (19:20):
But now I know that that grave is actually not hers.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
But I remember standing in the cemetery and it's dark,
and even on Halloween we'd go down there, which probably
wasn't the brightest idea because it just put the willies
uppers or wind uppers, so to speak, and the boys
be I remember once two of the boys were down
right near that old grave with the torch and we're like, no,
don't go any further.
Speaker 7 (19:44):
She's going to get you. And if we'd all be
running through the cemetery.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You don't Chowmaine to saying start over time. The Jenny
Dixon stories she'd heard as a kid would become more
than one and then begin to insert twine other stories.
She says that although she hasn't seen anything, she still
doesn't like to drive the roots.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I used to drive from the age of about twenty
for about ten years. I used to drive along that
road of the night because I worked at a restaurant
over at the entrance, so you could finish at two
o'clock in the morning. Ten So being a young girl
on that road of the night used to really freak
me out because I would be coming home from there and.
Speaker 7 (20:25):
I'd be tired, and it's such a dark, eery road.
There's no street lights or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So I used to drive through there and go and
I've got cold chills, as I tell you, because I
would I'd have the doors locked and I would try
and have some music on to distract me because it's
so dark, and you don't want to speed because you.
Speaker 7 (20:44):
Don't want to lose your license because then you can't
get to work.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
But you want to get through that road as quick
as possible, like just because you're worried.
Speaker 7 (20:52):
That you might see Jenny and what she's going to
do to you.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Because the stories we're always told is that there was
a girl that had been hitchhiking, that had been picked
up by five guys and they had or raped her
and been quite horrible with her body, and don't train
near the park lands, and each one of them had
died a serious death on their own accord.
Speaker 7 (21:18):
So in her way of haunting them back, like.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Said, the Madge, shot themselves car accidents things like that.
Speaker 7 (21:25):
Now, I believe that's probably happened.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
But like many other topics, the supernatural will always be
a matter of debates, and the realm isn't small. For centuries,
ghosts have not only been passed on to generations, but
used as subjects in entertainment and even educational institutions. The
(21:48):
question wasn't always if they exist per se, but what
ghosts existence meant, and as conversations grew, analyzing their existence
in relation to humans, concerns about fundamental questions grew. Traditional
views that previously covered matters of soul spirits, and our
(22:08):
existence came under a threat from the rise of science.
According to doctor David Waldron, folklore and ghost stories have
cultural value and reflect issues and anxieties we have in
our societies.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
In the case of this the story of the lady
sexually assaulted and ultimately murdered at the Genny Dixon Beach
in that legend, I could go on about whether or
not that murder did it actually occur the way described,
or did it occur at that location. I could go
on about whether or not persons or hasn't had that experience.
(22:47):
But if you think about the way in which that
story reflects and constantly draws to attention with the performance
of the ghost story retelling the haunting experience, that's an
issue women have always had to face.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Doctor Waldron lives in Ballarat and teacher's history as a
senior lecturer at Federation University. His paper Playing the Ghost
looks at ghost hoaxing in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century. The paper explores the link between ghost stories
and the cultural response to shared trauma. He says that
(23:23):
real life past tragedies can create folklore, often because they
have enormous emotive power.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Where I live in Ballarat, there's a story of a
serial killer who hides in the mind shafts up and
Black Hill and the bush areas around Ballarat and kidnaps
women to assolve them and kill them in mind shaft. Now,
there was an event sort of like that that happened
in the nineteen nineties and the stories like that to
go back to the gold Rush. Now, while this particular
(23:54):
fellow didn't actually kill that young woman, she was ultimately
found and riskued by police. Later, after he was released
in jail, he tried doing the same thing again and again.
This reflects to a very real issue and anxiety that
women have to face and mergers, and I think it's
not there's no small accident that most ghost stories, not all,
(24:16):
but many ghost stories most of them relate to atrocities
committed against young women.
Speaker 10 (24:27):
They came in their thousands, women, children and men in
a show of solidarity against the seemingly endless wave of
violent sexual crimes against women. They are a pair of
somewhat bleak, slightly cryptic messages in a city festooned with billboards.
Visual art student Nicole Hands created the anti rape slogans
with a six thousand dollars grant from the National Agenda
(24:50):
for Women. The irony of a phone in held late
last year is that it revealed most victims still aren't
prepared to pick up the phone, and it's believable. The
huge crowd was entertained and informed by a wide range
of speakers and performers who stressed the need for society
as a whole to deal with the tragedy of rape.
