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!

Private residential home, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

There are many people who think their home is haunted. They may see, hear or feel things that they themselves could not explain. Other times, their imagination works overtime and many of the so called experiences could be explained or debunked.

The house which I was asked to investigate, has been owned and lived in by the same sceptic owner for near on forty years. Children have been raised there, friends and family have lived there, but one unexplained common phenomena, that has been bantered around over the years, is the sighting of a lady apparition in the front bedroom. Residents and guests have claimed to see her shadow move through the hallway and in and out of the front bedroom. There have been cold chills and unexplained noises.

So Saturday day and evening, I, along with the owner, her daughter and a family friend prepared to investigation the allegations. We sat in the kitchen where I explained what we were going to do for the night. I showed them the equipment I had brought along - it was like a Tupperware party but with paranormal goodies instead (business idea right there). The equipment including dousing rods, K2s, laser grid, spirit box, EVR, ghost meter, parascope, old-school trigger items, a camera and video equipment. For everyone, except me, this was new to them.

In the late afternoon, we walked around the 100 year old home to get a feel for its energy. The front room was definitely at least 5 - 6 degrees colder than every other room in the home. Within moments I felt the denseness of the air and the K2 meter was activated. We set up trigger items which included balls and dolls, along with a video camera. We decided to stay in the room for about 45 minutes and just sit and listen. Interestingly, the daughter felt a cool breeze move from the window to the door numerous times. The owner played with the K2 meter and the daughter and friend began to dabble with the dousing rods. There was definitely some credible crossing of the rods which responded to similar questions in the same way. We did capture a mist like image on one of the cameras.

After a bit of an introduction, we retreated to the kitchen to talk about the experience. The catball was left in the hallway about 10 cm from the door, on the floor boards. After about 10 minutes, and out of the corner of our eyes, we saw that the catball had been activated. It only happened the once. We had a K2 meter on the kitchen table which was heavily active, responding to questions and appeared to be attempting to communicate with us. What was interesting, is the daughter and mother had stated that the spirit had never gone past the hallway, ever. It moved in and out of the room and to the entrance of the next room, but never the whole length of the hallway or into the kitchen. Was this a different spirit who was activating the K2 on the table? I would say yes!

After dinner we moved back down the hallway to find the catball on the carpet runner. Yes it had moved. MOVED.....about 10 cm and up onto the runner.  Realistically, someone may have kicked it when walking out of the room earlier, but it had not activated then and no one recalled kicking it. It only lit up that one time for the whole night, when we were at dinner - had the spirit come out of the room to see what we were doing? Possibly.

We continued with our investigation in the bedroom using the K2 meters and the dousing rods. The responses we received alleged the spirit was a female lady who had lived there and that she enjoyed living there. She liked looking out the large bay window to the busyness of the world. She liked the fire place and felt that the room was too cold now that it was not in use. I personally had numerous tingles and did sense only the one spirit in the room. We attempted to use the spirit box and laser grid, but with no success. The owner validated at the conclusion of the investigation that she had bought the property as a deceased estate from a German lady and that the owner had closed up the fireplace in that bedroom. She was unaware whether she had any children, although we did have numerous hits stating that the spirit did in fact have children.

From here, we moved into the formal reception room which was opposite the bedroom. The feeling was different. Not sure how, just different. The owners said that they have never sensed her in this space, but we thought we would investigate all the same.

About 15 minutes in, we had hits on the K2 and the parascope. The daughter and friend were still using the dousing rods. Then all of a sudden the daughter was overcome with intense emotion and after some questioning and interaction, it was concluded that the spirit was that of her male friend whom had taking his own life late last year. The daughter had been carrying around considerable guilt and I believe he was there to help her heal and for closure. The interactions were very emotional and I believe genuine. He was answering questions which only she would know and they were accurate. At the end of the investigation, the owner told us that he had lived there for a number of years and this room was his bedroom! Was this the spirit that had been attempting to communicate with us in the kitchen?

