10 March 2015

Ghost at Fassifern?

| dazzab
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I’ve done a few tests of aerial video over Fassifern Homestead at the end of Ginninderra Drive in Dunlop because it’s close by and fenced off. A friend of mine remembers going there as a kid to ride horses. I was a bit surprised to hear a rumour that people think it is haunted. Does anyone know any history about Fassifern?

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Jenny Barnes3:25 pm 19 Dec 22

The ‘homestead’ in this video was the riding school office. Well the office was to the left of the building, there was a big room in the middle and there was a tackroom on the right (the door looks like its been changed to a window). The woolshed was where that random bits of wood or tree is to the right just before the stable block on the right it was certainly said to be haunted and was damn creepy if you have to go in there after dark or near dark.

Looks like a tiny part of the white fence of the car park is still there and the area in front of the office (house building) was where the arena was. This fence ran from the old house to the round yard. Between the arena and the round circle (the old round yard) was the area where the horse yards were and off to the left of the round yard (as in in front of the arena thats in front of the office) was the school horse paddock.

The actual old house was approx where the two big trees were behind the office just up the hill a little.

Is this area now govt owned land and no longer accessible by the public? Is that what became of the old riding school? Seemed weird when they built all those houses on the ‘hill paddock( roughly where Kay Cl and hugh McKay Cres is) as that was actually a hill just across the top part of the school horse paddock.

Chris Eriksson8:45 am 27 Aug 21

Not too sure if your account is historically accurate. Explorer Charles Sturt acquired the Fassifern property near Dunlop in 1850. Then it was sold to the Campbell’s farming family in the 1860s. By the 1920s it was turned into a horse riding school until the 1980s. You may wish to check your history. Also if your grandparents were the original owners you may be over 120 years old now.

Trust this helps.

Happy to be corrected.

Blessings Chris

Hi Chris, there was definitely no riding school there until the late 1970s.
Before that, the land was used for running cattle and sheep, and growing crops such as wheat and oats, like the surrounding properties including Parkwood.
I believe it was known for producing some of the best grain in the district – very good soil.
I was told that the house, which was hastily demolished in the 1990s by the ACT Government following a compulsory acquisition, was once the residence of Charles Sturt. It was built in the early 1900s.

My grandparents owned fassifern, it was 500 acres, they were the first owners of the property. Their names were alice and ray Price. They had 2 children born there. Alice and ray sold the property in the mod 1950’s. It was called fassifern because our ancectors came from Scotland, and they had a property in Scotland called fassifern. The only one of my family who I know died there was Alice’s brother. He was on a metal combine harvester machine which was struck by lightning and he was fried from it. Also Alice’s brother built part of the house out of hand made mud bricks.
I am a 6 generation canberian and my ancestors names are on the school board at st John’s church, also where the family is buried.

Yes… I grew up there the 1980s and 90s. Rational, down-to-earth adults claimed to see a ghostly man in the old woolshed, and there were folk who would not go into the building alone because they felt a ‘presence’. It wasn’t sensational or anything: people just referred to ‘The Ghost’ in a casual way as they would a dog or any of the other creatures around the place. The woolshed was demolished (along with the old weatherboard house) by the government in the 1990s. Those buildings were at least 100 years old back in the 1980s but there are people still in the community who know about the history of the place. Try the Hall Museum for knowledgable locals.

taninaus said :

It is probably a bit of the usual – anything that is older and vacant must have a ghost! 🙂 ‘haunted’ houses in the movies are always vacant or have an old hermit in them don’t they? Also, don’t you usually need some sort of tragedy to go with it?

“….anything that is older and vacant….”
That’s me!

It is probably a bit of the usual – anything that is older and vacant must have a ghost! 🙂 ‘haunted’ houses in the movies are always vacant or have an old hermit in them don’t they? Also, don’t you usually need some sort of tragedy to go with it?

astrojax said :

dungfungus said :

“ghost who lives”
Oxymoron of the year.

why? isn’t the concept that a ‘ghost’ is the living spirit of the departed person?

and to pick more at this disingenuous statement, it was ‘a ghost lives here‘ – you ‘live’ at your home address, but it doesn’t, by that parlance, refer to your mortal state per se, rather, where you might most likely be located…

You appear to have deep insight of the after-life. I find that rather spooky.
Have you checked your own pulse lately?

dungfungus said :

“ghost who lives”
Oxymoron of the year.

why? isn’t the concept that a ‘ghost’ is the living spirit of the departed person?

and to pick more at this disingenuous statement, it was ‘a ghost lives here‘ – you ‘live’ at your home address, but it doesn’t, by that parlance, refer to your mortal state per se, rather, where you might most likely be located…

Milly Withers12:17 pm 11 Mar 15

Filmed with a drone?? Very cool.

“ghost who lives”
Oxymoron of the year.

Alexandra Craig11:13 am 11 Mar 15

Wow! This is very cool. Awesome video, thank you for sharing it with us. I hadn’t heard about the ghost but I just tweeted this article to Tim the Yowie Man. He might be able to provide some insight! 🙂

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