Ghost Doors of Kilmore

Having investigated Old Kilmore Gaol for quite a while now, one rule that the team have established is, you always close the doors. Why? Well it stems back to one of our early investigations, where we were certain we had closed a door and when we returned it was open. 

So the theory is, if you (and everyone) always close doors, then if you return and the door is open, then you can ask why or how?

The Kilmore spirits are obsessed with doors. Not a night goes by where they have mischievously opened at least three doors. Why the obsession? My theory is, it is a gaol and in gaols, doors are always locked. Prisoners are locked in their cells, in the wards, in the gaol. Many locked doors block them from the outside world. So, if an opportunity arises to open a door and escape - then why not?

I am going to share with you four of our most haunted doors and stories which have been witnessed by at least four people and up to seven. We have been fortunate to capture some on camera and others with the eyes of multiple witnesses. 

Door 1 - The Hospital

There are two doors to the hospital. One which is at the front and one at the side. The side door originally was the entrance to the men's ward and opened to the yard just in front of the cell block. Often we would hear noises near the door, but last month, we were leading an investigation with a group of seven people. We were sitting in the dark and heard a noise and bang from that corner of the hospital. We shone a torch to see the door was open. We then proceeded to close the door, secure latch it and test it. It was locked! We sat down and continued with the nurse experiment. We called for nurses to assist our trigger item (a guest lying on the floor). Within seconds of us calling for assistance, we heard banging in the direction of the door and heard the latch. We clickly shone the torch to see the door swing fully open to be followed by our K2 metres spiking near our "patient". 

This is not the first time the door has opened, many guests claim that the door opens or they hear the latch. 

Is this a nurse spirit coming to the aid of ill and sick prisoners? I think so!

Door 2 - The Wash House 

This door is in the corner of the gaol. It leads from the main courtyard into the original wash house or laundry. It is in this area that I believe the gaol's demonic spirit resides. When you enter the door you are almost always confronted with a wall of dense air. You are overcome with the stench of sulphur and it is in this area that many artefacts are stored. 

One night at the end of a public investigation, the team of four returned to the wash house to do a lock up. We walked in the room to find the chairs overturned. Not surprised by this phenomenon, as this room often has poltergeist activity, the four of us turned the chairs upright and took a seat to debrief on the night's activities. We talked casually amongst ourselves, only to be interrupted by the sound of the door latch. Thinking, who would be coming in as we were all in here, we thought maybe a guest was coming back as they had forgotten something. We looked over at the door which then opened, to reveal ..... noone! Shocked, we got up and looked out to the courtyard, shone the torch up and down and into the yard. NOONE!

Who had come in, or who had left?

The following month, I was sharing the story with a group of guests. I demonstrated how the door latch moved and the door opened. I then went to shut the door to have it jam. The jam you feel when someone puts their foot in the door to stop you from closing it. A guest standing less than a metre away who had been watching me the entire time said "Did someone just stick their foot in the door?". I replied "It sure did feel that way!" 

A spirit definitely didn't want me shutting the door!

Door 3 - The Store Room

Our most infamous door, this door has been caught on video and poltergeist activity has been witnessed by over twenty guests. It is so active, that we now have a slide bolt, as well as the latch on the door. This door has unbolted and opened at least a dozen times that I have witnessed and countless times with guests investigating the kitchen and store room. It was in this room that a prisoner escaped from the cell through the store and out the kitchen. It is also the door which leads to the store that holds many of the gaol artefacts. 

I am looking forward to next month where I will place a door alarm and a camera on the door for the entirety of the night!

Door 4 - The Back Door

Now this door has us stumped. We will be placing a camera on the door to see if we can capture what is happening. 

Let me provide you with context. This door is the back door which leads out of the gaol to the church. Above this door was the original sentry tower. When packing up at the end of the night, we bolt closed the door. Now this door is an original maximum security door - MAXIMUM SECURITY!

We go into the gaol, bolt the door shut and then proceed through the gaol and exit through a different door. It was after this, that the owner contacted us to ask if we had left the door opened. Definitely not!

