Cache is inside this abandoned goldfields cemetery.
Louisa Creek contains only a few headstones now since it began in the early 1850s as a gold diggings cemetery. It is among gum trees and long grass.
The grave of Sophia Monies is still standing. She was murdered in 1861 by her cook. It is said she still haunts the area.
In 1861, Sophia Monies lived at Avisford, NSW, a mining town on Louisa Creek. Her Husband, Thomas Saltonstall Monies, was the publican of the George & Dragon and was a very respected man. On 27th February, 1861 between 8 and 9 in the morning, Sophia's daughter Susannah, aged 12 at the time, observed her mother Sophia asking Chinese man Jin Sing to put on the pot. Jin Sing Chung was employed as cook and had been there for two months. He said that he was hungry and wanted his breakfast. Her mother then said that he could have his breakfast when the children had had theirs. He went and rolled up his blankets and asked for his wages but her mother refused to pay him and struck him with a broom. On 4th September, 1861, in the Bathurst circuit court, Susannah described her mother’s murder that took place on that day in February. ‘Mother told Jin Sing to wait till the master came home; he then mocked her by jabbering away in Chinese after she spoke to him : mother said ‘if you give me any of your jaw I will slap your face’ ; he immediately picked up an American axe and struck mother in the back ; my mother then ran round to the back and then through the house ; I followed her until she got outside, she tried to get into Mr. Merritt’s gate but could not succeed; she then ran down to the creek ; Jin Sing ran into the kitchen and took a tomahawk from behind the door and I saw him run after my mother with it in his hand. I saw Jin Sing on his left knee with a tomahawk in his right hand’ Jane Pentlebury, a miner’s wife, who was ‘engaged to wash’ for Sophia said, I saw him on his knees on the bank of the creek, holding Mrs. Monies down with his left hand and striking her with the tomahawk with his right hand; I was 4 or 5 yards away from him at the time and afraid to go near him; I stood and screamed while he was striking her with the tomahawk’. James Henry Bell , A miner said , ' I am a gold miner. I lived at Avisford in February last. On the 27th I was at Merritt's store, I heard a woman scream and I ran to the front of the house , I saw Mrs. Pentlebury standing with her hands up , she said " run, ! run, for God's sake run" for the Chinaman has murdered Mrs Monies!". I asked her where ? she pointed to tho creek and said "there". I ran to the creek where I saw Mrs Monies. Mrs Pentlebury then said 'look, look he is running away!!', I looked and saw the prisonor making his escape , I followed him and saw him in the kitchen at Mr. Phillips' he was sitting on a stool, he knew me and said 'I killed Mrs Monies and am very sorry I did not kill them all!!'. The prisoner was then secured. I afterwards ran to the spot where Mrs Monies was lying by the creek, she was still living. I assisted to carry her to the house and she died not long after: there were serveral wounds on the head. Wilson Ramsay said in his post-mortem ‘there were several wounds on the back and front of the head; the skull was fractured in two places and the brains protruded’ The police officer, Robert Matthews, remembered ‘Jin Sing said ‘me did it;’ In the afternoon, while in the lock-up, I told (him) that Mrs. Monies was dead; he said ‘me glad of it, me would kill Susey if me could.’ Jin Sing Chung was not hung. Sentence of death was remitted to 15 years hard labour at Cockatoo Island. On 10th January, 1868 he was admitted to the criminal division of the Parramatta Insane Asylum and died there on 24th June 1894. Sophia's husband, Thomas, remarried in 1862 to Ellen Read and returned to Hill End until his death 21st January 1873. The murder of Sophia Monies was never spoken about or passed down. The story came to light when an internet search on ‘monies’, ‘murder’ and Avisford’ resulted in a transcript of a newspaper Western Post March 1861 displayed the story ‘DIABOLICAL MURDER AT AVISFORD BY A CHINAMAN’ Susannah died 21st August, 1936 at Kogarah, NSW at 88 years perhaps thinking she took the story of her mothers tragic death to her grave. Sophia Monies memorial stone can be seen at the Louisa Creek Cemetery. How to get there? From the village of Hargraves NSW, drive north between the public school and Anglican Church to the end of Merinda Street. The cemetery lies in bush about 400 metres further along a rough track. Unless you are driving a 4WD vehicle, you will have to walk this last bit. Care should be taken to avoid the many old mine shafts left over from the gold mining days. Why does Sophia haunt Louisa Creek? Sophia suffered a very violent, traumatic and cruel death. It is these most prominent of events that has anchored her spirit to the earthly realm, making it extremely difficult for her to move on in peace. The violence and event of her death has seeped into the location that it took place which is in the location of the house that she suffered her first blow to the back of the head with an axe and then running for her life for cover and protection by Louisa creek to where she copped her last blows to her head . The soil of the ground itself of which the murder took place, has left a certain ghostly energy and impression. Her blood seeping into the ground by the creek has created what is known as a' spiritual residue'. What is a spiritual residue? It is where unsettled spirits can manifest and linger on the land itself or even in buildings or houses, even building that are later built on the historically blood stained ground . This whole residue creates a ' Haunting '. Sophia has chosen to reside in the area that her death took place because it is where she spent the last moments of her life and it is only natural for her to haunt the very place that is the source of her personal pain and suffering. It is her way of wanting others to know of her story in that location.