Norton just kept being herself. She just kept being the Witch of King's Cross. A nineteen fifty six interview with The Australasian Post, so to quote, we asked, do.
You really believe you're a witch? Amaze? She asked, are you serious? Yes?
Do you believe you are a witch? And she answered, of course I am. I'm a witch and that's all there is to it.
I'm Jen Kelly from the Herald Son and this is in Black and White, a podcast about some of Australia's forgotten characters. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome a new guest, Peter Coleman, to tell us a wonderfully strange story about a fearless woman known as the Witch of King's Cross. Her name was Rosaline Norton, and she was a Bohemian artist who horrified Australian societ in the mid nineteen hundreds. There were wild tales of blood sacrifices, devil worship, sex,
orgies and satanic rituals. But were they true? Pete is here to sort the fact from the fiction for us. He tells Rosaline's fascinating story and many others in his new book, which is called Australia's Most Bizarre Crimes, and he joins us. Now, welcome to the podcast.
Pete, thank you so much. It's so great to be here.
Now. Your book is called Australia's Most Bizarre Crimes. When you were looking around for ideas, you must have felt pretty lucky when you struck upon this story, because it certainly is bizarre.
Rosaline Norton is such a memorable and distinctive character from Australian history.
I absolutely love her. She was a witch, she was an artist.
She was this controversial figure living in Sydney's King's Cross in the nineteen forties, fifties and sixties, in a very conserved bit of time in Australian history. And she absolutely scandalized society. And she even led to the downfall of the career of a prominent conductor as well, so so Eugene Goson. So it's quite a rich and varied story of Roselene. But I love her story and I hugely admire her, and I'm so excited to share her story with everyone.
I can't wait to hear more. Now take us back to the beginning of her life, because it sounds like there were signs right from the start of her life that Rosaline was not your average kid.
She was born in a thunderstorm at night in Dunedin in New Zealand, on the second of October nineteen seventeen. So she was born with some distinctive physical features, including naturally pointed ears and two spots on her knees. So these were the kind of physichysical characteristics that in centuries past would have been considered witches marks, and they were physical characteristics that Raslan was quite proud of.
Later in life, she claimed that she.
Was born a witch, but she first realized that when she was about twelve or thirteen years old.
She claimed that nobody had to teach her how to be a witch.
She said, in my case, it came naturally and nobody had to teach me. She was the youngest of three girls born to the British master mariner Albert Norton and his New Zealand born wife. Being up so, her family emigrated to Sydney in nineteen twenty five, for that's where Rosalie would spend the rest of her life.
She did not enjoy her childhood overly.
To quote her, her upbringing was a generally wearisome period of senseless shibblous, prying adults, detestable or depressing children whom I was supposed to like, and parental repat approaches. She apparently slept outside the house the family home in a tent for three years and had multiple pets, including a spider named Horatius, as well as cats, lizards, toads, dogs, tortoises and a goat.
So she was from a very young age.
Really connected with nature and a died in the wool nonconformist. She was expelled from her school, Chatswood Girls Grammar, at the age of fourteen for being a quote unquote corrupting influence when she shared what were described as depraved drawings of vampires and wear wolves with her classmate. So she was creating mythological images from a young age, which then go on to do as an artist throughout the rest
of her life. She then, after leaving school, she went on to study art at East Sydney Technical College under the sculptor RAINA hoff Who and he really encouraged her.
And he didn't just encourage.
Her artistic pursuits, he also encouraged an interest in paganism, which again would go on to define her life. Roselyne, or her friends called her ROWI worked as in multiple jobs in Sydney. She worked as a kitchen hand, a nightclub waite staffer. She worked as a posty. She worked as a pavement artist and a journalist. So she worked at the Avangar publication Pertinent, which is where she met the Sydney bohemian and poet Gavin Greenleys, who was thirteen
years younger than Rosaline. The pair shared a passion for the coult and they became lovers. Gavin would remain her companion until nineteen fifty five, when he was institutionalized for scar It's aphrenia. She was also an artist model for the famed Australian artist Norman Lindsay and he described her quote as a grubby little girl with great skill who will not discipline herself.