Speaker 11 (25:10):
I feel free also to ask that the churches stop
teaching men that they have a god given right to
dominate women. New South Wales Attorney General Mark Speakman Joy experienced.
Speaker 12 (25:22):
So that's the problem we faced. In Australia, around one
in five women since the age of fifteen had been
the victims of sexual violence. Men and boys can be
the victims of sexual violence, but we know that overwhelmingly
the victims are women and girls. The Australian Bureau of
Statistics does regular personal safety surveys, and its most recent survey,
(25:43):
published in twenty seventeen, reported that eighteen percent of women
since the age of fifteen had been the victims of
sexual violence.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
The Jenny Dixon urban legend is said to have roots
in the nineteen seventies, a decade remembered for social change,
the year when Femini's research and advocacy would change the
approach and challenge misconceptions attached to sex crimes. It was
the year that sexual violence was developed into a concept
(26:21):
twenty years prior. In nineteen fifty, the residents of Tucley
were to receive news that would gain national coverage for
months leading after. On August thirty, a Wednesday morning, the
Sun's newspaper headlined the Girls found in swamp Murder feared.
(26:45):
Two girls of a migrant family that had escaped war
toward London for a better life had been found in
a swamp near Tucley. According to the National Advocates, the
girls planned to go to Norahead Lighthouse, but were never
seen after the accused was never found guilty and the
(27:05):
case remained cold. In the days leading up to the funeral,
Funds were raised by the community to have the girls
buried at Norville Cemetery, but the girls would only receive
a headstone in two thousand and fourteen, with help from
the initiative of a local to raise the funds. Even
(27:25):
if the murder of the Holmes sisters was more than
half a century ago, it has not been forgotten and
the incident has somehow become a branch of the Gene
Dixon urban legend most certain to be mentioned in relation
to each other. Earlier this year, Central Coast was crowned
the child's sex abuse capital of New South Wales by
(27:47):
The Daily Telegraph based on recent data. Only last year,
New South Wales Recorded Statistics showed that sexual assault has
increased since two thousand and sixteen. Another report from the
New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research showed
that incidents have in fact increased since nineteen ninety.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
The threat of sexual assault at the beach, a place
you've normally associated with joy and happiness and fun, becoming
a side of tragedy is against something.
Speaker 8 (28:21):
You know.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
Women also like if I talk to my students, you know,
young students, female students in the university, they always have
that fear when they're out late at night that a
man might want to assault them, hurt them or whatever.
That's constantly something in the back of the back of
their mind. It's something that we don't like to talk about.
It's something we sometimes cover up as something we make
excuses for the men who do these things, but it
(28:46):
constantly re emerges. That's a story. So you know, that
story has enormous and motive power because it's something that happens,
something we don't like to acknowledge, but because again and
again getting caught up in the is it real or
not misses the point of what the story is about,
what it's trying to communicate about the issues we have
(29:06):
in our society. An analogy I sometimes use for students
like this is is a friend of my wife's and
she has a story that when her mother passed on
that she woke up at night and saw her mother
sitting on the end of her bed and feeling scared
and saying I don't want to go and I love
you on those sort of things, and her being half
(29:27):
asleep and saying to her mother, oh, look, look it's okay,
feel free to go, and her mother saying you, thank you,
and then finding out the next morning a mother had died. Now,
if I was to go, can you prove your mother
while sitting on your bed or not? That's totally missing
what that story is about.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Doctor Waldron says that urban legend or ghost stories can
only really vanish when the issue that led to capturing
the imagination has also vanished. He also says that stories
can separate from the communities that created them, and that
pop culture can influence how stories adapt and are told.
(30:08):
He draws examples of Australia's Yawi or bunyip, but also
vampires and witches, and says that besides having a past,
urban legends also need certain factors to survive.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
So it needs to connect to some sort of point
of anxiety, some sort of area that we feel uncomfortable.
It rattles our sense of a safe, ordered world that
operates according to certain rules that we feel comfortable with.
Speaker 9 (30:38):
You know.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
We like the idea of a young woman happily moving
into adulthood, finding love and all the rest of it.
