Fisher's Ghost

"On 17 June 1826 an English-born Australian farmer from Campbelltown named Frederick Fisher [born 28 August 1792 in London] suddenly disappeared. His friend and neighbour George Worrall claimed that Fisher had returned to his native England, and that before departing had given him power of attorney over his property and general affairs. Later, Worrall claimed that Fisher had written to him to advise that he was not intending to return to Australia, and giving his farm to Worrall.

"Four months after Fisher's disappearance a respectable local man named John Farley, ran into the local hotel in a very agitated state. He told the astonished patrons that he had seen the ghost of Fred Fisher sitting on the rail of a nearby bridge. Farley related that the ghost had not spoken, but had merely pointed to a paddock beyond the creek, before disappearing.

"Initially Farley's tale was dismissed, but the circumstances surrounding Fisher's disappearance eventually aroused sufficient suspicion that a police search of the paddock to which the ghost had pointed was undertaken - during which the remains of the murdered Fisher were discovered buried by the side of a creek. George Worrall was arrested for the crime, confessed, and subsequently hanged. Fred Fisher, whose lands he had coveted, was buried in the cemetery at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Campbelltown" - Wikipedia.

The image attached is supplied by Campbelltown City Library Facebook page, which shows where Fisher and Worrall's farms once stood [Campbelltown Mall would be built a long time later], side-by-side and explains...

"This photograph was taken in 1907. We have taken a small segment of a larger panorama of Campbelltown that shows a couple of key sites in the Fisher's Ghost story. On the extreme left of the photo is the vicinity around the widely accepted site of the ghost appearance- the corner of Queen and Dumaresq Streets. The large building on the extreme right is the old CBC Bank. It was behind this building towards the railway line [neither of which existed at the time] that the murder of Fred Fisher occurred in 1826."

Lithgow Street-Bradbury JRLFC played games on the future site of Campbelltown Mall, which ran downhill, toward the trainline on top of Fisher and Worrall's farms. Lithgow Street-Bradbury would then become Campbelltown Collegians who played games here as well. Collies would later move to Bradbury Oval.