Undisclosed location, Central Victoria, Australia "Do actions speak louder than words?"

On the weekend of the 8th and 9th of November, the team headed off to a private location in central country Victoria. An intriguing location, deep within the goldfields and one that we had investigated before. The team were looking forward to a well-deserved and much needed weekend away, as we had just completed back-to-back ghost investigations the weekend prior and the team were emotionally, spiritually and physically exhausted. A private investigation on Halloween followed by a two night, off the charts experience at Moe meant that we were in desperate need of some quality rest and relaxation. 

Well, even the best intentions can go astray. 

As it turned out, two of the team couldn’t make the weekend, so with myself and Alle not there, Matt Amanda and Jacquie had the entire location to themselves…..this blog is a personal recount of their experience and as they rated this investigation in their top ten of all time, it is one very intriguing read. Yes, you read correctly, top ten!! 

Friday night was always going to be a wind down night, it had been a busy couple of weeks and we just wanted to debrief and unwind. We had all experienced personal struggles during the hunt the weekend prior, which for some, left us tired and emotionally drained for days after. So a quiet, relaxing drink with good friends, was what we all were looking forward to. We arrived at 9.30 pm, about two hours after our anticipated arrival time due to all three of us getting lost. Our GPS had taken us off the beaten track and led us on a wild goose chase, so a drink (or two) was definitely on the cards.

As the night turned into morning, we spent many hours laughing, singing and there were even a couple of dances. Two of the team there that weekend had been there before and were rather familiar with the location, the sounds and the layout. This was my first time at this location and I found the place to be warm and comfortable. 

Although we were not officially investigating that Friday night, we did have some devices set up around the room. We did get a few hits on the K2 meter, but we decided not to pursue them any further, as we had planned to just relax and do a thorough in-depth investigation on the Saturday night. It was the perfect night...…with perfect company and a perfect location.

Did our music, singing and dancing rekindle memories and remind the spirits of what this old hotel was like in its hey day? Did our laughing and singing, with not a care in the world, provide the foundations and set the scene for the perfect storm?

The weekend was absolutely freezing and with no modern luxuries like ducted heating, we tended to stay in the front room where we had the wood fire burning, providing us with warmth and comfort. Saturday was just a lazy day; a day where we sat by the fire and just talked. We were so excited to be investigating that night, that we found ourselves talking repeatedly about what we were planning to do. 

It’s funny though, as the day turned into night, the place changed. It was not a bad or dangerous feel, just different. Our senses were definitely alerted and there was a feeling of being watched or followed. Just off the main hallway was the ladies parlour and when Matt and Amanda walked through the space, they both became dizzy in exactly the same place and at exactly the same time. I wasn’t with them when this happened, so they called me in and asked me do a walk through of the space to see if I felt anything.  At exactly the same place in the room where they felt dizzy, I felt cobwebs and the hair on my body stood up. There was definitely something in this room and it definitely was trying to get our attention. 

As is normal practice when we do investigations, we like to introduce ourselves to any potential spirits, with the aim of making the investigation more personable and relaxed. We follow up with a generic question of "if anyone is here that would like to communicate with us, please come forward and make yourself known".  

WELL ...... the floodgates opened and we were taken on the most magical investigation. 

We found we only needed to use basic equipment for this investigation. The spirits appeared to understand how to communicate quite effectively using the K2, Ovilus and the EDI meters. Was this because these were the devices we used with them on our previous encounter, or were they just intelligent spirits who knew how to communicate?

We turned the Ovilus on and to be honest, it did not shut up for the entire investigation, When we downloaded the log for the night, there were 3060 words said through the device.  The Ovilus works through monitoring changes in the electro-magnetic field (EMF). Theories suggest that spirits are able to manipulate these fields to communicate. To reduce any anomalies in the use of this device, we used the Ovilus concurrently with K2 metres and the EDI metre. We were able to validate the interactions by requesting that all metres go off simultaneously, or by asking the spirit to light up just one. All of our requests were met with precision and in a timely manner. 