The idea of her dying at that limital point on
the cusp of adulthood evokes sensible stragedy that also relates
to the way in which were tate to see women
as these objects to control and sexuality. There's a lot
(30:58):
of that sort of side of it. So does it
evoke and connect to an issue? Is it structured within
the framework of established cultural patterns, like we've got notions
of what we think a ghost is. You know, if
I talk to someone he says they're haunted, they'll tell
me things like, oh, I felt cold down back of
my neck, I felt eerie. I you know what she
(31:19):
was wearing, like things like the white or playing dress
being significant. Was just chatting to a friend about this
little while goo and said, you know, you very rarely
see ghosts with you know, dresses of bright colors and flares,
you know, So is it structured within our established folklore
of you know, what we think are ghost so structured
(31:40):
within our culture, tied to some sort of pertinent issue
and tied to those in between spaces where we feel
awkward and uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Maybe we don't need to decide whether we believe in
the paranormal, but rather analyzed stories, folk or an urban
legends to understand its deep rooting issues. So whether Wilfred
Barrett Drive is haunted will remain a mystery, and whether
it is Jenny Dixon or the urban legend that is
(32:14):
protecting women, I will leave up to you to decide. However,
the question is would you drive alone on one of
Central Coast's most haunted roads at.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Night, no desecrated graves, murders, or former occupants.
Speaker 9 (32:31):
The fatal camera is the holy grail of There is
no denying.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
The topic captivates audiences all over the world, and even
this provides no answer.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
You have listened to seven U Spectrum, a phantom hitchhiker
on the Central Coast. This episode was produced and voiced
by me Marlin Heglund. A big thanks to Nadine Gray
for supplying recordings from Haunted down Under, and to Elizabeth
Sarah Charmaine and doctor Waldron for sharing their stories and perspectives.
(33:10):
If you or someone you know is impacted bisexual assault,
domestic or family violence, call one eight hundred Respect on
eighteen Triple zero seven three seven seven thry two, or
visit one eight hundred Respect dot org dot a U.
In an emergency, call Triple zero
You are listening to seven Year Spectrum with me Malin
Heglund and this is a phantom hitchhiker on Australia's coast.
This episode contains conversations about sexual assault.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I came to Norville when I was about about eleven.
Jenny Dixon at that stage to us was the girl
that had been hitch hyped and everything.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
So we drove into the driveway of the cemetery and
then all of a sudden, like I just got this
feeling that like we shouldn't be there and we should
turn back.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
And then I looked back up and I saw this
woman standing on the driveway.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Getting caught up in the Is it real or not?
Speaker 6 (00:55):
This is the point of what the story is about,
what it's trying to communicate about the issues we haven't
our society.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Some people say that seeing is believing, and yet there
are things that you haven't seen but believe exist. So
what happens when you're the only one that can see.
In this episode of seven New Spectrum, we investigate the
alleged haunting of Jenney Dixon on the Central Coast in
New South Wales, Australia. The following story is based on
(01:54):
local legends and witness accounts. In March eighteen seven, an
article in Goldburn's local newspaper reads about a ship that
has been wrecked off the coast in Cabbage Tree Harbor.
At the time, coal production was at its prime in
New South Wales. Likewise, the coastal trade, and as de
(02:17):
man grew, so did the amount of coal carrying ships
along the coastline. While many made their destination, some like
the one mentioned did not. The schooner in the article
was Janet Dixon, a one hundred tons coal carrying ship
that had traveled in conditions that only two days before
(02:40):
had been described as rain so thick as to obscure
everything beyond a short distance. Unlike some of its predecessors,
all of Janet Dixon's crew survived and its bell was
salvaged and can be found today at Tougley's Public Schools
Sanitary Garden. According to Greg Barry's Book of Shipwrecks in
(03:03):
New South Wales, the same wreck would later give name
to Noraville's Gene Dixon Beach, a place that is known
today as one of the many haunted spots on the
central coast, and also where this story begins.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Well, yeah, like, I guess being a vocal we kind
of know the story about it, and it was starting
to get dark, and yeah, we were a mom was like, well,
let's go to the cemetery and I was like, oh okay,
and yeah that joke. I was like, don't say it's
just like mucking around, because.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
You know that's Sarah Rawllings. She's talking about the time
when she and her mom, Elizabeth, had driven to Norah
Head to dine over the lookout of Jeney Dixon Beach.
The beach lies one street away from the belief to
be haunted Wilfred Barrett Drive, and although there are many
(03:57):
stories that circulate as to why it's haunted, many lead
back to the beach itself. Some things is connected to
the lives claimed by shipwrecks or killings in the area
over past decades. So whether you believe in the paranormal
or not, the overwhelming spread of witness reports of a
(04:18):
young woman dressed in white along the road would dont
most drivers having to pass the roots at night. Many
claimed the woman to be the victim of a fatal
hitchhiking incident said to have occurred in the nineteen seventy.
