Sharpies & Shit Ghosts
Tales from Glen Eira Town Hall
My Hall Stories project was recently featured as part of the Glen Eira Storytelling Festival. The show was on Sunday, July 5th, 2026 and with the help of the amazing arts & history teams at Glen Eira Shire Council & Glen Eira Historical Society, I spent the preceding weeks collecting stories about the Glen Eira Town Hall. (Formerly the Caulfield Town Hall) These are some of the stories that were shared with me).
A Different Kind of Dance
Carole Stals was excited. Her new beau had invited her to a dance at the Caulfield Town Hall. He picked her up in his mum’s car from her home in Kew and sporting a backless, pink & white checked Bridget Bardot frock, she turned a few heads as they entered the foyer. As they made their way into the main hall, Carole realised that few, if any of the other attendees had bothered to dress up. She also noticed that the dance floor was covered in rows of chairs and there was no evidence of a band set up on the stage. Her fella led her to seat on the aisle and before she could ask what was actually going on, the MC introduced to the stage the sitting Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies. As Sir Bob began his speech, her companion absented himself and joined a group of student protesters at the back of the room, who began to chant ‘Pig Iron Bob’. Menzies had acquired this nickname in 1938 when, as attorney general, he’d intervened when trade unionists in Port Kembla refused to load pig iron on to ships headed for Japan, who had just invaded Manchuria. The soubriquet stuck. It’s not clear what they were protesting this particular night. It was the late 1950s, and could have been anything from opposition to Nuclear testing in Maralinga; sending troops to the Malaya Emergency or the suppression of the Australian Communist Party. Whatever it was, the protest was contentious enough to provoke the police to whisk the protestors away in ‘Black Maria’s’, leaving poor Carole stranded in a hall she’d never been to, with no way of getting home.
Welcome to Australia
After months at sea, Halina’s ship docked in Port Melbourne in 1959, on her 16th birthday. Her younger sister and her parents had to wait 5 more years, but as she was 16, she could be naturalised straight away. Thus, a 16 year old Polish Jew who had just fled the yoke of communism found herself in the Caulfield Town Hall at an Australian citizen ceremony, being inducted in a language she did not understand.
Sharpies Versus Mods
Barbara Hoad is giving the *Sharpies a wide berth as Lobby Lloyd & the Coloured Balls belt out ‘Working Man’s Boogie’ at the Caulfield Town Hall. She likes the band, but not their fans. The Sharps are an intimidating presence with their scowling demeanour, droog mullet haircuts, tight fitting Conti cardigans and Lee jeans. She also doesn’t identify with the **Mods, the other popular Melbourne youth subculture group of the time, but she makes a mental note to NEVER become a Sharpie. Sherbet are playing again next week, which she thinks will be a will be a tamer affair. No self respecting Sharpie would be seen dead watching those glam, show ponies. Meanwhile, across the hall a young Michael Gadinski, who’d booked the hall for the night, is unsuccessfully attempting to cajole Jane Terkuile into becoming the president of the Skyhooks Fan Club.
* Read more about Sharpies
** Read more about Mods
The Town Hall Fiasco
It’s October 1976. A young couple, Peta & Richard Darke, have just moved into Caulfield. Living close to the magnificent town hall, they soon hear that the council have made plans to knock it down and replace with a modern civic centre. Agitated locals have dubbed the plans, the Town Hall Fiasco and the protest gathers momentum. The Mayor, Max Blair, calls a town meeting hoping to win the community over. He begins to outline the proposal. The functional inclusion of a pre-school dental clinic and citizen’s advice bureau might not win them over, but he’s hoping that the proposed tavern and squash courts might get the civic centre over the line. His pitch does not go well. In fact, it inflames the local residents to such a degree, that the police have to escort him from the hall through the jostling crowd. The town hall survived and the Glen Eira shire remains bereft of squash courts to this day.
The Centenary Queen
It’s November 8th, 1957. The showpiece event of the City of Caulfield Centenary celebrations is about to reach its climax, as the Centenary Hall Queens process through the crowd towards the stage. Queen of Hospitals, Judith Woodard leads the way, with Queen of the RSL, Betty Green in her wake. Queen of Sport, Joan Paulsen is close behind, but the biggest cheer is reserved for the Queen of Youth, Barbara Kline. Having raised the most money for the 27 aligned charities, she has been declared the Centenary Hall Queen. All that is left to do is for Barbara to dip her white gloved hand into the barrel, and pull out the winning raffle ticket. Who will be driving home in the Holden FE Special Sedan?
