The haunting history of Queen Victoria Building in NSW
The Queen Victoria Building, located in Sydney, is a Heritage-listed building as it is 121-years-old.
The building has experienced a lot of history, which QVB After Dark endeavours to share with you, according to news.com.au.
This includes stories about a QVB’s “resident ghost” that inhabits the building, which is something that people have claimed to see pacing the floors and circling the central dome.
The ghost is rumoured to be a former QVB business owner who died from a violent robbery more than 100 years ago that never left the building.
However, the murder and real-life story of Mei Quong Tart devastated the city.
He came to Australia from China as a nine-year-old in 1859. When he was old enough, he started working out at the goldfields and worked as a government interpreter.
After making his home in Ashfield, Tart worked in the tea and silk trade in Sydney and opened restaurants across the city.
His most famous venue was the Elite Dining Hall and Tea Rooms in the QVB. As Tart was well-liked within the city, giving his employers fair wages and providing women a safe place during the time of suffrage, this made his murder all the more heartbreaking.
As Tart was counting money at the end of the day, he was beaten in the head with an iron bar and robbed. Despite surviving, he would soon pass eleven months after the brutal attack.
Those who have seen Tart within the QVB say he’s a “friendly ghost” who often waves at people as they walk by. If you see him, you’re encouraged to wave back.