At times the Ovilus would respond in words which made sense or validated a question that we had asked. For example, we would ask if they were happy and the response would be "am not" or "you are wrong". We were totally blown away!

The Ovilus would give words describing that the spirits were feeling sad or lonely and based on the decades of investigations that we have done, both individually and collectively, we do believe we made intelligent contact with a spirit. 

Our line of questioning led us to believe that we may have made contact with someone that was possibly a slave to a European family. Naturally, we will need to do a bit more digging and research to validate that interaction. 

The other notable and rather interesting observation was that Mrs A from Moe may have possibly joined us that weekend. Her name came through on the Ovilus multiple times and the word "van" was listed at least six times either just before or just after her name. Knowing the history from Moe, we assured her she was safe and that we were happy for her to remain with us until we figure out how to help her. So that story will be continued.......

We all felt like we were seeing shadows moving around the hotel. We kept seeing things in our peripheral vision, but it was not until we all simultaneously gasped on the sight of seeing a shadow move into the front bar area. What are the changes of three separate people imagining the same shadow, in the same location at exactly the same time......very unlikely I would imagine. Our minds were blown!

As the night progressed, the spirits seemed content to answer questions by moving the K2 meter to red and the EDI meter to blue. In conjunction with other device activation, vibrations were picked up on the EDI meter and we experienced 5° temperature drops. The ladies lounge, where we had previously felt dizzy, was now a haven for spirit communication.  

As Saturday turned into Sunday, Amanda was becoming more and more concerned about a shadow man that she had seen. He was making her feel rather unsettled and a little uneasy. Was this the same shadow person that we had all seen earlier that evening?

We decided to have a break and regenerate. We were chatting casually about Amanda’s concerns when all of a sudden the Ovilus says "Alone soon bed". What the? As you can imagine, this did not sit well with Amanda who was becoming increasingly tired and was a little nervous about retreating alone to the bedrooms and the back of the property. With her emotions on high alert, she decided to sleep in the lounge room on the couch whilst we continued our investigations.

To be honest, I was feeling really excited, but also a little bit scared (and at times a little bit more than a little). The property has a long central corridor or hallway with a myriad of rooms leading off to the right and to the left. I kept getting disoriented and naturally, the toilets were miles away from where we were investigating. So it was a long walk to the other end of the property each time I needed to visit the ladies room.

Matt and I continued to investigate in the ladies lounge with varying energy levels and interactions from the spirits. We  set up the MelMetre, which is one of my favourites due to the authenticity of the device. The alleged spirits were making the MelMetre spike to 6.5 on call, which left us rather impressed. 

So just to give you a bit of an understanding of where we are in the property. There is the front, with a large central corridor. Starting at the front, there is the front bar to the right which leads into a ballroom. To the left is the lounge and dining rooms, where Amanda is asleep on the couch. You walk down the hall about five metres and there is a heavy wooden door. Through the door is a hallway off to the left and a doorway on the right which leads to the ladies lounge. Off the ladies lounge, further right is the Cobb and Co quarters, a hallway and the coolroom. 

So, Matt and I were sitting at the table in the ladies room doing our investigation, when all of a sudden the door that was closed (due to Amanda being asleep) starts to open ….. of course the door is creaking as it opens. We are talking movie worthy creaking noises! This damn door just starts to creep open .... and ever so slowly.

Matt quickly shone his torch onto the door as we totally expected to see Amanda walking through,, but no ..... no Amanda! The door just opened about a meter on its own! Yes, on its own! Needless to say my heart jumped out of my chest and Matt was on toilet duty for the rest of the night as I was too unnerved to walk the long corridor on my own. So what had come through the door? Was it the shadow man once more?

