The Legend of Polly McQuinns DSC_3426
Polly was an early settler in the Strathbogie Region, nick-named Polly because he couldn’t grow a beard. Legend has it that one night, he was driving his horse and jinker home and missed the bridge, falling into the bottomless waterhole so that Polly and his horses were never found. The ghost of Polly McQuinn and his neighing horses haunts the waterhole to this day and can be heard echoing in the breeze on quiet evenings.
I spent most of my summers as a child and teenager at this waterhole with my best friend whose family were early settlers to the area and owned a farm there (still do). The endless hot days would bring groups of teenagers to the water, laughing, splashing and lounging on the rocks in the baking summer sun. The large boulder you see to the very left of the image was used as a platform to jump or dive into the water, aiming to impress the shy girls, trying not to look but looking nonetheless.
We used to think about poor Polly, especially out in the middle of the watering-hole where the water was cold and deep and wonder if it really was bottomless or whether we would be the ones to discover the skeleton of the jinker-or even worse, the beardless man himself.
The Legend of Polly McQuinns DSC_3426
Polly was an early settler in the Strathbogie Region, nick-named Polly because he couldn’t grow a beard. Legend has it that one night, he was driving his horse and jinker home and missed the bridge, falling into the bottomless waterhole so that Polly and his horses were never found. The ghost of Polly McQuinn and his neighing horses haunts the waterhole to this day and can be heard echoing in the breeze on quiet evenings.
I spent most of my summers as a child and teenager at this waterhole with my best friend whose family were early settlers to the area and owned a farm there (still do). The endless hot days would bring groups of teenagers to the water, laughing, splashing and lounging on the rocks in the baking summer sun. The large boulder you see to the very left of the image was used as a platform to jump or dive into the water, aiming to impress the shy girls, trying not to look but looking nonetheless.
We used to think about poor Polly, especially out in the middle of the watering-hole where the water was cold and deep and wonder if it really was bottomless or whether we would be the ones to discover the skeleton of the jinker-or even worse, the beardless man himself.