The story tells of a young girl who was sexually
abused at Genie Dixon Beach after having been picked up
(04:39):
by five guys on the road. The young woman would
later die from her injuries and the abusers walked free. However,
according to the legend, all five men's freedom would within
a year of her death, follow of a series of
strange accidents and suicides. The girl has seen. It's been
(05:00):
referred to as Jenny Dixon, and stories of the phantom
Headshaker have been passed on until today. It was just
the beginning of autumn and they made it to the
spot just in time for the sunset. Sarah is the
spitting image of her mom, and the pair hold a
close relationship and are almost inseparable at times. To also
(05:25):
share something quite unusual to some, They say they can
communicate with people who have passed Elizabeth.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
When I moved up this area like twenty three years,
I've never heard the story because it's about it's probably
about thirty minutes away from my place, and it was
my sister in law who said to me who lived
close to to that there's supposed to be a woman,
Jenie Dixon, who gets into people's cars and I said, oh,
you know, and I didn't really know the story of
(05:55):
what it was all about. And when we got in
the car getting that, so I said to my joy,
I just said jokingly. I just looked at her and
I said, Jenny Dixon. And you know, if my mom
don't say that, you know. Anyway, we just took off
and said we're driving, and I said to her, let's
(06:15):
go into the cemetery. We're only going to do like
a quick driving tribing that out. We're are going to
kind of like stop because you don't know who's there
human mi.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
The Noraville Cemetery was opened in the eighteenth century and
has over four hundred granite markers, having lived in the
community's folklore. It's today a place associated with the Jenny
Dixon urban legend. Stories claim she was buried at Noraville Cemetery,
but without a headstone. Some people even say that it
(06:50):
is a place where you can call on Jenny herself.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
So we drive into the driveway of the cemetery and
then all of a sudden, like I just got this
feeling that like we shouldn't be there and we should
turn back. And it was a really kind of like
overwhelming feeling, and I was like, oh, And I looked at.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Mom and she was like, yeah, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
And then then she started telling me like she was
describing like a woman she was there.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Still inside the car, Sarah and Elizabeth remained surrounded by
only the night sky. Sarah was behind the wheel and
Elizabeth in the seat next to her. Sarah says she
remembers having felt overwhelmed, and once she'd seen the look
on her mother's face, she figured that something wasn't right.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
And then I looked back up and I saw this
woman standing on the driveway and she had her arms outstretched,
like you're not coming here at all.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
And I said to my daughter, just remember what i'm
telling you. I'm describing you as i'm looking at this
woman now. And I described this woman to my daughter
and she couldn't.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
See the woman, and I said, I don't think we're
going to go in there, you know, because I could
kind of like get this telepathic feeling.
Speaker 8 (08:05):
And hearing you're not coming in here.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And as my daughter drove reversed, I looked at her
back and she was sitting in the seat.
Speaker 8 (08:16):
Behind my daughter driving, And you know what, of all.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
The spirits that are crossed over, moved on. This woman
would not.
Speaker 8 (08:26):
Go, and so she sat in the back of the
car and my daughter's going to please Mum.
Speaker 7 (08:31):
Get her out, get her out.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
So we had this plan that we would like I
straight away turned around because it's like a turning circle.
Speaker 7 (08:37):
Where the gate is.
Speaker 8 (08:38):
And so at this point I'm like, oh, she's in
the car. Mom said she's in the car.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
And I could feel like definitely someone was in the car.
Regardless of whether you believe in.
Speaker 9 (08:59):
Ghost, there are a few tools every respectable ghost.
Speaker 10 (09:03):
Our wife and mother, whose life in Sydney's western suburbs
has been anything but even falls.
Speaker 9 (09:08):
To so ever since I was a young child, I
was fascinated with death. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
That's knitting Gray, a paranormal investigator of ours a shell
together with a group of women called Haunted Down Andrew.
Speaker 11 (09:30):
Yeah, I'm just sorting between f M and AM frequency.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
I'm just trying to find one.
Speaker 11 (09:33):
That works for the acoustics.
Speaker 7 (09:37):
The mount comment. Listen, here was the kid's dormitory. There's
just one be through that.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
They all just.
Speaker 9 (09:46):
That that's it.