The following month - we bolted the door closed once again, only to be contacted by the owner on the Sunday, the door was open once again! We had been locking this door for years, YEARS! Stumped by the door opening, the following month, we bolted the door shut and placed a huge piece of stone up against the door. The door remained closed. 

First investigation back this year, we bolted the door shut, but did not place the stone up against the door. You guessed it! The owner contacted us on Sunday at 8.00 am, the door was open! We had only left there at 7.30 am. 

Are these spirits attempting to escape the gaol? Is this a guard exiting out through the men's yard?

Who knows, but we will be placing a camera on the door to record from when we leave to see who, what or how this door continues to open. 

J-Ward Asylum for the Criminally Insane (The Investigation)

The second half of Saturday night was spent privately investigating J-Ward Asylum for the Criminally Insane .... and insane it was!

After a wonderful supper of pizza, garlic bread and drinks, the Lantern Ghost Tours hosts, Natasha and Richard, informed us that we had free range of the entire facility. Yes, the ENTIRE facility. We could not contain our excitement and were eager to get stuck into our investigating. When I refer to we, I was lucky enough to be investigating with ghost hunting friends, Amanda from ALM Paranormal and Matt from ARK Paranormal.

So after setting up our sleeping bags in the West Wing (Hospital Ward), we returned to the dining room. Within moments we heard banging on the perspex windows which divide the dining room from the main cell block. The three of us looked at each other and said "What was that?" It took us a moment to realise the windows were made of perspex. We tried replicating the sound and then debunking how it may have happened. What we concluded was the sound was definitely the perspex being banged on and we could not debunk was how it may have occurred. There was no one in the cell area and we were the only people in the dining area. Interestingly, another investigator Jenni also caught this sound numerous times on her EVP recorder and while she was sleeping. You see, Jenni had set up her sleeping bag in the dining room and whilst she slept, left an EVP recorder going all night. The sounds of the perspex banging on her EVP at 5.30 am, were exactly the same sounds we heard live at 10.30 pm. Very interesting!

Well, with the night off to a great start, we formally began the night with a live feed in the grounds and then a live feed to the @ParanormalVic Facebook page of the downstairs area in the old kitchen, the stairwell off the kitchen and the Governor's bathroom.

Oh my....what an experience!

This area was the creepiest space I have been in for a long time. A dark underground cavern.....cold and eerie. It was almost impossible to imagine it ever been inhabited. The kitchen with its stone walls and floors, with bars for windows and no real natural light. It was like a dungeon! There were two huge wooden doors, one which lead out to the sunken well and external stone staircase and another which led the the frightfully petrifying stone stairwell.

In this space we had significant K2 hits and a feeling of heaviness, but nothing else worth noting was recorded live.

But when we reviewed the EVP, video and audio footage, we had voices come through, including demonic growls and a deep male voice stating 'Kill' in the kitchen and 'Bash her' in the stairwell. Once in the bathroom, there were other inaudible voices in the bathroom, all of which were not heard live when in the space.

The growl was terrifying, it sounded like a beast who was not happy with us being in its lair, and although I do not believe, or should I say, have not yet experienced, an attack from a demonic beast, I can tell you one thing....if ever it was going to happen, this would be the place!

That growl was horrendous and when listening to it, absolutely scared the living daylights out of me.

What the???

Can't wait to go back!

Well, we were in the downstairs 'dungeon' for well over an hour. Our live video showed the attachment to Matt and the uneasiness with females being in the space. If you look at the picture above, I was standing to the right of this end of the bath, with my back to the open door to the stairwell where we had 'Bash her' said, Matt was in the left back corner and Amanda in the right back corner. Both of them had K2 meters which were getting consistent hits. Matt was touched a number of times and it was obvious the entity had a liking for Matt. Now given this was a male prison with well documented non-consensual homosexual behaviours, was there a connection due to Matt being a male?

In the end we moved out due to Matt's growing uneasiness. Before we left, we had to ensure some white energy to insist the entities stay within the space they were confined.

On reflection, I am so glad we did, because who knows what may have eventuated if we had not.