We have some interesting video footage of the K2 meter in the reception room. In the footage, the green light, which was always on, can be seen going on and off in the video. From where I was sitting, I could see it was green (or orange or red) all the time, but the camera had it going on and off regularly. I believe the spirit was moving between the camera and the meter, with his shadow stopping the light being seen by the camera. It was intense.

Due to the high level of emotion, we retreated to the kitchen to gather ourselves and have some dessert (carrot cake to be exact). We talked about our experience before closing our investigations with a quick good bye in each of the rooms.

The owner who was a very strong sceptic stated that she believed something was captured there that night. She said that due to me not knowing the history or the stories, the equipment responded with accurate answers. She has asked us to return again.

Langhorne Homestead, Altona, Victoria, Australia

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.

Out Kitchen, Old Gippstown Heritage Park, Moe, Victoria, Australia

The time was approximately 11.00 pm and the group of ten investigators headed up to the 'Bushy Park Homestead' of the Old Gippstown Heritage Park. In this homestead there were a number of buildings, including the home of Angus McMillan, an explorer, farmer and mass murderer of hundreds of aboriginal people, an Out Kitchen and a few buildings and sheds behind the homestead.

The night before we had investigated the homestead with some activity, but on the Saturday, the team used the autoboard in the Out Kitchen. The Out Kitchen is to the left of the homestead you can see above. It is approximately 30 to 50 paces away, door to door. Stories from past mediums had suggested that a single lady named Mary lived in the Out Kitchen with her two children and it was common for Angus to come into that space.

Research showed that the Out Kitchen was built to house single female land owners and had been relocated to Gippstown from Labertouche and was set up in the park to demonstrate where farm hands and servants of the homestead would have eaten their meals. Was Mary a single female land owner, or was she a house maid who prepared meals for Angus McMillan's staff or was she in fact Christina, Angus' wife? More questioning may be required here.

To move on, four of us sat down at the kitchen table and set up the autoboard. We also placed a KII and Ghost Meter Pro on the table and a catball and parascope on the bench and mantel.

One member was videoing, two were watching on and the remainder of the team moved to elsewhere in the park.

After a few moments, the group could smell an overwhelming stench of alcohol, rum to be exact. The park was surrounded by roads and there were no hotels or venues which served alcohol in the near vicinity. Along with the stench, people felt cold breezes or tingling. The Texta moved and it became evident that the spirit would move the Texta to my right for a yes and to the left of the board for a no. The amicable interactions continued for quite a while with accurate responses to questions, including the number of people in the room. Sometimes there were seven, other times there were only five people, but each time, the response was accurate.

After about thirty minutes of solid interaction with the board, the Ghost Meter Pro lit up on the table. From questioning, it appeared that the spirit on the Meter may have been Mary and her children. The Meter responded accurately to questioning about herself and Angus, along with stories which had been collated over previous interactions. We asked this spirit if it was cold and it responded yes, we asked if she would like Matt (one of the investigators) to make tea and she said yes, so we role modelled the making of some tea. The spirit appeared happy to interact with us.

Shortly into this, the team members who were outside moved into Angus McMillan's homestead. Within seconds the autoboard stopped communicating and the stench of alcohol was gone. The room felt empty. Had Angus gone to check on who was poking around his home?

Once the investigators left the homestead, one of the team named Nelly, came into the Out Kitchen where four of us were still on the table and Matt was still on the video. Within moments, the autoboard was responding again. We asked had Angus gone to check on his home ....yes. At this point, Nelly felt an uninvited touch on her behind. She believed it was Angus, so we questioned ….the response was yes, he had touched Nelly. Nelly shared some past experiences with Angus and from her story and the responses on the board, it may be possible that Angus may be obsessed with the young female. Angus stated that he would follow Nelly wherever she went and appeared to become agitated and rather aggressive when questioned about this topic. It was a distinctly different feel to the previous interactions.

We had been told Angus had two sons, so I began to question about his children. Instantaneously the board ceased and the demeanor in the room shifted to one less amicable and inviting to one of tenseness and uneasiness. The team decided to pack up the investigation and move out of the space rather hastily.

