Haunted Times March 2012

Phone: 1300 390 119 www.lanternghosttours.com

Haunted Times

Welcome to the third edition of Haunted Times. Here at LGT we have been very busy as usual. Stephen Russell from City Weekly joined Jeremy Kewley to discover the darker side of Melbourne; Jacqui from LGT is running a series of free Williamstown History Tours to help visitors discover the beautiful, historic seaport; LGT and J Ward have launched a new ghost tour to take guests into the minds of the criminally insane. The Melbourne Discovery Centre is helping spook more school groups than ever before with their haunted packages. After recovering from Friday 13th January, Jonesy, Troy and Jacqui are preparing for the penultimate of haunted weekends away- spending the next Friday 13ths sleeping over at J Ward Lunatic Asylum and we have been rewarded for all our hard work and sleepless nights with two Tourism awards: The 2011 Hobsons Bay Business Excellence Tourism Award and 2011 Star Women in Business Tourism Award.

Thank you to all of our wonderful customers for your support, photos, stories and emails, our fantastic guides Jeremy, Johnny, Arthur, Lisa, Ross, Carol, Ann and Alex, investigators Jonesy and Troy and office managers Sandra and Gavin for all their hard work.

Andrew and Jacqui

NEW GHOST TOUR: J Ward Lunatic Asylum Ghost Tour

Have you ever visited a Lunatic Asylum for the criminally insane? Be committed for an evening if you dare. Walk in the footsteps of self mutilators, men with superhuman powers and infamous characters linked to the Queen. Learn of governors who have murdered inmates, prisoners buried in the grounds and the many souls trapped within these walls who still linger long after their deaths. Run by the experts: Friends of J Ward and the Lantern Ghost Tours Teams www.jwardghosttour.com.

IN THE NEWS: Paranormal Activity- City Weekly Stephen A Russell

Stephen Russell from City Weekly joined our Old Melbourne Ghost Tour for a night exploring our haunted capital. Here's what he had to say....

As night falls over the city and shadows creep into the dark recesses of Melbourne’s alleyways, something stirs beyond the reach of comprehension. The old bricks and cobblestones hold the souls of thousands upon thousands of the dead, and as All Hallow’s Eve approaches, the veil between us grows ever thinner. Attired in a pitch black suit, with a flash of red tie, actor, comedian and Footy Show regular Jeremy Kewley holds court over a band of Melburnians on the hunt for the unknown. As one of Lantern Ghost Tours’ guides, Kewley leads participants from the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral to the steps of Parliament, recounting tales of vicious murders and horrific accidents. Read more

HAUNTED WEEKEND AWAY: Friday 13th Asylums Haunted Weekend Away Package

More ghosts, more haunted locations and more thrills! This complete weekend package will have you visit and stay at Victoria's most haunted locations. Spend Friday the 13th in the J Ward Lunatic Asylum, where the most depraved and dangerous criminals were housed. Visit haunted underground drives at Seppelt Winery Saturday afternoon where you’re guaranteed spirits! End the evening at the eerie Aradale Lunatic Asylum complete with full morgue. Try to sleep at the magnificent, haunted Allenvale Homestead featured on Channel 9 “Postcards”. Visit www.lanternghosttours.com for more information।

LANTERN GHOST TOURS COMMUNITY: Free Walks and Talks

Australian Heritage Week 14th-22nd April To celebrate Australian Heritage Week Lantern Ghost Tours friends at Williamstown Historical Society will be offering a series of free history walks: Saturday 14th 2pm The Convict Trail & Point Gellibrand-meet at the Timeball Tower. Sunday 15th 2.30pm The Williamstown morgue and Nelson Place- meet at the Wilkinson fountain on Commonwealth Reserve. Sunday 22nd - Williamstown Pub walk 2.30 pm- led by Ian Rae. Meet at the Williamstown Railway Station. For further details and bookings email Brian at willyhistory@hotmail.com. For more activities in Hobsons Bay and Victoria go to website www.heritage-week.govspace.gov.au.

Williamstown History Tour Lantern Ghost Tours will be running a series of free Williamstown History Tours for the Hobsons Bay Visitor Information Centre every Friday at 11।45am from 16th March to 25th May (excluding Good Friday 6th April) please call the Hobsons Bay Visitor Information Centre to book your place on 9932 4310.