From here, we moved back upstairs to the dining area where Richard, the lantern ghost tour host, joined us as we moved over to investigate the Turnkey Master's Quarters. According to Richard, this space had not been investigated before and had only been recently refurbished. The space had three rooms, a kitchen and dining area to the right, a storage room and then a bedroom to the left. We went in the bedroom and set up the spirit box. We did a silent box with Richard on the headphones. He became very agitated and uneasy, fidgeting in his seat and appeared very uncomfortable. When this happens, we remove the person from the box. What was apparent was that a male spirit was coming through and every time a female asked a question, he would tell them 'No' or would be very rude and berate the female. What was interesting is, Richard, or the person on the headphones could not hear who was asking the question, or even what the question was - they have noise cancelling headphones on and could only hear the choo choo choo white noise of the spirit box and its underlying communication. The name that came through repeatedly was Jason. There was also a female, Elaine, that came through. This definitely warranted further investigation.

Am I skeptical about the spirit box? Well at the moment, I am open to it. Given that the person could not hear the questions and did not know who was asking the questions, or even know when they were being asked (as they were also blindfolded), you have to have some level of ....could this be true? When you transcribe the questions and responses and many of them are so in sync, it does get you wondering if this is a valid and authentic method of communication. Over time, if historical names, dates and events are validated, then this will definitely increase the credibility of this type of device.

So, to test this theory of hatred towards women, we gave the headphones to Amanda. The session began as normal, but it wasn't long before the voices Amanda heard through the spirit box began swearing at her and telling her 'No, not you", 'Go away' plus a plethora of expletives. What did come through was an overwhelming sense of a strong dominating male who had little if any respect for females. What could this imply - well I do not want to speculate!

From here we moved across to the Warden's Quarters and investigated the downstairs reception room. There was definitely some activity in the space, but was limited to tingles in the legs, K2 hits and catball activity in the room. We did however hear distinct footsteps in the hallway outside the room. In future, it would be interesting to do a deeper investigation here with a video camera and EVP in the hallway, as it definitely sounded like someone was walking up and down.

After this, we returned to the dining room where we then moved into the Hospital West Wing. Matt and Amanda were already in the space when I arrived as I had to visit the bathroom. When I opened the door, their faces were focused down the hallway and their eyes wide opened. "Shhhh, Lib....listen". So I stood....frozen.....not knowing what I was expected to hear.......and then after about a minute, I heard......footsteps, about ten of them, then a sound, which sounded like something on wheels, then a door being rattled. What the? I quickly looked towards the direction of the sounds and the door to where I believed it was generating from. It was at the end of the West Wing corridor to the left, only about five metres from where I stood. The door led into a caged in walkway and out to the shower block. I said....'ok, someone is out there', I quickly moved to the door, opened it and looked down the dark and eerie cage way.....nothing. I walked over to the shower block.....nothing.  I looked through the other door to the right....nothing.

I returned to Matt and Amanda who said that the exact same had been repeated three times prior. Exactly the same at about five minute intervals. So we waited.....and sure enough, a few minutes later......footsteps, trolley sound, door! It was unbelievable! So loud and so distinct!

Unbelievable!

What is even better, we have it on video audio. Our EVP's and most of our cameras malfunctioned that night (another story in itself), but there was one camera which picked it up. It was facing the other end of the corridor, about 15 metres from the door in question and around a small bend in the hall. I have put the link here for you to listen. Given that the microphone was facing the other way and was a good fifteen metres away from where the sound was - you can imagine how loud it was in real life.

This would have to be one of the loudest residual hauntings I have ever heard. It was absolutely mind blowing!

Trolley Noise EVP in the West Wing

By this time it is after one in the morning and some guests had moved off to bed in the cells, whilst the team, along with a few other guests moved up to the second floor cells, past the gallows and to a room at the end of the building. I am unsure what this space may have been back in the day, but it is currently like a conference room. The hosts informed us that many guests become nauseous in this space and females had vomited and felt threatened. So yes, we were going in there!

We set up the spirit box in an attempt to channel any entities. A few investigators had a go, including Natasha, a host, myself, a new guest named Aiden and the other host, Richard. What was clearly apparent was whenever a female was on, they were swore at and berated. If a female asked a question, they were told, no, not you, go way, you heard me....piss off. This investigation was interesting with some information documented for future investigations and follow up.