We closed the door behind us, due to Mary stating she was cold and moved out of the Bushy Park area. By this time it was after 12.30 am.

Nelly stated that she could still sense Angus, so she underwent a sage cleansing, just in case. Given the history of Angus being a mass murderer of hundreds of aboriginals, who kept their skulls as trophies in a hessian bag, I too would undertake a cleansing.

The next day I did a little research into Angus and his family. Interestingly, his wife Christina was previously married to a man who died at sea. She gave birth to her first son, Ewan, not long after his death, with Angus named as the father on the birth certificate. After the birth of Ewan, she married Angus, who was 51 years of age at the time. During their marriage, Christina gave birth to a second child, named Angus Junior. Angus Senior at this time had been doing several explorations and died whilst on his travels. The children were aged approximately 3 and 6 years of age at the time of Angus' demise. Within a year of Angus' death, Christina married for a third time. I am sensing many hidden secrets here and more exploration is required to delve deep into the life of Angus and Christina.

How deep? Well given his intelligent, philanthropic, yet aggressive personality, a man who learnt the indigenous language to exploit his explorational pursuits and then bludgeoned them to death..... I am not sure!

One thing is for sure, I can not wait to go back there again!

Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Old Gippstown Heritage Park, Moe, Australia

Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Moe was opened in 1895 and deconsecrated in 1968. The Church consists of four main spaces, the main body for the congregation and altar, with a small vestry to the left (with external access), another entrance on the right and the main foyer entrance.

On the Friday evening, we were doing a broad investigation of the space, of which there was no significant activity, when I was drawn to the room on the left (the vestry). According to the team who run the investigation, they had not been in that room on any previous tour. On hearing that, myself and a guide, Alle, opened the door and moved into the space. Unless a door is locked, I will open it!

As I had previously stated, the energy was electrifying and we knew that a deeper investigation was required in that space the following day and night.

So here we were on the Saturday night. We moved to the Church and Matt set up a video camera in the vestry, some audio recording equipment and I set up a parascope and a ping pong ball trigger. We then left the space for a while.

When we returned to the space we sat in the main congregation area and waited and listened.

After about ten minutes I began to see flashes of white and green orbs that appeared to be generating from the room. Other investigators also claimed to have seen these flashes. Shortly after this, I saw a purple/blue mist come out from the room and over a balustrade, which had been placed in front of the door, and appeared to stand up. The mist like orb was assertive in statue and presence. It was the size of a very tall man and was physically strong. I could sense that it was there to protect something. At first I thought the Church, but then I sensed it was protecting the vestry, blocking us from entering the space. It was there for a very long time. Alle, one of the Beyond the Veil Ghost Hunt team members, was sitting opposite the vestry and each time I mentioned the mist/orb, she would take photos with her full spectrum camera.

Alle has since shared photos she took which shows the purple mist which I claimed to have seen. The colour is exactly the same as what I saw and appeared to be moving in the same manner that I witnessed. Coincidence or validation?

After about forty-five minutes of uneasiness and the viewing of mist like orbs in the Church, we decided to leave the equipment and move on to another space, returning to collect the equipment a few hours later.

At about 1.00 am, three of us, Matt, Ken and I, returned to the Church. Matt walked in first, I was about two metres behind him and Ken came in last. The air was dense and cold. When Matt was about half way down the aisle, we heard a distinct growl like sound. Matt continued over to the vestry and as soon as he entered, we heard another growl sound. Except this time it was very loud and almost in desperation. It was more of a frustration groan. It was rather unsettling.

We quickly grabbed the equipment and apologised for coming into the Church and thanked the priest.

Of course, Matt forgot the audio and had to go back in and retrieve that.

Matt has the audio and visual and will spend time analysing what was captured. He has already shared that audio was picked up in the Church.

But one thing I know and without the use of any equipment, is what I saw, felt and heard.

I felt depression, control, restraint, protection, aggression and uneasiness. A feeling that we were not welcome in the Church or that we were interrupting something. It was uneasy, uncomfortable and felt predatory in nature. I felt huge electrical energy shoot through my body, tingling me from head to toe. I saw orbs and mists, strong in colour and statue, blocking our entrance. I heard growls and cries of frustration or agitation.