Three Bells – Customs and Costumes of Births, Marriages and Deaths

Join Ann Dixon's free talk "Three Bells- Customs and Costumes of Births, Marriages and Deaths on Thursday, 29^th March, 2pm at Altona Library. Bookings essential at www.marchfhg.eventbrite.com

HAUNTED GROUP TRIPS TO MELBOURNE: SCHOOL, SPORTS AND NON PROFIT GROUPS

Lantern Ghost Tours proudly partners with the Melbourne Discovery Centre to offer school and group excursions to Melbourne. As the largest group accommodation provider in Victoria, the Melbourne Discovery Centre has the expertise to ensure that your Melbourne stay is an extraordinary experience. Located in the heart of Melbourne's City Centre, the venue is on the doorstep to everything Melbourne has to offer. They cater for school groups, sports groups, youth groups and non-for -profit organisations. Free planning and booking services ensures a custom made program for every group.They can accommodate up to 600 people with full catering available.www.melbournediscovery.com.au

WORKSHOPS AT THE VICTORIAN SPIRITUALISTS UNION

The Victorian Spiritualists Union offers workshops at 71 A’Beckett St Melbourne. Upcoming workshops include Getting To Know Your Guide- Working With Spirit For Overshadowment and Trance, Proof Of Survival Afternoon- Making Contact With Your Loved One.Visit www.vsu.org.au for more information and bookings।

DISCOVER YOUR BACKYARD CAMPAIGN

Jacqui from Lantern Ghost Tours has featured in a campaign to promote one of her favourite areas: Williamstown. The Hobsons Bay City Council in conjunction with Destination Melbourne and Food.Wine.Hotel has produced a fabulous new tourism video promoting Hobsons Bay. Watch video.

Altona Homestead Investigation Friday 12th August

We ran two investigations on the evening. One at 7pm with 3 guest investigators and one at 9.30pm with ten investigators. We recorded the entire evening and after reviewing all the data, have summarised it below. The evening was run by Jacqui from Lantern Ghost Tours and Andrew and Troy from Ghost Tech who joined both groups.

Overall we had a lot of activity. The intruder alarm armed itself three times and went off once with no explanation. Three EVP recorder batteries drained entirely then were full again after 2 hours without us charging them. The group sensed children all night. We saw a child in loungeroom, many of us felt a cold touch against our hands, fingers and legs. Sarah Langhorne came through the Ouija board, saying she is scared of her grandson starting with “T”. William Henry Croker kept telling the group to leave- and as he did so the intruder alarm went off. We heard noises from the cupboard in the bedroom and sent the little boy hiding inside it to the light. The dowsing rods were very active. An unidentified spirit was communicating through glasswork. Several people felt what they describe as a horse kick to their hips in the kitchen. Shereen and Nathan had personal messages from people they know come through.

We also caught some fantastic EVPs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MJhtRAtHNM

Thanks everyone for a fantastic and active evening, a full report of the evening is below.

Happy Haunting

Jacqui

7pm Investigation

3 Investigators + Andrew and Troy from Ghost Tech and Jacqui from Lantern Ghost Tours

Equipment

-Andrew’s camera battery drained (fully charged at start)

-Three EVP recorders drained (they then showed fully charged after 2 hours without us charging them)

-EMFs and K2 Meters unresponsive

-Dowsing rods active

-Ouija board active

-Black mirror unresponsive

-Mixed luck with pendulum

-Mixed luck with automatic writing

Dining Room
-EVP battery drained (back to full battery after 2 hours)
-Ouija Board had a personal message for Shereen. A relative with initials HM from a town with initials AM in Ireland. Female from Shereen’s mother’s side
-Spirit trying to stop the Ouija board, initials HC and WC kept cropping up. Believe it is William Henry Croker- owner of the Homestead in1900s. He kept telling us to go away.
-Felt movement in the room like children running past and playing hide and seek
-Felt cold, numb arm and hand like someone touching our hands

Kids Room
-All felt heaviness in legs
-Feeling of being pushed to the floor in a squatting position
-Felt the children spirits were trying to make us look under bed

Kitchen
-Tapping sounds from the fireplace
-A guest felt a kick to her hip like a horse kick
-Communicated via dowsing rods. This person was a maid who didn't die from the horse kick but from secondary infection
-She was a maid attached to the house
-Only small fluctuations in the EMFs

-Felt cold air moving past

9.30pm Investigation

10 investigators + Andrew and Troy- Ghost Tech, Jacqui- Lantern Ghost Tours

Dining Room

-Ouija board very active.