After about an hour near the gallows, we moved down to do some live ten minute challenges. Four groups went out to do a solo or pair challenge with a live feed back to base. The spaces included the Governor's Bathroom, the Police Lock Up, The Art and Craft Room and the Turn Key's Quarters. All spaces were uneventful. By the time we finished the challenges it was close to four in the morning.

What was noticeable, was the whole facility was uneventful from about three in the morning. No sounds, no banging, no trolleys, no voices.

At about five am we rolled out our sleeping bags on the very clean and super comfy mattresses and nodded off into dream land. We awoke at about seven, did a walk around, packed up and left by about eight.

Given the high amount of activity in the beginning of the night, I would ensure all the cameras and EVP equipment was set up early, I would investigate downstairs, the West Wing and the dining room early. On this visit, we did not investigate the chapel, the yards, the shower block or any of the cells. Given that, I would say J-Ward has at least another two overnight visits from me at the very least!

It was mind-blowing, eerie, creepy, horrific and absolutely fantastic!

I am back in February 2020 to continue the story.

Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

A few weeks ago, I, with family and friends, went on the Ballarat Ghost Tour with the company Eerie Tours. The tour was a 90 minute walking tour through the streets of Ballarat.

The reason we chose this tour was that it was advertised as suitable for children. This gave me an opportunity to take along my sons who are fascinated with ghosts and allowed for my friend to bring his daughter along.

The evening began with a lovely meal at the local Irish pub. The meals were great value and huge in portion size .... a definite revisit is in order.

We then made our way up to the train station to meet with the guide and other tour guests. In total, there were about thirty people on the tour with eight children. One child looked about 7 or 8 years of age.

Our guide, Lachlan, was amazing. Theatrical, knowledgeable, personable and humorous. His quirkiness and attention to detail made the evening a fun night for adults and children alike.

For most of the tour we walked through the streets and laneways of Ballarat, stopping at various locations to hear the stories of Old Ballarat, the murders, fires, deaths and alleged hauntings. They were age appropriate in language and context and very interesting indeed. There were a number of stories that my children really enjoyed and reflected on during the drive home. The first one was that of the old legal office and the lady whose dress caught fire from the flames of the fireplace and then rolled herself on the carpet to extinguish the flames, only to be showered in wine by her friends, which led to a very slow and painful death.

The second one was that of the buildings which had four or so stories built underground to protect settlers from the bitter winters. What was interesting was the glass bricks which formed the roof of the basement, but the pavement of the footpaths. You could only imagine seeing the faint glow coming up from the ground and how eerie that must have appeared.

Craig's Hotel with its architecture, history and hauntings of Room 203, intrigued many, including my eldest son. The story of the poltergeist who lived in the basement of the dumpling house, was also very interesting indeed.

The last stop of the evening was the Old Ballarat Gaol, which is now the University. Here we sat in darkness in the courtyard, where the guide spoke of the gaol's history and the vertical burial of nine prisoners. He shared stories of alleged sightings and ghostly hauntings. It was in this space that our KII meters were active. There was some activity on the steps where we sat and also near the huge oak tree which stood in the corner of the yard.

This last stop brought the tour to a close and all said their farewells.

Was it interesting - very!

Informative - yes!

But if you are expecting to see a ghost, remember they do not appear on demand. I, nor any of my friends or family saw a ghost, apparition or spirit that night, but we did hear tales of hauntings and stories of alleged paranormal activity. There was a perfect mix of stories, humour and 'ghosts', especially when you have young children on the tour.

It was definitely a fun and worthwhile family friendly tour, which got the kids off their devices, exercising and learning some Australian History, whilst keeping them intrigued with just a touch of the dark and ghostly history of Ballarat. .

Old Kilmore Gaol, Kilmore, Victoria, Australia

This weekend began the start of the year's investigations. I spent most of the Summer looking for new areas to explore and came across a group who were doing an investigation of the Old Kilmore Gaol. I had never been there and was rather excited about spending seven hours exploring the Gaol. I arrived just on 8.00 pm to be greeted by a rather small group, which was great as I always prefer to investigate in smaller groups as the areas tend to stay a little more quiet and intimate.

