Werribee Park provided a surreal, yet eerie backdrop for what eventuated as the most entertaining, yet most terrifying ordeal for a first time ghost hunter. What started out as an enjoyable evening of new experiences, concluded with a scene that would challenge the most affrighted scripts of the horror genre.
So here we were, three females embarking on the Werribee Farm 3-hour tour. Myself, one who has investigated the paranormal for a number of decades, accompanied by two first time ghost tour enthusiasts. On entering the park, we drove down a long and dark dirt track. At the end of the track, we made our way along a path to a small bluestone building, where we were met by the hosts for the night. The soft orange moonlight outlined some of the buildings in the distance. Were those the buildings we were exploring? The Park felt like a million miles away, secluded, almost desolate.
We began our investigation in the blacksmiths shed; it was rather uneventful, nothing out of the ordinary. A little bit of history, a few noises, cold spots and the occasional "did you see that?"
After a little while, we moved onto the stables. It was in here that our, should I call her the "possessed one" first began to share stories and thoughts from the other side. It was in here that she said that she needed to remove her wedding and engagement rings as they were burning her hands. She took them off and passed them rather mindlessly to the other ghost newbie. Was this her mistake? Was it this action that removed her protection, making her vulnerable, allowing her soul to be taken hostage?
So now the story gets interesting. Possessed one, let's call her "Anne" starts sharing thoughts with the group. There is a small girl in here, called Lizzie. She is in a prairie style dress, boots, skipping between here and the blacksmith. She likes "John", who is the blacksmith. She goes on to share many random thoughts which had the hosts googling for validation. From an experienced paranormal investigator's perspective, Anne was showing signs of mediumship, or at the very least, a high level of intuition. It was interesting and appeared quite genuine, but nothing I had not seen hundreds of times before and did not see any cause for alarm.
We moved from the stables to the caretaker's cottage. It was in here that Anne became quite loud. She stated that John thought we were not safe in the house and that he had to stay in there with us. Anne said that no one should be in the back room on their own. After ensuring to Anne that we were safe and this was a normal type of activity on ghost hunts, we started a silent portal experiment. We were receiving profanities and statements, like "I will punch you in the face" and "chin up". The hosts had left us and the guests in the cottage on our own, for about thirty minutes. Once we had finished the portal session, Anne went on to give history of the cottage and stated, rather factually, that Sarah lived in the house and she lived with a man, Robert, who had an aggressive temper. Just as Anne said this, the hosts walked in and asked Anne to repeat her statements, to which the hosts validated the stories.
Interested, but also a little surprised, sceptical and bewildered, we left the cottage to explore the carriage house. Anne found it difficult to enter the carriage house and kept repeating "bad shit happened in there" and that she couldn't go in. Eventually, Anne entered the shed and was immediately drawn to the far left corner. She walked over and stood next to me and said again how much she didn't like this building and she had to leave. It was at this exact time that my camera became activated, taking random shots of a bright yellow-white light. The male host was watching this over my shoulder, confused and intrigued. The female host stated that she was cold and could feel a negative energy. Anne, visibly rattled by her feelings, stormed out of the building while telling everyone rather abruptly, "a gust of cold air just come in front of me" - this is the exact moment that I believe the possession took hold of Anne, albeit unbeknownst to her, to me and to others.
We began our walk down to the mansion, Anne talked all the way there, commenting on people working in the fields, sitting on the lawns, dancing at a party and playing with the dogs. She talked of children, of workers and of trees. Talking with her, you could easily believe that she was there, living it, seeing it. It seemed so real! At the mansion, she sat alone on the lawns, as if she was watching an event. She looked content sitting on the grass by a tree in the moonlight, happy, yet ever so distant.
Anne then slowly walked over to us in the laundry, tears swelled in her eyes. Her emotions pouring out as she shared a story of a maid who gave birth to an illegitimate daughter and then proceeded to drown the baby in the trough. Her precise detail of two women washing a white sheet and asking if it was clean enough (that all the blood was out) was fascinating, yet disturbing. To Anne, this was happening in front of her. You could see that she believed it, as if she was watching it, there, now. Guests sat on the edge of the "drowning trough" only to jump up, one by one, due to being touched on the back of the head or because their hair was pulled. They appeared nerved, uncomfortable, and not one of the guests returned to sit once more. Was this the child calling for help?
It was here in the laundry that the owner of the mansion shot himself - was he the one pulling on them? Making them feel uncomfortable? Was he the father of the drowned baby girl?
We slowly made our way back to the farm homestead. By the time I arrived with Anne and the ghost newbie, the other guests were already in the homestead playing a music box to entice activity. Slowly Anne's demeanour began to rage, she paced, she stomped and eventually yelled out "Why do they keep playing that music ..... just to annoy me!" Anne then placed her hand on her hip and stormed into the homestead. I watched her, she looked over at me and said "What am I doing? I don't even walk like this!", but on she continued, pushed open the door and began yelling at the guests about the music.
Anne came out and blasted "I told them!" It was now that I really looked at Anne, her body language, her stance, her eyes! It was not Anne! I began to approach her, only for her to say "you need to stay away from me!" She began to twitch and now it was blatantly obvious we were dealing with an attachment of some sort. I knew it was time to go, to cleanse her of whatever ghost, demon or entity was channelling through her, or worse, possessing her. The longer we waited, the more control this beast would have.
Without causing concern or raising demon alarm bells, I enticed Anne to walk with us back to base, deviating past a toilet. Eventually, we made it back to base, where Anne kept talking, switching personalities between Anne and whatever had taken possession of her. By this stage the hosts had finished the tour and were ready to leave. Knowing the sage and cleansing kits were in my car, we had to move outside the property before we could commence the cleanse.
Fortunately we made it to the entrance of the park and began the cleansing ritual. Anne hissed, growled and swore at us, telling us to f.. off numerous times. Her body language was threatening and aggressive. She moved irrationally, staring us down as she kept her distance. She squatted and grunted, yelled and twitched. Eventually after forty-five minutes of cleansing, Anne sighed, exhausted from the dissonance which lay within. It was then that I knew, he was gone. Although he was gone from Anne's body, he didn't go far. Anne let me know, in no uncertain terms, that he was not happy with me. That he was just over there, just inside the gate, watching, waiting ..... waiting for Anne to walk back inside, so her could devour her being.
Anne's recollection of the night is exact, at all times she had an awareness of what she was doing, but without control or reason.
Who would have thought that an innocent ghost tour with new enthusiasts could have such an improbable and unbelievable turn of events. We were able to capture some of the night on video and on watching the event, it is my belief that we came very close to (if not had) a demon possession. Was I scared - no, but I am very mindful of how easy this event happened and how fortunate Anne was to have us there to assist and intervene. Ghost hunting is a serious hobby and is not to be taken lightly. This night has reminded me of that.