Speaker 11 (09:48):
Can you get and stop?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
In the program? The group visit locations said to have
the paranormal activity and try to communicate with what she
refers to as the other side.
Speaker 11 (10:21):
I was always watching the ghost shows with my dad
growing up, and I got into paranormal investigating many years ago,
and from there we decided we wanted to try and
show other people what it's like to investigate. So we
had so many family and friends that wanted to come
with us that we just couldn't take everyone along. At
(10:42):
least this way, we got to film our adventures and
they got to watch it see what was about, and
that's how it started.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
The show has attracted close to nine thousand subscribers on
YouTube and produced two seasons. Along with exclusive investigations, Followers
of their channel get to virtually come along into locations
believed to be haunted. To group then tries to communicate
or capture evidence on the other side with help from
(11:10):
a range of devices. Nadine explains that equipment varies on
what activity occurs at the location and that some devices
are known to be experimental, So.
Speaker 11 (11:22):
With the Oracle Box Mini, it's an experimental device. It
uses different inputs to try and communicate with the other side.
One of my favorite devices to use with that is
our Spirit box, which.
Speaker 9 (11:33):
Uses white noise.
Speaker 11 (11:35):
It scans radio channels at a rapid rate to create
that endless band of white noise so that spirits can
communicate with it. What that oracle box does is it
takes out that extra noise that makes it harder to hear,
and we just get the words all the sounds coming
through instead.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
The spirit box is a common tool to come across
in paranormal investigations. In fact, the use of radio equipment
to contact spirits tracks back decades, and its result has
been recognized by some as paranormal evidence. The device is
believed to be triggered by electric magnetic frequencies, something that
(12:14):
spirits are believed to be able to manipulate to produce words.
Nadine categorized this device as experimental. She therefore likes to
use this type of equipment with other technologies so that
it's harder to debunk. An example would be to use
the spirit books together with this standard audio recorder.
Speaker 11 (12:36):
We hit the record button, we ask questions, we play
it back in real time. Then we hear a voice
that was there that wasn't ours.
Speaker 9 (12:42):
We didn't hear it with our ears.
Speaker 11 (12:44):
That's harder to debunk, especially when the camera captures just
us talking and doesn't capture another voice talking. So it
depends on a lot of it is belief as well,
But in terms of debunking, the harder to debunk to me,
the more accurate the equipment's going to be.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
For Sarah and Elizabeth, communicating with spirits is different. They
say that they're not that familiar with technologies, but have
seen some used in TV shows.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
You're feeling that's what we're used for capturing the voice.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
They do, however, agree with Nadine that to some extent
belief it does play a role in paranormal investigations even
if you can see spirits or sense energies.
Speaker 7 (13:28):
For me, who knows, you're not there, You're not seeing it,
you know, as.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
We thought, there was a real discrepancy between like these
machines were going off and they even had.
Speaker 7 (13:36):
What's it called, is it the word box where like
it says like.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
What the spirits are saying, like it comes up on
the screen and I think so when because it was
saying on the screen like they would have one word
like they were saying like high or dog or something.
Speaker 8 (13:50):
Can you remember that?
Speaker 9 (13:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (13:51):
And it was like Mum was like not even sensing
anything when it was all.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Going off, and it was really odd, like it was
a discrepancy between like what we're experience.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
See, you're also true with those kind of machines, if
you put your mobile phone near them.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
They go off, so I don't have to see.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I don't know if spirit energy is exactly the same
as like the fields that those machines. I think they're trying,
but I don't know if it's picking up the exact
same like it's really told somebody, oh yeah, this is
spirit saying there.
Speaker 8 (14:20):
They can't see it, they can't see what they're going.
Are you lying to me or you for real?
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Back to that night on Wilford Barrett drive inside the
car with Sarah and Elizabeth. Sarah continued to drive while
Elizabeth attempted to remove the spirit she says was sitting
in the back seat of their car. According to Elizabeth,
the spirit was different from any that she had handled before,
(14:55):
as she would not leave the car, or not just
yet at least.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
So we drove about probably four or five kilometers up
the road.
Speaker 8 (15:05):
I said to my daughter, part, he will go across
the coals.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
So we went into calls for about fifteen minutes and
we came back out and she.
Speaker 8 (15:16):
Was in the backseat still she had it roomed.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
So then I continue to drive towards time and it
wasn't until we got to way Word that she all
of a suddenly jumped out. Then, yeah, it was pretty
wild actually, looking.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Back at their experience, neither Sarah nor Elizabeth believes that
the spirit was evil, but according to Elizabeth, that doesn't matter.