She's obviously left her family behind by this stage, but were they quite strict and were they appalled by her behavior?
Her family was a quite conservative Church of England family, and I think they were very I'm not sure if they were scandalized, but I think she was very much the black sheep of the family and I don't think they really appreciated.
Her very much.
It's sort of difficult to know in terms of she doesn't tend to talk about her family much in the interviews I read so, but I'm yes, I would say that they were quite scandalized by her behavior. She was openly bisexual. She had relationships with men and women. I mean, think about it. This is you know, nineteen thirties, nineteen forties Australia. And she was also keenly interested in various
occult and mind altering practices. So she was interested in self hypnosis, psychedelics, pagan ritual Jungian psychoanalysis, Jewish mysticism, Western occultism, Eastern estheterism, and quote unquote sex magic.
So she was very.
Interested in the work of the controversial occultist Alistair Crowley, who was a really important figure in twentieth century occultism and a very controversial figure. She was very interested in entering altered states, both for spiritual and artistic reasons. So she would enter trance states to receive visions from the realm of the subconscious that she would then go on
to draw or paint. There's a great quote from her where she says, I get a life that holds infinite possibilities and is entirely satisfying to me in all planes of consciousness.
And when did she first come to public attention.
She first came to public attention when she had her first art exhibition, which was at Roodent White Library at the University of Melbourne in August nineteen forty nine. She apparently hitchhike from Sydney to Melbourne to attend her own exhibition, so they were assuming.
It would be really unusual for a woman to hitchhiked from Sydney to Melbourne in that era.
It's so funny after reading about rosaline so much, that's one of the least surprising things that she did.
So I didn't even think about that.
But no, yes, absolutely, they would be incredibly unusual for a woman to hitchhike Sydney to Melbourne. But the thing you'll definitely get with Restling Norton is she was fearless, so she just did whatever she wanted to do. But the exhibition, the reason it drew public attention, was that she showcased a series of paintings and drawings of pagan deities, demons, supernatural entities, often depicted in sexually suggestive poses, So the
work includes such titles as Lucifer and Witch's Sabbath. This was all extremely controversial for Mensis era Australia, which was quite conservative of course by today's standards, so it wasn't really a huge surprise when the cops showed arm, seized four of the paintings and charged Norton with obscenity.
The case was dismissed.
Strangely enough, it was dismissed up she had a chance to explain her artworking court, so the I just found her explanation convincing, But she remains this day the only artist to ever have had any of her art walk destroyed by the police.
Oh really yeah, So what was her explanation in court?
She basically explained that the images, as I understand it, were psychological, mythological. They were not intended to be obscene. They were intended to represent particularly things like Junian archetypes and aspects of the human mind, the human experience, drawing from mythology. So she basically contextualized her artwork into a larger narrative about mythology, psychology and human experience. But she did tell the Daily could tellograph afterwards. This figly morality
expresses a very unhealthy attitude. So and even though she was found not guilty, the controversy called the public's eye and they weren't about to forget the witch from King's Cross. So in nineteen fifty one, Roslyne and Gavin moved into a house in King's Cross. It was one seven nine Browham Street, which became an epicenter for the Sydney bohemian scene. So people would go to the house to practice occultism,
take lsd and sexual experiment. There was apparently a placard on the door which said welcome to the house of ghosts, goblins, were wolves, vampires, witches, wizards and poltergeists. Norton decorated the
walls with occult murals. And this is a house where she set up her so called sex cold so an altar to the Greek god Pan, So anyone unfamiliar, the Greek god Pan is a god of nature and the wild and shepherds and music, and he basically he has horned legs and he sort of has the appearance of a man goat, and a lot of people equated Pan with the image of Satan. And but just to clarify, even though Roslan was repeatedly accused of being a Satan worshiper.
