Nestled on the immediate outskirts of Melbourne CBD sits Tasma Terrace. A collection of terraces built in the 1800’s which have now been restored and are the headquarters of the National Trust of Victoria. There are reports from staff of having uneasy feelings in certain rooms, doors opening and closing on their own and some have even the seen what they describe as the ghost of a woman standing by the photocopier. Why would they be seeing the ghost of a woman? It just so happens that there is a darker history to Tasma Terrace that involves the murder of a woman. Edith Jane Forrester Jubb lived and ran what was called the lodging house of Tasma Terrace. She was rumoured to be an adulteress and very scandalous for the time, lived with her lover Alfred Turner (who was not the father of her eldest daughter and they were not married). On the 14th of August 1890, a barrister who lived at Parliament Place which is now known as Tasma Terrace, heard the gunshots and went to investigate the scene. He then went to fetch Dr Charles Ryan and on their way back found Constable William Harley nearby. Constable Harley was the first officer on the scene. He found Alfred standing in the hallway with a gash to his forehead. As he continued past the dining room and into the bedroom at the rear of the building he found Edith lying lifeless. She had a gun in her left hand and the left side of her body was soaked in her own blood. The left side of her face was swollen and she had a bullet hole beneath her left eye and a second gunshot wound near the left ear. Apparently the first bullet merely fractured her upper jaw but the second bullet was fatal. The coroner opened an inquest on the 16th of August which was held in the dining room of the lodging house. After a 45 minute testimony to an all male Jury it was deemed that she committed suicide .... meaning she would have shot herself in the head, reloaded the shot gun and then shot herself again. Is the woman staff see at Tasma Terrace Edith looking for some sort of closure?
