The Altona Homestead was built in the 1850's and is situated in Logan Reserve, about 50 metres from the Altona Beach shoreline. Imagine being in the mid 1800's, standing in the bay window staring out to the ocean, watching and waiting for your husband to return, with the sounds of the ocean reminding you of how isolated you are. The flicker of candlelight or moonlight shimmering through the gum trees must have been so eerily peaceful. It is hard to imagine, and even more so, given that the homestead is surrounded by a bustling community, with shops, restaurants, bars and people. But once inside, you blocked the sounds of the outside world and immersed yourself in the artifacts that filled the homestead.
And so the night began …...
We entered the beautiful bluestone and brick homestead into an entrance foyer. To the left was the main bedroom of Sarah Langhorne, to the right, the reception room. Straight ahead is a hallway and a door. Off the hallway were the bathroom, the child's bedroom and a large room (currently used as an office). The door off the foyer, led to the dining room and off this was a small library and through the library was the kitchen, which was the base for the night.
We all met in the kitchen where the two guides gave a five minute introduction and a brief history of the spirits who were alleged to roam the homestead. They went through some equipment they had on offer, which included K2 meters, dousing rods, a spirit box and a set of parabolic earphones. The guides then said we were free to explore the homestead and if we needed their assistance, to just ask.
Great I thought, off to do my own paranormal investigation. I love that!
I teamed up with a friend, who had brought his teenage daughter along for her first extended paranormal investigation, and moved quickly into the main bedroom. This bedroom was alleged to have a number of spirits, including a woman who had died in the bed during childbirth and that of Sarah Langhorne. We set up a video camera, a parascope on the bed, a few K2 meters and a catball on the wash stand. We then invited anyone to come forward. After a few minutes, the parascope lit up and the catball began to respond with what appeared to be intelligent communication. This only lasted about five minutes because the other guests began to talk rather loudly, laughing and moving noisily through the homestead. In reality, we were talking about an entrance foyer with five investigative rooms off it, and 17 people (2 guides and 15 guests) moving through a relatively small area, so noise was always going to be an issue.
We did have a video camera set up in this space, so we are hoping that once that is analysed, there may be some notable evidence from this room.
It would have been beneficial for the guide to talk about investigation etiquette. There were many times throughout the night that you could not investigate due to the noise of some of the guests.
From the bedroom, we moved into the bathroom where it was alleged a man had drowned in the tub. Unfortunately nothing.
From the bathroom, we moved into the child's room next door. They were alleged reports of children playing in this space, so we set up a few trigger items, the camera and the catball. We spent a considerable amount of time in this room, not because of activity, but because there were always people in the reception room and the dining room was a thorough fare through to the base (kitchen) and we had already investigated the bathroom and the main bedroom.
However, we did get some activity in this room. Mostly mild sensations, cool breezes and tinglings and on the second return to this room, my friend felt headachey and the room felt 'different'. We spent over forty-five minutes in this room, in total. One couple had stated that when they were in there, they felt something touch their legs.
By this time we were one and a half hours into the investigation and the house seemed to quieten down. We found out that some of the guests had left the tour. So with a few less people in the house, we moved into the dining room. We set the parascope up on the table and a few triggers elsewhere in the room. We did feel energy in the room, albeit mild, and we did have a few hits on the parascope, but nothing on any of the other devices.
From here, we returned to the main bedroom and tried a few other investigations with the other couple from earlier. We made a circle of energy and invited the spirits to come and communicate with us. The couple commented on cool breezes and being touched in the back whilst the other felt like she was being pulled towards the window. The room felt more charged and there were definite tinglings, but none of the devices were activated.
There was still an hour to go on the tour, and I must admit, we did consider leaving, but we thought, no, let's try somewhere else. So we went down into the office area. This area definitely had a different feel from the rest of the homestead. This may sound funny, but it felt masculine, and we referred to the spirit we encountered as male, whereas everywhere else in the homestead, we had subconsciously referred to the other adult spirits as female. We had some trigger activity on the parascope and the K2 flashed to orange multiple times. There was a dense, heavy feeling. It was probably the most active, besides the experiments in the main bedroom.
With half an hour to go, we finally got the reception room to ourselves. All night, others had set up camp in the reception room, sitting around on the couches, talking or using the spirit box with the volume up quite high. After a while, that white noise does your head in. It was used quite extensively by guests and guides this tour and it echoed through the homestead. I was surprised, because most of the reading I have done on spirit boxes stated that you should always do a protection 'spell' before using one and then only use it for five to ten minutes at a time, with a closing 'spell' at the end, to ensure spirits go back to whence they came. I do get the attraction of this piece of equipment and I do use mine, but we record the session and unless the whole team is in the one room, we use headphones.
We sat in the reception room and listened to the last of the guests say their goodbyes. We realised everyone else had left the tour, except for us.
Nothing notable happened in the reception room, so we packed up and went to find the guides to say goodnight. At the beginning of the night we were concerned that three hours would not be enough time to do an in-depth paranormal investigation, but it was more than enough, given the low level of activity we experienced.
The guides were lovely and most hospitable, but some of the guests were loud, with a few of them doing an investigation for the first or second time and whom did not understand etiquette. This definitely deterred from our experience, but it was still an enjoyable evening.
As for a paranormal investigation, it was a great one for newbies or children. It was not scary or confronting. The rooms were well furnished and there was no need for a torch. There was a toilet and a well lit kitchen to retreat to if need be. The company provided some great equipment for guests to dabble in and there were enough rooms to practice your investigative skills.
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