She was not a Satan worshiper. She her primary objective devotion was the god Pan. But then things really bleue arm in nineteen fifty two with the release of her book The Art of Rosley Norton, which featured her aunt work alongside poems written by her friend and companion and lover Gavin. They basically then they start to release you know this. The book of art work was seen as extremely controversial. The Sunday Sun on September nineteen fifty two ran a piece titled they wanted to Bind It in
bat Skin? Witches Demons on rampage in weird Sydney sex book. So the article begins, sex symbolism is portrayed, which such Stark abandoned in a strictly limited edition of an artwork just published in Sydney, that an all male staff of bookbinders was engaged to bind the work. The article alleges that the book was originally going to be bound in bats skin, until Norton nixed the idea because she objected
to the killing of bats. The report describes a scandalous nature of the artwork which featured grotesque quote unquote grotesque human figures with upper halves of women and lower halves of men. The images included demons, skulls, serpents, erotic emblems, and religious symbols, as well as pictorial lampoons of bishops
and other churchmen, including a naked priest. The imagery used was that associated with the medieval cult of the Witch's sabbot, so the Sunday Sun honed in one particular image titled black Magic. This showed a naked woman embracing a panther. I love this story. The image scandalized Missus D. Woodward, who was vice president of the Progressive Housewives Association, and Missus Woodward apparently took one look at Black Magic and asked the reporter of The Sunday Sun how much the
book costs. She was relieved when she learned that the book cost eight guineas, which is about equivalent to modern ossie three hundred and seventy five dollars.
Three hundred and seventy five dollars. Did you say, yeah, it wasn't a chip. There's a lot of money.
It is a lot of money, and she is Missus Woodward was actually really happy about that, because she responded, Thank Heavens, price will keep it out of harm's way. So hilarious, yes, but of course, never one to back away from controversy, she just never was. Norton agreed to be interviewed by The Sunday Sun and here's a direct quay from the article. I just loved the image that they paint in this bit. Rosalie Norton, herself sitting cross legged on a couch in King's cross Room, sipping sherry
and smoking cigarettes, disagreed with her critics. She denied her drawings contained any sexuality and rifled through the pages of the book until she came to black magic. She explained that the woman and the panther were merely two aspects of self, the personal and the impersonal, or, for those who preferred it, conscious and unconscious. But Norton's explanations, unlike her cookcase, they didn't keep out of trouble this time, so she was charged and found guilty of obscenity.
Her book was banned in New South Wales.
And could only be bored in other Australian states with certain pages blacked out. It was also put on a customs ban and was actually burned by customs officials in the US.
We'll be back soon. Do you hear what happened to Rosalie next? So stay with us. So what was the effect of the ban, because obviously when you ban a book that generates huge publicity, did everyone suddenly want to get a copy of this book? Did it make it hugely popular?
I actually don't know what happened as a consequence with the book. I do know that she I mean, she was fined five pounds as well, which was equivalent to about two hundred and fifty dollars. But what it did have the effect of doing was basically putting her at the center of this media storm. So she was basically at the center of her own satanic panic which and there was much made about the occult community she was
running in King's Cross. So in the years following her obscenity conviction, the media was a buzz with stories of
a satanic coult operating out of King's Cross. The Australasian post around the headline are warning to Australia devil worship here and so the report featured a photo of Norden wearing a pagan mask, sitting beside an altar to the god Pan just in reference to By the way, the art of roseland Dawndon is still possible to buy copies of it nowadays, so if you want to jump on the internet, they're not cheap, but you can still.
Buy copies of the book. It's it's in circulation.
The Daily News published a piece titled sex worship part of King's Cross Cult, and it claimed that hundreds of people are clamoring to join a weird witch cult operating at King's Cross. According to police, the cult worshiped sex and took drugs during rituals. A reporter was told that during rituals, a naked girl is placed before an altar and a live rooster is slain over her as the blood palls over the girl's body. The devotees touched the
blood and chant rights. Now, just to be clear, I'm ninety nine point nine nine percent sure that is not true. Always denied having any blood sacrifices, and she objected to harming animals, and I don't think any of that is.