Without even analysing any evidence, I know there IS something in that vestry and that something does NOT want us in there.

Knowing that - I will be back!

Undisclosed home, Melbourne, Australia

I want to share with you an experience that happened in my own home. For many years we have heard footsteps and movement upstairs, normally generating from the back corner bedroom, the main bedroom and the hallway joining the two. The hallway does pass other rooms, but there has not been notable experiences in any of those rooms.

The unexplained noises have been frequent and range in intensity. We could all be downstairs and hear noises very clearly upstairs; they were so loud you would be convinced someone was there. When you call out "who is upstairs?", the noises stop. On one occasion one of my older sons was home alone, in that corner bedroom, and he heard someone downstairs in the kitchen. The kitchen is directly below that bedroom. He could hear cupboards and crockery. He assumed we were home and thought nothing of it. Later that afternoon, he came downstairs to find no-one home. He asked me about it later, and I informed him, we had not been home at all since that morning.

But the most definitive experience was last year. Our ducted heating had broke earlier that year. You could not turn it on at all. We had technicians come out who informed us that it was totally broken and it needed replacing. Actually, we had three companies, who all said the same thing. So, on their advice, the heating was turned off at the wall and no longer used.

Well as you can imagine, winters are very cold. We had got use to sleeping with warm pyjamas and lots of doonas and blankets, but one particular week was very, very cold. My son had been complaining for a few days about how cold he was and how he just couldn't get warm. That evening, he had a warm shower and climbed into bed.

He claimed a noise woke him from his sleep. The noise came from just outside his room, where the wall control was. The noise he heard was the ducted heating fan switching on. He looked over to the unit (which was only one metre from his door) and claimed he saw a very small darkish gnome like figure with a round head and pointed hat, reach up and turn the heating on. The heating then came on - the heating, which had not worked for months, came on and was working.

Well, I had been asleep with three doonas in the main bedroom, and naturally I became very warm. I woke sweating and was surprised to feel the air vents blowing hot air. Thinking how was that so, and worried that it may cause a fire as we were told there were issues, I went around to the unit and turned it off.

The next day we talked about it as a family. No person in the family said they had turned it on. We tested the unit, and it did not work, just as it had not worked for the months prior. I explained to everyone the dangers of turning on the unit, just in case it was faulty.

The following night, we went to bed, and you guessed it, about 1 am in the morning, the heating came on again.

Again, we turned it off.  I politely asked whoever was turning the unit on, not to, as it was faulty and broken. The unit has not come on again since that day.

The noises continue,  the voices are still being heard and the gnomes are still roaming the house.

Haunted - I would say definitely!

Monte Cristo Homestead, Junee, NSW, Australia

Visiting Monte Cristo Homestead had been on my paranormal bucket list for a few years now, so obviously we were very much looking forward to the overnight stay at what has been claimed to be the most haunted house in Australia.

We, as in my mum and my sisters, arrived at about 3.30pm on the Saturday afternoon and were greeted by the host who escorted us into the homestead. We entered through a side servant style door and were immediately in a room which had been set up for dinner. From here, we were shown upstairs to the sleeping quarters. At the top of the stairs was a landing with six bedrooms leading off to the left and to the right, was a small hallway with four ensuite style powder rooms. Each with a shower, toilet and basin. Our room had a double bed, single bed and a set of bunks with glaring floral wallpaper.

Once we were settled, we had about two hours to explore the grounds and outbuildings before dinner. The grounds were unkept and overgrown, but showed small glimpses of what grandeur may once have been. At the front of the homestead was a non-working fountain and some steps down to ornate statues, which were broken and covered in moss. You could only imagine what they must have once looked like. The homestead was perched on a hill, but with residential properties developed right up to the fence line and an overgrown garden, you lost sense of the homestead being perched high on a hill looking down to the town below.