Once inside, the organisers took us into the main area, known as the rock room. Here they showed us through some of their paranormal equipment; KIIs, a cat ball (similar to a parascope or touch pad), full spectrum cameras, spirit boxes, temperature detectors, laser grids and an ovilus. They had a new device called a stickman camera. This allegedly picks up spirit energy and projects a stick figure on a screen. I will do some reading on the credibility of this device and how this works, but it was rather interesting.

Our first investigation was in the yard area. A relatively small yard, similar to those at Pentridge Gaol. We placed some KIIs around and a laser grid, but nothing. This yard connected to a second similar sized yard which had two storage areas built on the far wall. After about ten minutes, myself and another investigator, Rod, sat in the space. Rod was in one corner with a KII and I was about half way along the back wall. We placed a KII and the cat ball in the middle of the yard, and waited. After a few minutes both devices lit up. At this time the organiser came into the space and the activity ceased. I sensed a young teenage boy, but it was very brief and only for a short moment.

We moved back to the rock room. Let me intervene here. Most investigations I have been on that are run by companies, tend to lead you around the space. Take you into an area, share brief history or encounters and then let you explore. This company did not do that. It was rather awkward waiting around while they talked and had breaks. I was very unsure of what was going on. I had not been in the space before, did not know where things were and did not want to show disrespect by walking off on my own. Eventually I asked them to take me to another space. It was at this time they said we are free to wander the Gaol and do our own investigations. I wish they had said that at first, instead of me getting frustrated for two hours thinking it was a poorly organised event. The guides did not have much to share about the history or what rooms were used for, so essentially, it was a very raw investigation not influenced by what "should" be happening, which is fine. I just wish I had known that in the first place.

So with a new mindset......

From the rock room, we moved into the Knight Room. This was a large billiard/dining area with some pictures and mirrors on the wall. There was a double wood door at the back leading to a yard and a side door leading into quarters. The room felt heavy, although the ceilings were at least five to six meters high. After about twenty minutes, the cat ball lit up near the back door. It was interacting on demand by flashing for yes and staying dark for no. The stickman camera also picked up a stickman at the exact same space as the ball. This interaction continued for a while before the energy moved to under the table. I could sense a small child of about three or four years of age. Once everyone had left, Rod and I went up and calmed the child who appeared a little unsure of all the people staring at him. This child then followed us out of the room. Rod felt the energy and a cold sensation on his hand. He felt as if a small child was holding his hand as he walked from the space. This energy then stayed with us for the majority of the night, often settling between us or just in front of our legs, but very close, just like young children do now when they are unsure or a little insecure.

From here we moved into the Warden's room. There were a few minor tingling sensations, but nothing worth noting.

After the Warden's room, we moved into the only cell which was accessible in the Gaol. To be honest, I found it difficult to imagine where the other cells would be, as we did not have access to the back part of the Gaol. I believe the cell we were in was like a holding cell or remand cell. It was larger than most cells I have seen of that era and given it was at the front of the Gaol near the administration area, lends me to believe it was not traditional long term cell. On the first investigation there was no interaction, but we did return to this cell later and had quite a lot of activity.

Next we moved onto the administration space of three inter-connecting rooms. In the last room we placed the cat ball and KII in the corner of the room. There were several hits on both devices, and the cat ball when touched by humans, would light from orange, red to blue in a sequence in one direction. The energy was playing with the device for at least five minutes. The organisers videoed the activity and took photos with their full spectrum cameras. I sensed that it was the same child who had followed us from the Knight Room. I asked the spirit to see if it could do something different with the lights, and on demand, it would only light up the red and blue lights and then only the orange and blue or it would make the lights go in a different direction and the spirit could even make only the front or back half of the lights work. No matter what I did, I could not get the ball to interact this way with me. It was amazing and very exciting. We then marked the spot on the floor and placed the ball down. We then wandered into the other rooms and asked the spirit to continue playing with the ball and see if they could roll or move it. After a few minutes, I caught a flash of light out of the corner of my eye and returned to the room. The ball had moved about one centimetre away from the marker and was on a different angle. I have no doubt in my mind that this was moved. The ball has little panels of light, shaped like a soccer ball and the ball sits on the floor on one of the flat sides, it is not actually round. So to move it, you have to exert force. At this point, we also noticed the door move as if someone had ran behind it to hide. Was this the child hiding from us?