True, but that was what they reported.
When interviewed, she Norton didn't reveal any of the group's practices, but told the Daily News that quote, so many people are trying to join the cult.
We've had to fight them off.
And she admitted that the group took drugs and herbs of stimulants, but claimed the substances were legal. So in nineteen fifty five, Norton's flat was raided by police and she was charged with committing an unnatural sexual act.
The evidence was a.
Series of photograms showing Gavin Greenley's dressed in ritual apparel spanking Norton on the bottom.
But apparently ritual apparel.
Well, they would dress up in ritual costumes like robes and masks to perform their pagan rituals, and so however, I should clarify these photos were apparently joke photos that were taken at Norton's birthday party, so they weren't.
Actually part of any real ritual.
Apparently, in court, Norton wore a red skirt and leopard skin shoes. Norton and Gavin were ultimately quitted again, but the police which han't kept going and it also extended to fans of Norton's art work work. So the proprietor of a King's Cost restaurant was successfully prosecuted just for publicly displaying her paintings.
Oh that's interesting. Yeah, So was her artwork displayed anywhere else? I mean we heard about the exhibition in Melbourne. Was she able to have other exhibitions or were there other places where her artwork was displayed?
To my knowledge, she didn't have many other exhibitions. I mean, it was very difficult for her to exhibit her artwork, particularly obviously after the book ban.
As well.
Her artwork was brought and displayed by private individuals and apparently in some businesses, but again it was risky business associating yourself with Rosalie Norton because her artwork was just considered so controversial. And then in nineteen fifty six, it doesn't stop. She was also embroiled in a scandal surrounding so Eugene Gusens, who was the director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium and chief conductor of the ABC's
Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Gousons became involved in Orton's sex colt in the early nineteen fifties after reading the art of Roslyn Norton. So obviously it was circulating in some reasonably prestigious circles. The police learned of Guson's participation in the cult when they came into possessions of letters he had sent Norton. Now he had asked Roselyn to destroy the letters.
They were passionate love letters between the two, but she had hidden them behind her so far rather than destroy them, and then they were later stolen from her flat by a tabloid journalists. So on the ninth of March nine fifty six, Guson's was detained by customs official at Sydney Airport and they discovered in his luggage a corner cope of pornographic material including approximately one thousand illicit photographs, as
well as books, prints and a spool of film. So then we have on the eleventh of March nine fifty six the Sunday Telegraph for an article titled big Names in Devil rights probe, and it reported the following police investigations have disclosed that black masses and other devil worship ceremonies have taken place in luxurious homes on the North Shore. A banker, a lawyer, one or two radio artists are said to be among those involved. Police disclosures following an
intensive Sydney wide check on practicing of Satanic rights. The extent of devil worship in Sydney amaze police. They're expected to make shock disclosures soon. So Gooson's played guilty to possession of pornography and was fined one hundred pounds, which is equivalent to modern four thousands. The media absolutely had a field day with his relationship with Norton, and the celebrated conductor lost his positions and returned to England in disgrace.
He never recovered from the scandal and passed away in June nineteen sixty two. Meanwhile, Norton just kept being herself. She just kept being the Witch of King's Cross. A nineteen fifty six interview with The Australasian Post showed that all the controversy had failed to dampen her spirit in any way whatsoever. So to quote, we asked, do you really believe you're a witch?
Amaze? She asked, are you serious? Yes?
Do you believe you are a witch? And she answered, of course I am. I'm a witch and that's all there is to it. It's worth noting, at the time of the interview was actually illegal to practice witchcraft in New South Wales, and the law banning witchcraft wasn't repealed until nine teen seventy one. Another fabulous quote from Rosalie was I have been described as eccentric, decadent, exhibitionist, crank, genius, witch freak and so on, both in public utterances and
in private conversations. Yes, I am all of these things and glad of it. She also clarified that she'd never attended any ceremonies with blood sacrifices like I mentioned earlier, and she'd never drunk bats blood eater, which is good to know. The media attention sort of started to die off in the nineteen sixties, and she continued to make money by selling her paintings, and she'd also cuss spells for people, so that was a source of income for her.