We then wandered to the back of the homestead where there were a number of outbuilding. The servants quarters, which were not unlike any other early 1900's quarters. The four rooms, comprising a sitting room, two bedrooms and the kitchen, were full of historic bric a brac.  There was a ballroom, a dairy outbuilding and some stables. The ballroom was a large hall style building which was built by the second owner Reg Ryan. It was rather modern and resembled a community scout hall with remnants of halloween decorations. The stables were fully stocked with horse carriages, that were so packed in, you could not move between them to enjoy the majestic details of the workmanship. The dairy outbuilding was a small room with some historical artefacts. I was rather excited about investigating both the stables and the dairy later that night, as we had read many stories of sightings in these two buildings.

After about one hour, we moved upstairs to rest for the hour before dinner.

During dinner, the host shared stories of the history of the homestead, the Crawleys; the death of the youngest child Magdalena, the death of the maid who fell from the balcony, Mr Crawley, his mistresses, his twenty children (of which ten were born by servants illegitimately) and of course Mrs Elizabeth Crawley, who was part aboriginal. The host then shared his story of the second owners, his parents.  There was a lot of oversharing of the family disputes in regards to his father's will and the dysfunction which had resulted. To be honest, at times I questioned whether he should be sharing this information about his sisters, but it was all very interesting and really set the scene for our ghost investigation.

But for those that know me, I absolutely hate it when a host tells me how I should be feeling or what others have felt on tours. I do not want to know that people claimed to have their legs touched, or their jewellery taken or that they felt nauseous. I want to experience things for myself and I don't want to be told what I should be experiencing. I don't know whether it is because, if it doesn't happen, I will be bitterly disappointed, or because I don't like people being manipulated to feel a certain way or if I don't like the theatre and acting. I can't help but think, why are they trying so hard to convince us something happened .... just let it happen, if it is so damn good - it will happen!

But no, the host talked and talked and talked. He talked non-stop about all these experiences that others had claimed to have had. It actually got quite monotonous.

Eventually the time came to enter the homestead. Everyone was very excited. We were led down to the visitors gift shop where we were left to see a twenty minute video. Most of the video was a repeat of what the host had just shared at dinner. There were segments of where paranormal investigators had been in the homestead and they shared sound recording evidence of a choir singing in the ballroom. It was very interesting and I was looking forward to the investigation in this ballroom.

The homestead was essentially seven rooms. Downstairs was a sitting room, library and dining room and upstairs there were three bedrooms and a drawing room. The homestead was well lit with candles and battery operated candelabras. In each room, the host talked and talked and talked and TALKED! Often repeating the stories he had just shared at dinner and often making the same jokes. If I had heard him say, "we had a guest on tour who said they were a medium, and I said, well I am a large" one more time........"sigh". In each room he talked about the experiences others had had in the room or what others had claimed to have happened. There was no time to sit there in silence, in the dark, to listen, to feel, to sense, or just simply to take anything in. The whole time we were in the homestead, the host just kept talking and talking. Yes, he was very knowledgeable and the history is amazing, but it would have been so much better to do the history tour from 3.30 pm to 5.00 pm, and then have the night to retrace your steps, but as an investigation. Don't get me wrong, it was interesting historically, but as a ghost tour, it was excruciatingly boring.

Upstairs in the "boys room", the host's bedroom from his birth until the age of 13 and the room in which the first owner, Mr Crawley, had died, was claimed to be one of the most active. Yet I felt nothing. The host talked about mediums who had been through the homestead, and what they had felt and shared. We went out onto the balcony and into a small chapel bedroom on the first floor and then down some outside stairs to the the front of the homestead, nothing. From here, we walked around to the back of the homestead. It was at this point, the host states that he was going home to open up the door for something. He left us all standing there and told us that this lady would take us to the outbuildings and he would be back shortly. There were sixteen of us. At this point, approximately eight guests returned to the dining area and didn't even bother with the outbuildings. The lady was just standing there and everyone was off doing their own thing. So my group (the four of us) moved off to the dairy outbuilding. This building was claimed to have had a young boy, aged 8, who had been hit by a tree which resulted in brain damage. His mother chained him to the dairy for 30 - 40 years.  He was chained there all day and night to stop him running away or hurting himself. Claims were made that his spirit was strong there and often the chain could be heard and he would growl and bark at people. It was dark.... it was the first dark spot we had been in all night. It was perfect for an investigation, so I set up my own EMF devices and sat with my sister quietly in the building. Talking and seeing if anything would like to come forward and communicate with us that evening. Nothing.