She talks about boundaries and precaution and tells me that
there is a fine edge between dark and light and
that people who are not experienced don't understand that you
(15:55):
can't go to the dark side on anything.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
And her spirit was It wasn't angry or anything like that.
Speaker 8 (16:04):
She was just surprising us by not moving on.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
And so when we got home, my daughter and myself
said we're going to connect her and try and find
out what's not that we wanted to bring her back in,
it wouldn't have mattered because we would have been hopefully
sent her back away again. So we did like a meditation,
and we brought her through and her reasoning to us
(16:32):
what she was doing, she said, I'm.
Speaker 8 (16:35):
Protecting all women.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
So I think the reason why we couldn't pass her
over across her over was she had a journey to
fulfil to protect women.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
So whether it was Jenny Dixon from the urban legend
that Sarah and Elizabeth say to have encountered that night
on Wilfrid Beret Drive, no one can say for sure.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
However, I have heard the stories, the stories along them.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I've never seen the back heard lacks stories we heard
more frequently.
Speaker 7 (17:18):
Than Jenny Dixon.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Stories of the phantom hitchhiker. Aren't you just known? Among locals,
multiple stories like Sarah's and Elizabeths have spread like wildfire.
But in between claim the encounters with the famous Jenny Dixon,
there's also people who haven't experienced anything. Local conveyancers Charmeay
(17:49):
Gormley have lived in the area for around thirty years
and traveled the road and been to the beach countless times,
but never seen anything.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I came to Norville when I was about to about eleven,
so as kids, we would go to Jenny Dixon Beach
on a Friday or Saturday night for you know, beach parties,
which started when we were about fourteen until we're about seventeen.
Because there was really nothing else to do, so I
used to go to the beach parties and sometimes you know,
(18:26):
as kids, the graveyard was right at the end of
Brisbane Street, so we would go there. And then as
we all got to say, about fourteen fifteen, we heard
more frequently about Jenny Dixon the ghost, so and they
chose her grave was in the cemetery.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I got into contact, which IMI through a two clear
Facebook page where I'd ask people for their thoughts on
the urban legend. While most respondents were familiar with the stories,
not all agreed with the ghost's existence.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And there was always a big grave, a really old
one at the back of the cemetery, under this big tree.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
That's hers.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
That's hers, and we'd be in there, that's hers, and
not having the concept that.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
There are actually two different people.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Jenny Dixon at that stage to us was the girl
that had been hitch hyped and everything along that road.
Speaker 7 (19:20):
But now I know that that grave is actually not hers.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
But I remember standing in the cemetery and it's dark,
and even on Halloween we'd go down there, which probably
wasn't the brightest idea because it just put the willies
uppers or wind uppers, so to speak, and the boys
be I remember once two of the boys were down
right near that old grave with the torch and we're like, no,
don't go any further.
Speaker 7 (19:44):
She's going to get you. And if we'd all be
running through the cemetery.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You don't Chowmaine to saying start over time. The Jenny
Dixon stories she'd heard as a kid would become more
than one and then begin to insert twine other stories.
She says that although she hasn't seen anything, she still
doesn't like to drive the roots.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I used to drive from the age of about twenty
for about ten years. I used to drive along that
road of the night because I worked at a restaurant
over at the entrance, so you could finish at two
o'clock in the morning. Ten So being a young girl
on that road of the night used to really freak
me out because I would be coming home from there and.
Speaker 7 (20:25):
I'd be tired, and it's such a dark, eery road.
There's no street lights or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So I used to drive through there and go and
I've got cold chills, as I tell you, because I
would I'd have the doors locked and I would try
and have some music on to distract me because it's
so dark, and you don't want to speed because you.
Speaker 7 (20:44):
Don't want to lose your license because then you can't
get to work.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
But you want to get through that road as quick
as possible, like just because you're worried.
Speaker 7 (20:52):
That you might see Jenny and what she's going to
do to you.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Because the stories we're always told is that there was
a girl that had been hitchhiking, that had been picked
up by five guys and they had or raped her
and been quite horrible with her body, and don't train
near the park lands, and each one of them had
died a serious death on their own accord.
Speaker 7 (21:18):
So in her way of haunting them back, like.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Said, the Madge, shot themselves car accidents things like that.