Once outside, Rod, believed he continued to see lights and shadows through the windows back into the space where we thought the child was hiding. We walked back over to the door entrance only to be met with a very strong energy. It was heavy and dense and my legs and face were tingling all over. It almost felt like it was blocking our entry. We thanked them and explained that we meant them no harm and we were leaving now. We did not return to that space again for the evening.

We were now four hours into the investigation, so we stopped the investigation for a little bit of supper. After supper I engaged in two activities that I have never ever done, which was very exciting. The first was auto-drawing. A Texta was on a device which would draw on a whiteboard type surface. There were four of us sitting around a table with the lightest of touch on the square counter which was balancing the pen. If you pushed hard, the counter tipped towards you, so everyone needed to use the same pressure to balance the counter. I was barely touching it and was using lighter than feather touch. Rod said he was doing the same. The pen moved straight off in my direction. This happened at least three times. So we changed seats to see if it would still come to me. It did. I changed to a third seat, and it happened again. At this point we asked it to draw a circle. It did. A triangle, it did. But then it went on to draw a star over and over again. I took my fingers off the counter and it returned to the centre of the board and did not move. It was very weird. We then cleaned the board and asked if any other spirit was present to come through and draw. Rod said that he had a tingling sensation, similar to what he had felt with the young spirit. The pen then went on to draw what I believe was a smiley face. I have attached the image below. I believe this was the four year old who had been with us earlier and he was drawing a picture of his mummy. KII activity later in the evening had strong hits for the questions around this drawing. I am still skeptical of the auto-draw, but I also know how lightly I was touching the counter and how strong the movement of the pen was. I can't explain it. As it was being drawn, the order of drawing was firstly the face round and round, then the eyes, followed by the smile and lastly the hair. The same order a young child would draw. Note that the pen can't be taken off the board, so lines are connected. I think you can definitely see the face, body, eyes, mouth and hair.

From here we went over to the Warden's Room again where one of the guides was working with a black mirror. Again, something I have never done. During my experience, Rod and Ash went back to the Knight's Room where they said they heard the young child playing and when they asked the spirit where he was hiding, they heard the word "here". There was knocking and a lot of activity in the space and remembering, this was the space where we picked up the young energy earlier in the evening.

Back to the mirror, my experience was rather uneventful, but I can not say the same for Rod's. Rod and Ash returned from the Knight's Room just as I was finishing up. I had sensed the young child standing next to me watching Rod sitting staring into the mirror. Had Rod brought him back with him again? I put a KII meter next to Rod and then gave permission for the child to go over and sit with Rod. Within seconds the meter lit up and Rod had tingling sensations, as if the child was sitting on his knee. It was at this exact time, the guide took pictures using a spectrum camera of the black mirror and you can see the image of a small boy's face. They are going to email the picture to me. We also asked the boy to blow out the candle, and on command, the wick would almost extinguish. It looked exactly like you would expect if a young child tried to blow out a candle. This candle was in a glass, in a very still room. There was absolutely no outside influences that would make the candle flicker and almost extinguish. It was a very special moment.

Ash, another investigator was next in the black mirror, so we let her be and Rod and I returned to the cell. Here we noticed a video camera and voice recorder had been set up and were recording. We entered, placed a KII and cat ball at the far end of the cell and then sat on the bed. After about five minutes, we felt energy move past our legs and a few seconds later both devices had activity. I sensed a young boy of about 12 years old. He interacted quite easily with us for a few minutes. At this time,  Ash and one of the guides came into the cell. All four of us felt a different, very strong energy enter the room. Our legs were tingling and the air was dense. Within moments, Rod, the guide and I had a very strong whiff of stale cigarette smoke which came from the back of the room and then less than thirty seconds later Rod and I, who were both sitting on the bed, felt the bed move back and forth two or three times, a short pause and then another two or three motions. It really felt like someone had climbed onto the bed and was settling down. We both hopped off the bed and apologised and said we would leave them for the night to sleep. It was like the child was playing in there and then an adult had come in, shooed him out, had a cigarette and went to bed. It was strong, definitive and felt by both myself and Rod.