Why Pick On This One?
Those who were there, couldn’t remember a more bitter argument in the chambers. At a spirited council meeting in October 1939, the Lord Mayor was quoted as saying “They fight all over the place. Why pick on this one?” … who or what was he defending? Perhaps a German national working for council? … A travelling boxer who’d set up a ‘take on all comers’ tent in Caulfield Park? … The Murrumbeena CWA, whose last AGM had almost ended in fisticuffs? It was none of the above. Sadly, in a 6-5 vote the Mayor’s protest’s came to naught and consent was given to the Gaming & Fishing Department to shoot a swooping magpie, that had taken up residence at Shelford Girls Grammar.
There’s Just a Vibe … Apparently
When I’m doing Hall Stories in one of big town halls, I always ask whether there are ghost stories associated with the venue. Often I don’t even have to ask, with tales of the hall spectres offered unbidden. Back in May, when I was working at the stunning Albert Hall in Launceston, I’d barely crossed the threshold, when staff began revealing that they had multiple ghosts: three in fact, and they all had names.
‘The Digger’ occasionally appeared sitting in a particular corner of the gallery, resplendent in his WW1 uniform; ‘Catherine’, an actor who’d purportedly fallen off the stage and broken her neck & ‘The Hall Keeper’, who liked keeping skin in the game by moving chairs around. Most of the stories about ‘The Digger’ & ‘The Hall Keeper’ were benign and standard: vigilant apparitions and low level furniture rearranging. However, one ex-staff member, had a very distinctive story, that she attributed to ‘Catherine’
‘She hates Hawthorn Football Club’, she told me. ‘We were preparing for an event and when they put the Hawthorn Theme song into the CD player, the machine started jumping all over the place and the track kept skipping. The tech looked at me and said it must be a dodgy CD. I said no, that’s Catherine, our ghost. He wouldn’t believe me. Then the lights started flicking on and off. Then he believed me’.
Whether you’re a believer or not, a phantom that’s taken a particular dislike to the theme song of an AFL team, is a great ghost story.
When the staff at Glen Eira Town Hall started proffering me ghosts stories without any prodding, I was all ears, but the bar had been raised high by the Albert Hall.
I started by asking questions. There were a number of staff involved here, but to simplify this conversation, they’ll be lumped together into the singular, Glen Eira Staff, or GES
DC: What’s the ghost’s name?
GES: Umm, doesn’t really have a name.
DC: Do you know who’s spirit it might be?
GES: No, we’ve done some research and there’s never been any suspicious or tragic deaths here. One council employee died at his desk in the 1960’s, but he was an older guy and it was natural causes so …
DC: Right, so have any of you seen the ghost?
GES: No
DC: Have any of you heard the ghost?
GES: No
DC: Have any of you sensed the ghost?
GES: No
DC: Right, but other people have seen the ghost?
GES: No … not that we know of. But people have sensed the ghost?
DC: Ok. Where?
GES: In and around the parent changing room
DC: That’s niche. What have people sensed? Babies nappies miraculously changing themselves?
GES: I don’t know. There’s just a vibe … apparently
I was close to giving up on the Glen Eira Ghost, but decided I’d widen the net. Finally, the building maintenance officer came through with a story.
BMO: I was working alone one night closing up. I was in the middle of the auditorium, heading out and minding my own business, when I thought I heard a work colleague talking. I turned sharply to my left and over my shoulder and said, “I thought you had left a good hour ago?” Only to realise there was no one there. As I said this, up on the lower balcony, one of the entrance doors was slowly starting to close.’
Finally, a decent story - from a witness no less!
BMO: But sometimes doors do that. It could have been a gentle breeze that made its way through the portico stairwell and caught it just enough to move it.
Now you’ve gone and ruined it with logic! I love you Glen Eira Town hall, but you’ve got a shit ghost.
(You can watch a short video of me doing some ghost detective work in the Glen Eira Town Hall here)
The Glen Eira Council History team shared an archival, council made film with me. It was made in 1963 and is entitled ‘Caulfield: A Living City’ by John Freney-Mills. With apologies to Mr Freney-Mills, you can watch my abbreviated and re-voiced version here.
I wouldn’t have minded winning an FE Holden