The National Trust of Australia have released a fascinating little booklet called The Darker Side Of Newtown – A Self Guided Tour For The Misguided. Author Rebecca Ward has been combing through the history of the Newton area and has collected together all sorts of strange and disturbing little tales, tales of hauntings, murders, strange deaths and other weirdness, then researched the locations as they exist in present day Newtown and put together a self guided walking tour in a booklet. It’s only $5, and while I only picked mine up this morning, I already really want to go and check out some of these places. At night of course 🙂

This is the description from the back of the book:

“Read about the local hoaxer Henri Grien who fooled the world as Louis De Rougemont. Find where the notorious Baby Farmers – the Makin family – lived and murdered the children in their care. Who poisoned the Constables wife? Where was Dr Vauses private insane asylum?
And what’s buried under Camperdown Memorial Rest Park…..”

Supposedly you can order it from the National Trust of Australia’s website, however I couldn’t find it there. Instead, you can pick up a copy at Le Cabinet des Curiosities in Enmore for $5, all proceeds going to the National Trust.