We then moved to the stables. Nothing.

From the stables we moved onto the ballroom which was fully lit up. By this time, the host had returned. At the entrance to the ballroom was the host, the lady, me and my sister and one other couple. I'm assuming my mother, younger sister and the other two guests had gone back to the dining room to join the others. I asked the host if we could turn off the lights and do an investigation, given that this was the space in which the paranormal investigators had recorded a choir singing. No, was his response. Shocked, thinking....this is a ghost tour in the acclaimed most haunted house in Australia and you showed us a video claiming investigators had recordings of a choir, but I could not turn off the lights????

So, I walked in on my own, walked around, put the EMF device down and waited for a a while. Nothing.

We then all returned back to the dining area for dessert and where the host continued to talk. He then told us that the plan was that another person was going to do an investigation with some gadgets in the outbuildings, but she was so overwhelmed with emotion that she went home. He also stated that he would not be there in the morning as he was going to the Wagga Wagga Swap meet the following day. As a guest, this made me feel like I was unimportant, as he had already left the tour to attend to something else only a half hour before. I said that I was happy to go do the paranormal investigation as I had brought some equipment with me and his response was no - again!

The host then shared that often things do not happen on the tours at night, and guests had claimed many experiences had happened when they went up to sleep in the rooms which were located in the most active part of the property. He claimed that many people do not last the night and leave. He went through what to do if we were so overwhelmed and wanted to leave the homestead. There were twelve of us sleeping over. As soon as dessert was finished, nearly all the guests left and went upstairs. No one talked, no one shared.... because there was nothing to share!

By about midnight all the guests had gone up to their rooms. I climbed into my bed only to find I had no blankets. So at 12.30 am I began searching cupboards on the landing to find a blanket. I found one.  I put the electric blanket on high and went to sleep. For me, a very uneventful and disappointing evening.

I woke at about 2.30 am and decided to take my equipment out to the landing between the powder rooms, which had a walkthrough to the main homestead. There was a heavy velvet curtain separating the two areas. I set up and sat there doing an investigation for about twenty minutes. I then went downstairs and tried there - nothing! So, off to be again I went.

At 8.00 am, I woke and went downstairs and into the homestead to walk around with my EMF device on my own, in the quiet, to see if I could sense, feel, see or hear anything. I had one EMF reading at the entrance to the drawing room, but I strongly sensed in was residual energy. There was no interaction and it did not move.

At 8.30 am, we had breakfast and all twelve guests were in attendance. All of them stated they had a good night's sleep, that was uneventful. They almost seemed disappointed. By 9.00 am nearly all of the guests, except us and one couple, had left. This in itself said a lot, as the host had said the night before, that after breakfast you could go through the homestead again for as long as you liked, as many spirits were active during the day.

It was at this time, Olive Ryan, the 88 year old widow of Reg Ryan, the second owner, came out to talk with us. Olive had made us dinner the night before and breakfast in the morning. This was by far my highlight of the weekend. She spoke candidly about her life and how her husband had restored the property. Interestingly, her version of the family dysfunction and that of the host were quite different.

In conclusion, I feel, that maybe, just maybe, once upon a time, spirits may have haunted this homestead, but now,  it is a homestead that is full of period style furniture and antiques. It is nice to see, but no ghost or paranormal activity was detected. It was almost like a 3-star bed and breakfast with a historical tour of a period style homestead tacked on. So if that is what you want, this was great, but if you want a ghost adventure, then this was not the place. We definitely enjoyed the weekend, it was very educational and interesting and we all agreed that it has lots of potential to improve, but much work is needed. Would I go again......not at this stage.