-Personal messages for Nathan came through. It was a young girl who seemed to just want to talk. She spelt ambulance several times.
-Sarah Langhorne came through. She was scared of her grandson whose name starts with "T'.
-The candle flickered when asked several times
-William Henry Croker took over the board several times and violently moved the planchette to GOODBYE over and over
-As the planchette was moving to GOODBYE, the intruder alarm armed itself three times and went off once though it was not active- this has never happened before
-Saw glimpses of a child moving around the Room
-Coldness in legs- little boy running around us

Kids Room
-Feeling of heaviness in legs

-Feeling of a child holding our hands

Kitchen
-Felt a strong kick to the left hip
-2 people felt cold going through them between the kitchen and loungeroom
-One person drew a sheep during the automatic writing
-The letter “S” appeared over and over in the automatic writing- we think its Sarah Langhorne

-Personal message for Nathan came through the rods

Bedroom
-Candles flickered when asked
-Dowsing rods very active- the boy said he misses his mum and that the furniture is not original to the building
-Little boy in the cupboard came through

-Sounds coming from the cupboard
-The little boy held several investigators’ hands and fingers
-Jacqui sent the boy to the light so he shouldn’t be there anymore
-Felt a lot of cold air and temperature fluctuations of 6c
-Felt cold going through our bodies

Loungeroom
-Glass went crazy

-The spirit was lying about its identity and was playing tricks on us.
-The glass moved very heavily and frantically side to side and tried to lift of the table.
-Felt this was not a good entity

Altona Homestead Investigation Friday 10th June 2011

**Photo Copyright of Sean I.F.T.T

Thank you all for joining us on the Altona Homstead Investigation on Friday 10th June and thank you to those of you who have posted and emailed photos and findings through.

I am very excited to announce that based on our collective findings we have been able to make some positive identfications.

Team

A big thanks to our team:

Dean VPI
Sean and Peter I.F.T.T
Jason Independent
Alex Lantern Ghost Tours
Jacqui Lantern Ghost Tours
Andrew Lantern Ghost Tours
Kim Fawkes Medium

Findings

Kitchen

• I had a look at the automatic writing- at first they looked like scrawl but I noticed two pieces of paper both with the letter "V" on the page
  
• The butter churner sounded like someone was tapping it
• We heard footsteps on both the left hand side and right hand side of the fireplace
• Chair at the table moved on its own

FOLLOW UP:

• We picked up that the "V" is linked to a male. Believe it could be Lloyd Vaughan (see "Bathroom findings")
  

Dining Room

Felt the presence of a domineering man walking around the room. Felt cold spots moving around.
Ouija board moved to "goodbye"- we sensed there was a very domineering man present. His wife was trying to communicate with us but he stopped her.

Ouija board spelt out 2,3,4- spirit did not confirm if this was an age, number of spirits or code. The group had a sense that it could be a confused 2 year old toddler.
Ouija board- a male's name starts with "H"
• EMF's only responded once throughout the evening- at the end of the last ouija board session. The two EMFs were placed next to each other and both sets of lights lit up full several times then stopped.
Heard footsteps in corner- closest the bedroom

Saw a silhoutte in the corner- closest the bedroom
Sensed children

FOLLOW UP:

• We reviewed the historical files and Sarah and Alfred Langhorne had a son- Henry August born here in 1842.**THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK WHICH LEAD TO THIS ID**
  
• We made contact with Henry earlier this week and he confirmed he came through on the 10th June.
• We don't know who the 2 year old was- could not make contact

Bedroom

Felt cold spots
Smelt a strong, floral perfume wafting in and out
Bed shook on its own when there was no movement in the room
Sensed children under the bed
The cupboard on the left hand side of the room creaked and we sensed someone was next to it
Saw the silhoutte of a person infront of the cupboard on the right hand side of the room
Footsteps heard around the mirror next to the bed
• Uneasy feeling

FOLLOWUP:

• We already know that a woman died in childbirth on the bed
• We also know that a young boy haunts the cupboard on the far wall
• Still trying to determine who the other children are
  

Loungeroom

• Pendulum and dowsing rods were very active
• High EMFs near the fireplace
  
• There is a lady attached to the dresser- she says the dresser is from a house in Melbourne and she thinks she is still in Melbourne
• Group picked up on the name "Katherine"
• Heard footsteps in the loungeroom

FOLLOWUP:

• Successfully made contact again with Katherine- believe the dresser is from a Victorian home in Carlton
  

Bathroom

• Sensed that a man in his 50s died in the bathtub here of respiratory problems and jad a bath not long before he passed
  
• One person felt breathing in their ear
• Sense he is linked to the kitchen
  

FOLLOWUP:

• Based on the "V" intial from the kichen and the description of a man in his 50s in the bathroom we trawled through death notices and a Lloyd Vaughan died here in 1928 aged 58. He is buried at Williamstown Cemetery **THANK YOU FOR EMAILING YOUR FINDINGS- THIS ONE IS A PERFECT MATCH**

Children's Bedroom

• Group picked up that a 13 year old girl died here

FOLLUP:

• We researched 13 year old girls who passed here- The Langhorne's had a daughter who died 13 years of age- born here 1848 **AGAIN THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMENTS THAT HELPED IDENTIFY HER**
  

Other

• Fully charged batteries on three cameras drained at the beginning of the night
  

Copyright Lantern Ghost Tours