Speaker 7 (21:25):
Now, I believe that's probably happened.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
But like many other topics, the supernatural will always be
a matter of debates, and the realm isn't small. For centuries,
ghosts have not only been passed on to generations, but
used as subjects in entertainment and even educational institutions. The
(21:48):
question wasn't always if they exist per se, but what
ghosts existence meant, and as conversations grew, analyzing their existence
in relation to humans, concerns about fundamental questions grew. Traditional
views that previously covered matters of soul spirits, and our
(22:08):
existence came under a threat from the rise of science.
According to doctor David Waldron, folklore and ghost stories have
cultural value and reflect issues and anxieties we have in
our societies.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
In the case of this the story of the lady
sexually assaulted and ultimately murdered at the Genny Dixon Beach
in that legend, I could go on about whether or
not that murder did it actually occur the way described,
or did it occur at that location. I could go
on about whether or not persons or hasn't had that experience.
(22:47):
But if you think about the way in which that
story reflects and constantly draws to attention with the performance
of the ghost story retelling the haunting experience, that's an
issue women have always had to face.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Doctor Waldron lives in Ballarat and teacher's history as a
senior lecturer at Federation University. His paper Playing the Ghost
looks at ghost hoaxing in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century. The paper explores the link between ghost stories
and the cultural response to shared trauma. He says that
(23:23):
real life past tragedies can create folklore, often because they
have enormous emotive power.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Where I live in Ballarat, there's a story of a
serial killer who hides in the mind shafts up and
Black Hill and the bush areas around Ballarat and kidnaps
women to assolve them and kill them in mind shaft. Now,
there was an event sort of like that that happened
in the nineteen nineties and the stories like that to
go back to the gold Rush. Now, while this particular
(23:54):
fellow didn't actually kill that young woman, she was ultimately
found and riskued by police. Later, after he was released
in jail, he tried doing the same thing again and again.
This reflects to a very real issue and anxiety that
women have to face and mergers, and I think it's
not there's no small accident that most ghost stories, not all,
(24:16):
but many ghost stories most of them relate to atrocities
committed against young women.
Speaker 10 (24:27):
They came in their thousands, women, children and men in
a show of solidarity against the seemingly endless wave of
violent sexual crimes against women. They are a pair of
somewhat bleak, slightly cryptic messages in a city festooned with billboards.
Visual art student Nicole Hands created the anti rape slogans
with a six thousand dollars grant from the National Agenda
(24:50):
for Women. The irony of a phone in held late
last year is that it revealed most victims still aren't
prepared to pick up the phone, and it's believable. The
huge crowd was entertained and informed by a wide range
of speakers and performers who stressed the need for society
as a whole to deal with the tragedy of rape.
Speaker 11 (25:10):
I feel free also to ask that the churches stop
teaching men that they have a god given right to
dominate women. New South Wales Attorney General Mark Speakman Joy experienced.
Speaker 12 (25:22):
So that's the problem we faced. In Australia, around one
in five women since the age of fifteen had been
the victims of sexual violence. Men and boys can be
the victims of sexual violence, but we know that overwhelmingly
the victims are women and girls. The Australian Bureau of
Statistics does regular personal safety surveys, and its most recent survey,
(25:43):
published in twenty seventeen, reported that eighteen percent of women
since the age of fifteen had been the victims of
sexual violence.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
The Jenny Dixon urban legend is said to have roots
in the nineteen seventies, a decade remembered for social change,
the year when Femini's research and advocacy would change the
approach and challenge misconceptions attached to sex crimes. It was
the year that sexual violence was developed into a concept
(26:21):
twenty years prior. In nineteen fifty, the residents of Tucley
were to receive news that would gain national coverage for
months leading after. On August thirty, a Wednesday morning, the
Sun's newspaper headlined the Girls found in swamp Murder feared.
(26:45):
Two girls of a migrant family that had escaped war
toward London for a better life had been found in
a swamp near Tucley. According to the National Advocates, the
girls planned to go to Norahead Lighthouse, but were never
seen after the accused was never found guilty and the
(27:05):
case remained cold. In the days leading up to the funeral,
Funds were raised by the community to have the girls
buried at Norville Cemetery, but the girls would only receive
a headstone in two thousand and fourteen, with help from
the initiative of a local to raise the funds. Even
(27:25):
if the murder of the Holmes sisters was more than
half a century ago, it has not been forgotten and
the incident has somehow become a branch of the Gene
Dixon urban legend most certain to be mentioned in relation
to each other. Earlier this year, Central Coast was crowned
the child's sex abuse capital of New South Wales by
(27:47):
The Daily Telegraph based on recent data. Only last year,
New South Wales Recorded Statistics showed that sexual assault has
increased since two thousand and sixteen. Another report from the
New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research showed
that incidents have in fact increased since nineteen ninety.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
The threat of sexual assault at the beach, a place
you've normally associated with joy and happiness and fun, becoming
a side of tragedy is against something.