At the end of the night, we returned to the Knight's Room to return the child and to see if there was any more activity. It was a buzz with KII meters going off in every location and the cat ball in the middle of the table. It was highly active. I was sitting on one side of the room and Ash was sitting directly opposite me on the other side of the room. After about ten minutes, I could see a very dense royal blue orb. It was not circular like usual, but more like a flat stretched out cloud, mist like shape. It was a very deep royal blue colour. I asked Ash if she was sensing anything and she said she was cold and tingly. I then asked the orb to move across the table and light up the ball and come to me. It did. I explained the movement of the orb to the group and as it moved across the table saying to the group that it was coming close to the cat ball now and sure enough, the ball lit up. As it passed the members of the group they all said they could feel it. I asked if anyone else could see the orb and one lady Amanda said yes, and described the colour exactly the same as I was seeing. The room was very energised.

The Gaol itself for the investigation is very small. Two yards, two small storage rooms, a Knight's Room, Wardens Rooms, one cell, administration room and a rock room. There was considerable activity on the night, but I was sensing it was from the same three spirits. A young three to four year old boy who we named Mikey, as each time we used that name, the KII meter would spike, his twelve year old brother and an older male. It was hard to gauge whether there were prison spirits or guards present, but I do believe the two children were intelligent spirits and able to communicate using the devices. There felt like a lot of residual energy was around, especially in the Knight's Room.

The young boy is very playful, curious and appears to be happy. I sensed he liked the company and having visitors, so I do hope that people continue to visit him. It is definitely worth a visit!

Geelong Gaol, Victoria, Australia

After being through a couple of very active experiences at Geelong Gaol in the past, I was excited about spending three hours there last night, as gifted from a friend. Mind you, I would not have paid for this tour for personal reasons, but that is another story and this investigation was gifted to me as a surprise.

Unfortunately it was rather disappointing to say the least. We had a tour guide who was very ordinary; who constantly tried to validate the tour by talking about her personal experiences or the hear say experiences of others. Although this at times can add to the ambience of an investigation, in this circumstance it was off putting and patronizing, mainly because NOTHING was happening. To constantly hear, "this happened in this room, and this door closed, and this person's legs were grabbed" yet nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing was happening for us, made the experience all the more frustrating. Yes, I know that spirits and paranormal activity will not always happen, but this was just ridiculous. It got to the point where it was a joke.

We would get to a room and the equipment would be set up. The ghost meter pro was obviously way too sensitive, as it was pretty much on the entire night, whilst none of the K2's registered anything. The spirit box was used excessively and questions would be asked within one minute of entering a room and the guide would ask "how many live persons are in this room?".... crackle crackle, random mumbling...."seven, did you hear that, it said seven, thankyou" or "what is the name of your client?" crackle, crackle, random mumbling "Temeka....it said Temeka , thank you spirit".... NO! We did not hear any of that. "Did you feel the cold breeze, the temperature has just dropped" No it didn't. It has fluctuated between 10 - 11 degrees all night. A change in 0.2 or so degrees does not justify a spirit is in the room.

I find it infuriating that guides impose "spirit experiences" on you. It is far more experiential to have these feelings independently and naturally. To sit, to listen, to feel; to become attuned to your senses. Constantly turning on lanterns, using the laser grid until the point of annoyance, talking, rushing through questions and manifesting answers, was not an investigation, it was a poorly scripted and rushed tour with a set agenda.

The final straw in the camel's back of total "I'm over it" was the use of dousing rods in the "gas room". When asked what spirits were usually up here, the response was, Johnny a 15 year old boy likes to come here to play with them - that was it! With all the lanterns on and people talking and sitting around a room with two sets of the rods watching them do nothing was ridiculous. So much so, that one lady left and said I'm over this.

The tour went through the kitchen, the autopsy room, the stair wells, the dentistry room, the condemned cells, famous cells of Chopper Reid, James Murphy and Percy, the gallows, a sewing room/gym space (which the guide claimed was home to a paranormal vortex), the hospital, the body drop and the gas room. Great history and great spaces with so much potential and anticipation, but unfortunately totally anticlimatic.