So feeling a bit creeped out, we chose to regroup and set up the SLS Kinnect (stickman) camera and see what came through on this device. We moved into the bar area and immediately picked up a small figure sitting on the bar. We instantly thought it was a child which the Ovilus immediately confirmed by saying “little”, followed by the name David. 

Intrigued, we decided to investigate this further. We continued to scan the room and it was not long before the child took off and a huge spirit appeared on the device. He was so tall. He just stood there, leaning casually against the mantle over the fireplace. I can only assume he was looking at us. He moved between the mantle and the bar, just leaning or at times, tapping his foot.  I have attached a picture below so you can see how big he was. We did a quick scan of the ballroom and the ladies lounge, but the device only indicated that spirits were socialising in the front bar area. The Ovilus continued to generate words and in the early hours of the morning, my name started coming through this Ovilus, which was rather amusing. Saying Matt or Matthew proved too hard though and made a joke that the word “saint" was close enough. 

So after investigating the front bar, I had an overwhelming sensation to point stickman out through a front window towards the main street. It's the early hours of the morning, in an abandoned old hotel, in pretty much a ghost town. I do not know what I expected to see in the darkness, but low and behold, there were two characters out the front,  that we can only describe as possibly drunk . It was rather hilarious as they were on the ground and looked like they were trying to get up..... rather unsuccessfully I might add. 

As our batteries drained we once again found ourselves in the lounge where the fire was still roaring and Amanda was sleeping peacefully.

Our basic devices were still on and we were still having conversations through the MelMetre, K2 and the Ovilus. We then noticed the word "monument" had come up a number of times on the Ovilus, so with a quick google search of the local area, we found that a monument had been erected only 750 metres from the hotel. We asked the spirits if they needed us to go and see the monument. Instantly they responded with strong red K2 hits. So being good paranormal investigators who love a bit of mystery, off we went (on foot and at 2.00 am in the morning) to find this monument.

The monument was to recognise soldiers that served in the wars from the local town. We thought best to wake Amanda and tell her of our plans, of which she looked at us with crazy eyes and went back to sleep. 

So, off we went, walking up the main street at two am, on this cold, windy and drizzly night. A few hundred metres up the road I did question why the hell we didn't drive? We had a good laugh and an even bigger laugh when the Ovilus said the word "puddle", to be shortly followed by Matt stepping in a large puddle.... he really must learn to heed warnings from the spiritual world. 

We arrived at the monument, took a quick photo or two and walked back to defrost our frozen bodies by the warm fire. 

Looking at the photo we searched for any matched names that had come through the Ovilus. Given that the monument only had initials plus surnames we were anticipating any success. But then we see the name Bright on the monument. Bright had come through the Ovilus ten times prior to us taking that walk. We then asked if the spirit Bright was with us. The K2 went to red and the MelMeter spiked, we knew we were on the right track.

On investigations, time can slip away and before you know it, the sun is dawning. It was 5.30 am and time for us to retire to our beds. It had been one huge night and our adrenalin was flowing and our minds racing. 

Were the spirits finally happy to tell someone their story? What had we unearthed? Who was this shadow man? So many questions still to be answered....so many stories still to be told. 

As my mind began to settle and sleep started to take over, I heard a thump in the distance, what was that sound, was it a door? The floorboards in the hallway began to creak and I could hear little ticking noises. I got up and turned on my light and looked around.....but nothing. I politely said that we will talk again soon but they were not welcome in my room as it was time to sleep…. and for the first time in my life, this investigator slept with her light on!

With all that happened that weekend, with all that we saw, heard and felt, we are ready and will be armed for our next investigation in this amazing hotel. 

Amazing, right?

All I can say is, I can not wait to go back to this phenomenal location and learn more about who or what roams there. Is the shadow man the same one my son saw on our first visit there. Who are these spirits....so many questions that need to be explored. 

Oh and by the way, the monument of Adam and Mary Gleisner which was desecrated and then removed, has been repaired and returned to the cemetery - another mystery right there!