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.

Chirnside Homestead, Melbourne, Australia

It's 10.00 pm and I am standing on a private beach looking out to the bay and listening to the ocean waves crash. I am just fifty metres from the Chirnside family homestead on an eerily moonlight night. I am waiting for my fellow investigators to arrive so we can enter the homestead to begin our tour. I stand there for about fifteen minutes, watching and listening. In the distance I can hear dogs growling. It is the growl you hear when you are walking near someone's property and the watch dogs are letting you know that they are there, and that they are watching you. But tonight, there are no dogs around.

Soon after the team arrives, we walk across the grounds and enter the homestead. We do a quick walk around to get our bearings. There is a long narrow sunroom facing the beach. It is similar to a closed in verandah and has large windows to capture the sea breeze. Just off the sunroom is a short hallway. The hallway has three rooms to the left and two rooms to the right. Four of us went into the first room on the left and two friends waited in the hallway with cameras and EMF detectors. In the room is a solid round ornate table. We sat at the table and began to talk as if we were having a card game with banter style conversation. I was the only female at the table. Not long into the activity I began to feel tingling in my thighs and arms. I could sense a presence near my shoulder and I felt very uncomfortable. About five minutes in, I felt what I believed to be fingers on my cheeks and down my neck. At this point, one of the male investigators asked, what we believe was a spirit, to kindly leave me alone.

Shortly after, we called to the others to open the door. As soon as the door opened, one of the team, Kathy, claims to have seen a woman standing in the middle of the room on the right. This room was directly opposite the room I was in. Kathy stated that the woman was dressed in a white dress and was staring directly at where I was sitting. Kathy looked over at me and then back towards the woman, but she was gone.

The medium with us on that investigation stated that the room was a "mens' room" and it was in this room that they would have female visitors to attend to their needs. He stated that the room opposite was the lady's room where wives could lounge whilst their husbands were socialising. Was the lady that Kathy saw, a wife? Was she watching me, a female visitor? Was the fingers I felt on my face and neck, that of her husband?

Altona Homestead, Victoria, Australia

This homestead is not one that I had on my list of investigations to do, but it came across my path, so my mother and I ventured down on a cold Saturday night to see what the rumours of activity were all about.
The homestead is set in the heart of Altona, in the park opposite the beach, surrounded by a library, community centre, shops and cafes. Standing in the park you can hear people laughing, music playing and the sound of waves on the beach.
But imagine this 120 years ago; set in bushland, isolated, dark and a governess standing in the bay window staring out to the blackness of the ocean, waiting anxiously for her husband to return from a voyage. It presents as eerie with all the attributes of a dark and mysterious past.
In the homestead the rooms feel heavy, dark and unpleasant. Almost uninviting. You can sense unhappiness and misery.
I was only there for about an hour, so as you can imagine, not a lot of time to do a full investigation, but definitely enough time to feel the tone and atmosphere of the homestead.
I may return for a more in depth study.