The only maybe, and a very loose maybe at best, was we played a music box at the bottom of a stairwell in the East Wing. Once the music box stopped, about 5 seconds later, I distinctly heard the tune again from what appeared to be the 2nd or 3rd floor. It lasted for about 3 seconds. This did happen twice. I can not debunk reverberation or echoing, as acoustically this would echo quite nicely, but it was interesting and I would have liked to have spent more time taking this further.

Normally I am not one to feel nothing. I am very sensitive to spirits, I feel them, I smell them and I am told things often by them - very often. Last night, my intuition told me that they did not want to come out as they did not like the guide. I was not the only person that felt this, many of the other guests claimed the same thing.

On the one hour drive home, my friend and my mother spoke about the tour and it was a unanimous vote to not return. All of us were bitterly disappointed. So onwards to our next adventure which will most probably be the Castlemaine Gaol.

Geelong Gaol, Victoria, Australia

Now this is one interesting place. with everything you imagine a paranormal investigation to be. There are not many places that I would say that I could explore over and over again, but to be honest, Geelong Gaol would go close.
I have explored this gaol on four separate occasions, and all four have been totally different and unique. Instead of talking about all four separately, I will consolidate the experiences into one reflection, but take note, that this did not all happen on the one evening.
Firstly the gaol itself is amazing, the cell block we investigated is a cross block with four corridors flowing from a central hub.
We started in the dental surgery, role playing a prisoner requiring some work done on his teeth. The EMF detectors were triggering a presence and some of the people I was with sensed a spirit. The person we had put in the dental chair, mentioned that she felt like someone was leaning over her and she stated that she believed the chair moved slightly. We took night video of the experience, but nothing showed on the cameras.
We then moved to explore one of the stairwells. There have been many reports of sightings of a young girl, and sounds of children's voices playing and laughing. We placed a teddy bear on the stairs and set up a laser grid to detect any shadows or movement. On one occasion there was a definite break in the laser grid and whilst I was sitting on the floor in front of the stairs staring at them and the light grid, I definitely sensed a young child. I have found on many of my investigations that I tend to pick up the presence of young children, especially those aged under seven. She was happy, curious and gentle. It was a nice pleasant feeling, not one that I would expect in a gaol. I sensed that she was either an orphan or the child of a prisoner. Research showed that the goal had been used as an orphanage at one point and that is what I sensed.
The prisoner cells are like most gaol cells. Small, dark and cold. In some of them I had feelings of sadness, depression and hurt, in others I felt nothing. I didn't hear any sounds or feel anything touching me whilst in any of the cells.
The chapel was another room explored. This was interesting. Although I didn't notice any feelings out of the ordinary, I would be interested to spend more time in that space, waiting, listening and observing.
The kitchen was probably the highlight for me. It was in this space that I felt the most energy as did others who were investigating with me. I was in a constant state of high tingling sensations (which is what I usually feel when there is a high energy level). EMF detectors were being triggered and I felt like every time questions were asked, I could "feel" the answer. I felt like whatever was in the kitchen was trying to communicate directly with me. When we asked the alleged spirits questions, we requested the answers to come back through the spirit box, but the interesting and unexplainable thing was, I was told the same response moments before it came through the spirit box. I have never had that happen to me so strongly before and it happened repeatedly. This experience in the kitchen probably lasted 30 minutes alone. The energy I felt was that of a male, a strong male and quite a dominant male. Although I have never been one to speculate age, looks or mannerisms, this time, the sensation was strong enough for me to describe it in greater depth. I felt a man in his 30's or 40's, strong, threatening and not the best with women. There were instances where my emotions were scared (I myself wasn't scared, but I felt an emotion of being scared - if that makes sense), I felt threatened by him and the more I stood my ground and told him to go away and leave me alone, the stronger the sensation became. It was very interesting. Although I didn't actually feel physically threatened in any way, I felt that emotion. Whatever was in this kitchen drained our camera batteries, our spirit box, our video camera battery and the torch battery. Very weird, very creepy but very interesting.
Definitely one of my favourite places and I plan to return in the next few months.