Speaker 8 (28:21):
You know.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
Women also like if I talk to my students, you know,
young students, female students in the university, they always have
that fear when they're out late at night that a
man might want to assault them, hurt them or whatever.
That's constantly something in the back of the back of
their mind. It's something that we don't like to talk about.
It's something we sometimes cover up as something we make
excuses for the men who do these things, but it
(28:46):
constantly re emerges. That's a story. So you know, that
story has enormous and motive power because it's something that happens,
something we don't like to acknowledge, but because again and
again getting caught up in the is it real or
not misses the point of what the story is about,
what it's trying to communicate about the issues we have
(29:06):
in our society. An analogy I sometimes use for students
like this is is a friend of my wife's and
she has a story that when her mother passed on
that she woke up at night and saw her mother
sitting on the end of her bed and feeling scared
and saying I don't want to go and I love
you on those sort of things, and her being half
(29:27):
asleep and saying to her mother, oh, look, look it's okay,
feel free to go, and her mother saying you, thank you,
and then finding out the next morning a mother had died. Now,
if I was to go, can you prove your mother
while sitting on your bed or not? That's totally missing
what that story is about.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Doctor Waldron says that urban legend or ghost stories can
only really vanish when the issue that led to capturing
the imagination has also vanished. He also says that stories
can separate from the communities that created them, and that
pop culture can influence how stories adapt and are told.
(30:08):
He draws examples of Australia's Yawi or bunyip, but also
vampires and witches, and says that besides having a past,
urban legends also need certain factors to survive.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
So it needs to connect to some sort of point
of anxiety, some sort of area that we feel uncomfortable.
It rattles our sense of a safe, ordered world that
operates according to certain rules that we feel comfortable with.
Speaker 9 (30:38):
You know.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
We like the idea of a young woman happily moving
into adulthood, finding love and all the rest of it.
The idea of her dying at that limital point on
the cusp of adulthood evokes sensible stragedy that also relates
to the way in which were tate to see women
as these objects to control and sexuality. There's a lot
(30:58):
of that sort of side of it. So does it
evoke and connect to an issue? Is it structured within
the framework of established cultural patterns, like we've got notions
of what we think a ghost is. You know, if
I talk to someone he says they're haunted, they'll tell
me things like, oh, I felt cold down back of
my neck, I felt eerie. I you know what she
(31:19):
was wearing, like things like the white or playing dress
being significant. Was just chatting to a friend about this
little while goo and said, you know, you very rarely
see ghosts with you know, dresses of bright colors and flares,
you know, So is it structured within our established folklore
of you know, what we think are ghost so structured
(31:40):
within our culture, tied to some sort of pertinent issue
and tied to those in between spaces where we feel
awkward and uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Maybe we don't need to decide whether we believe in
the paranormal, but rather analyzed stories, folk or an urban
legends to understand its deep rooting issues. So whether Wilfred
Barrett Drive is haunted will remain a mystery, and whether
it is Jenny Dixon or the urban legend that is
(32:14):
protecting women, I will leave up to you to decide. However,
the question is would you drive alone on one of
Central Coast's most haunted roads at.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Night, no desecrated graves, murders, or former occupants.
Speaker 9 (32:31):
The fatal camera is the holy grail of There is
no denying.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
The topic captivates audiences all over the world, and even
this provides no answer.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
You have listened to seven U Spectrum, a phantom hitchhiker
on the Central Coast. This episode was produced and voiced
by me Marlin Heglund. A big thanks to Nadine Gray
for supplying recordings from Haunted down Under, and to Elizabeth
Sarah Charmaine and doctor Waldron for sharing their stories and perspectives.
(33:10):
If you or someone you know is impacted bisexual assault,
domestic or family violence, call one eight hundred Respect on
eighteen Triple zero seven three seven seven thry two, or
visit one eight hundred Respect dot org dot a U.
In an emergency, call Triple zero
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