Ah.
So did she have a shop front in King's Cross?
No, I don't believe so, not so the best of my knowledge, she I think it just ran out of her home so people would come to her. So she you know what I mean. She was so well known and infamous at this point that people would just just co to her. But then in the nineteen seventies she retreated from public life and by and lunch became a recluse.
So she passed away from colon cancer on the fifth of December nineteen seventy nine at the Sacred Heart Hospital for the Dying, which was its Innea St. Vincent Hospital, and she died surrounded by nuns, which is quite an odd end for Island Norton, but it is. But I mean, at the very end, and this is what I just love about her. She just maintained her dedication to living her life on her own terms. So her final words were, I came into the world bravely, I'll go out bravely.
That's a great quote. She's quite a striking figure to look at. And we'll pop some photos of her with the story that will accompany this podcast so on the hairld Sun website. But if you could just describe what she looks at and the kind of clothes that she wore would be amazing.
Yes, So she was a very very striking looking woman. As I mentioned, she had sort of naturally pointed ears. She had dark hair that she wore in the sort of a quite distinctive style. She had a sort of gap in her front tooth, and she had sort of pixie like features. You might say she seemed to be quite a small, slender woman, but broad huge amount of
presence with her. And again she also apparently had these other physical features, including apparently a stretch of skin between her arm and her side, which you know, again she attributed to her supernatural nature as well. And in terms of clothing, she would just wear extremely by all accounts, very again distinctive outfits, red shoes, animal prints, a lot of black in a lot of the photos. You know, some of the photos she's actually even depicted wearing a
witch's hat as well, So she really leaned in. She wasn't scared. But if you actually look at the photographs that were showcased in the papers of the time, her apartment was just extravagantly decorated with these these occult images and mythological images, and you can only imagine how scandalous
that must have seemed at the time. You know, this sort of conservative Mensi's era Christian culture, and you've got this woman who's freely, unashamedly flaunting her love of witchcraft and her love of magic and her love of entering old states of consciousness, which she talked about a lot.
And if you look at her artwork. I'm assuming that today it would not be controversy.
At all, not really, not by today's standards. You'd see a lot more controversial artwork going around. And I mean, the thing that's disappointing, I suppose, is that she was generally considered a very talented artist and her artwork, you know, shows a real level of skill and talent and flair. And I mean even Sidney Nolan, who called her a grubby little girl, he admitted that she had great skill.
She was very talented artist. And you know, it was such a shame because there was that obsession with you know, the content of the art being obscene or decadence or you know, immoral, and the art was destroyed or hidden or people were persecuted for showcasing the art and their businesses. But she was actually a really talented artist, and it's sort of a real shame that her artwork fell away
in the public eye because because of the controversy surrounding it. Fortunately, it's really good to know there's been a real uptick in interest in her again Raslane Norton, so she you know, there's even been a documentary that you can watch on Amazon Prime called The Witch of King's Cross, which goes into the story of her life. And so it's really nice to know that. You know, there's gradually a resurgence of interest in her.
And are there many of her artworks around today in private collections or in galleries?
Yes, yeah, so her artwork can be found around the place. Again, it's not hugely prevalent, but yes, it is around. It is in private collections, it is in galleries. It's also available online, you know, to buy. And it's not actually, I mean, as far as artwork goes as not overly expensive. Self could own a piece of her artwork if you want it. So, yes, her artwork is still around and
it's still being appreciated. And again, you know, with the uptick in interest, the rise of interest in occultism and supernatural in recent years, you know, wicker has become a sort of religion practiced by many Australians. Therefore, you know a lot of people are very interested and drawn to her artwork.
