Norah Head is known for its lighthouse—but this coastline holds more than just light.
In this episode of If These Trees Could Talk, we explore the stories that have settled here. From the ghost of Jenny Dixon Beach, to the hitchhiker seen along Wilfred Barrett Drive, these are the legends people still talk about.
But when you go looking for the truth behind them—something doesn’t hold.
What you find instead is real.
In 1950, sisters Grace and Kathleen Holmes left their home in Toukley for a walk. They never came back. Their murders remain unsolved.
For decades, they lay in unmarked graves in Noraville Cemetery—just metres from where people now claim the hitchhiker disappears.
This episode doesn’t try to prove what’s been seen.
It asks something else—
Why do we build scary stories…
when tragic truth is already here?
Kathy and Grace were murdered on August 29th 1950
The headstone for murdered sisters Kathleen ("Kathy") and Grace Holmes was erected and unveiled in 2014, 64 years after their deaths
The Holmes family moved to Australia after surviving months in bomb sheltures in Englad during the war and were looking forward to a bright future
Crime scene photo from the investigation into the sisters murder
Jenny Dixon Beach | Where the ghost of a woman is seen, reaching out, as if looking for help. Locals have long believed she is a mother, lost to the sea in one of the many shipwrecks that scar this coast—her child taken with her in the chaos.
And somehow… she never left.
In the 1970s, a group of boys saw her standing on the shoreline… and ran. They didn’t stop till they reached the top of the stairs...
Only to realise she had followed them.
The Bell from the Janet Dixon
Wilfred Barrett Drive isn’t just a road—it’s a stretch of coastline that feels caught between places.
Ocean on one side.
Bushland on the other.
And in some sections… the lake sitting just beyond the trees.
By day, it’s just another coastal drive.
But at night, it changes.
Long, dark stretches where you don’t pass another car.
No streetlights. Just headlights cutting through the bush.
And it’s here, on this road—that people say they’ve seen her.
Standing on the side of the drive… waiting.
Because some places don’t just lead somewhere—they carry the stories of everything that’s passed through them.
Central Coast Australia 2023, The ghost at Jenny Dixon Beach: urban legend, Central Coast Australia, viewed 17 April 2026, https://www.centralcoastaustralia.com.au/news/the-ghost-at-jenny-dixon-beach-urban-legend/.
Coast Magazine 2023, Shipwrecks on our coast, Coast Magazine, viewed 17 April 2026, https://coastmagazine.com.au/explore/shipwrecks-on-our-coast/.
Daily Telegraph 2014, Graves of murdered sisters Kathleen and Grace Holmes to get headstone after 64 years, Daily Telegraph, viewed 17 April 2026, https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/graves-of-murdered-sisters-kathleen-and-grace-holmes-to-get-headstone-after-64-years/news-story/33d812c2455dc805f8d7b9910cd17c54.
Daily Telegraph 2014, Donations pay for gravestones for murdered Toukley sisters Grace and Kathleen Holmes, Daily Telegraph, viewed 17 April 2026, https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/donations-pay-for-gravestones-for-murdered-toukley-sisters-grace-and-kathleen-holmes/news-story/8909af828492178e22b8fb2ccc933785.
Daily Telegraph 2023, Paranormal activity: ghostly brides and a vanishing hitchhiker haunting tales from the Central Coast, Daily Telegraph, viewed 17 April 2026, https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/paranormal-activity-ghostly-brides-and-a-vanishing-hitchhiker-haunting-tales-from-the-central-coast-/news-story/2058c9150756b8809c6655f83a29cd48.
Mamamia 2023, The ghost of Jenny Dixon Beach, Mamamia, viewed 17 April 2026, https://www.mamamia.com.au/jenny-dixon-beach-ghost/.
National Library of Australia 1950, The Holmes sisters case (newspaper article), Trove, viewed 17 April 2026, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18181676.
National Library of Australia 1950, Search for missing girls at Toukley (newspaper article), Trove, viewed 17 April 2026, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27569331.