AUSTRALIA'S OLDEST GHOST? -

The story goes that in 1699 William Dampier sailed the ship Roebuck into what is now called Roebuck Bay at Broome.

Dampier set about collecting specimens to take back to England and it is said by some that while he was there he buried a small chest of treasure on what is today known as Buccaneer Rock.

Dampier then sailed away never to return and on his way back to England the Roebuck, infested with marine worms, eventually fell apart.

Many many years later some locals would claim that on misty nights Dampier’s ghost ship would return with glowing white sails, groaning decks with Dampier himself standing on deck holding high a lantern looking for his lost treasure.

Unfortunately there is a bit of a hole in this story because Dampier did not actually enter Roebuck Bay. Instead he landed further south and a party went ashore looking for water.

Interestingly though there are the remains of a ship on Buccaneer Rock that are thought to be 100 years old.

From what we can gather it is the wreck of the Sybil, lost during a cyclone in 1910. From the records it looks as though another ship with the same name was lost near Broome in 1917.

Buccaneer Rock

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