And how would you like Australians to remember Rosalie Norton?
Well, I think what I'd really like them to remember? She really to me, I mean, she was born in New Zealand. But I think there's something very I see her as a real Australian hero because she just had this again, this Alarican free spirit nature that I absolutely love. Like she didn't ever back down from her controversy, She never apologize for being herself. She had this real independence
of spirit. And you know, I think we can be quite rules focused nowadays, and I think she really reminds us of this real freedom and rebellious spirit that Australians have always been celebrated for in the past.
And Pat, your new book is full of lots of stories like this Australia's Most Bizarre Crimes. You've got lots of other stories just like this one.
Yeah, absolutely so Australia's Most Bizarre Crimes. I mean, I don't necessarily focus in as much depth as I do Onreslen Norton, and I really love the opportunity to talk about her because she's such a distinctive figure. But absolutely, my book Australia's Most Bizarre Crimes is really a celebration
of rebellion as well as poking fun at stupidity. Also, so it's a combination of stories about different kinds of criminals, but all of them did something distinctive or unusual in the process of committing the crime.
And so I have heaps of stories I talk about.
And I know you've written about this in the past, the Crutchy Push, so the gang of amputees the terrorized North Melbourne in the late nineteenth early twentieth century. I write about all kinds of different crimes. From a woman stockpiling weapons to protect herself from Yowie's to train it sounds fascinating.
Tell me more about that one.
So in October twenty twenty forty six or old woman appeared before the Gimpi magistrates called in Queensland so Helen. I won't say her last name. She pleaded guilty to charges of producing marijuana and possessing illegal weapons, and on a search of a home police found at knuckle dusters knives, tases and an illegal laser pointer. According to reports, they also discovered thirty three marijuana plants and a glass pipe
used for smoking meth. Anyway, when asked about the arsenal of weapons she had stocked, she claimed that it was to protect her from Yowi attacks. So, for those listeners who are not familiar with Yowie's, they're basically Australia's equivalent
to the yeti or abominable snowman. So they're these upright ape like creatures that apparently wander the country, and there's been myths about them for millennia, potentially in indigenous culture, but also there were reports about them in early Australian culture. The naturalist Henry James mccooney in eighteen eighty two reported spotting a yowi on the coast between Bateman's Bay and Aladullah.
He said he wrote, I should think that if it were standing perfectly upright, it would be nearly five feet high. It was tailorless and covered with very long black hair. Its eyes, which were small and restless, were partly hidden by matted hair that covered its head. The length of the foe legs or arms seemed to be strikingly out
of proportion with the rest of its body. On the whole, it was a most uncouth and repulsive looking creature, evidently possessed a prodigious strength, and one which I should not care to come to close quarters with. So one hundred and thirty eight years after McCooey wrote that Helen was also concerned about yawis.
So she'd procured both.
A button a butterfly knife for herself and a credit card knife. The magistrate asked what I consider a pretty reasonable question, which is what would a credit card knife do against a yowie? But she argued that she needed the knife for protection when camping in the bush. The magistrate pointed out that their mythical characters and that she would need a more reliant ball reason for stockpiling weapons.
But however, he wasn't entirely unsympathetic, and she got off with a fine of eight hundred dollars, which is Fortunately her weapons were removed, which is probably a good thing for both her and the yaowie that she might have potentially attacked.
Yeah, so true. That book must have been so much fun to write. I'm just a little bit envious. Well, thank you, Pete. Thank you so much for sharing the story. It's been a lot of fun. Thanks your time today.
You're so welcome. Thanks so much, Jen.
Thanks for listening. This has been in Black and White, a podcast about some of Australia's forgotten characters, written and hosted by me Jen Kelly, edited by Harry Hughes and produced by John ty Burton. You can find all the stories and photos associated with our episodes at Heroldsun dot com dot au slash ibaw. If you've enjoyed this podcast, we'd love you to leave a five star rage on Apple podcasts. Even better, leave a review. It's one simple way you can help us get the word out to
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