There’s a Queensland country jockey who rode down the most haunted street in Victoria’s western district. I told a version of this story live on radio 4WK.

Rupert Greene was an amateur jockey on Queensland country racetracks including places like Warwick, Toowoomba and Goondiwindi in the 1890s.

He once rode a horse called Count, which was actually owned by a Polish count. He raced it to first past the post in a hurdle at Longreach, but upon checking correct weights it was found he came up a stone short and so was disqualified. It was later discovered that the scales at Longreach had been fiddled for years.

Greene became the official starter of the Melbourne Cup in 1914 and did the job for forty years. He was also a keen golfer until he was beaten by a fifteen-year-old future Australian amateur champion, whereupon he smashed his clubs and never played again. He was also the grandfather of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

But what’s really got me interested in him is that Greene also became an expert wool adviser and was the director of a stock and station agent in Hamilton, Victoria. One of his fellow directors might be a ghost here in not just one, but two houses.

Both homes are in Kennedy Street which may be the most haunted street in Hamilton if not the whole of Victoria’s western district. That’s because down one end is “Hewlett House” which is haunted by a grieving mother. At the other end of street are two more houses with ghostly stories which are the ones I’m interested in here.

In 1915 Mr James Thomas Haliburton Laidlaw, or better known as “Hal”, married Miss Elfwyn Crossley. Hal was a member of the influential and wealthy Laidlaw family. As a measure of their wealth, when Hal’s father died he left an estate valued at $50 milion in today’s money.

In 1925 a new company was registered called T. H. Laidlaw and Co. with its registered office in Gray Street which is Hamilton’s main street. The company was a stock and station agent and its directors included Hal Laidlaw and Rupert Murdoch’s grandfather the former Queensland country jockey Rupert Greene.

Hal grew up in the substantial family home called “Kilora” in Hamilton. It was built in 1871 for an influential newspaper editor. Hal’s mother Margaret died there in 1932 and is the only death recorded in the house. The home is still there today and there’s said to be a ghost in the butler’s pantry.

Meanwhile, Hal’s marital home called “Canowindra” and is on the same street – just fifty-four seconds walk away, faster if you know about the Kilora ghost, or slower if you knew where you were going. You see, Hal’s wife died at Canowindra in 1934 and like his mother fifty-four seconds away, she was the only death recorded there. The buildings attached at the back of the main home are said to be haunted.

Hal is the common connection between the two haunted houses and so could be the ghost itself. He got out of town and died fifty kilometres away in Glenthompson in 1963. It’s after that when the presence of ghosts in the two homes started to be recorded.

Meanwhile, Rupert Greene died in 1949 over nine hundred kilometres away in Forbes, New South Wales. He was recognised throughout Australia as one of the best race starters of his time.

Yes he is Ruper Murdoch’s grandfather, but in country Queensland he might be remembered as the amateur jockey who was cheated by the dodgy scales at Longreach.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON RADIO 4WK.

Photo credits:
Canowindra gate, Kennedy Street, Hamilton, 2024 – Harold Peacock 20241119_084204-W.
Murdock-Greene family photo – Canberra Times, 29th September 1985, page 25.
Kilora, Kennedy Street, Hamiton, 2024 – Harold Peacock 20241114_063444-W.
Kilora, Kennedy Street, Hamilton – The Real Estate Conversation 2019.
Canowindra, Kennedy Street, Hamilton, 2024 – Harold Peacock 20241114_064342-W.