Altona Investigation

Activity Report : Altona Homestead
Friday, 24 September, 2010
Weather : Cool, slightly hazy, light breeze
Outside Temperature : 7.3 deg C (8pm)
Inside Temperature : see below
Moon Phase : Full Moon

7.30pm – Team arrived at the Homestead to set up equipment
8.30pm – Donna Abrahams, psychic medium arrives.
Activity Log
Donna’s initial impressions of the house was that someone came with her by the name of Glen. She felt the house did not have any earthbound/grounded spirits, but certainly did have free/ungrounded entities present. She felt happiness but also a lot of death - by natural causes. She did not feel anything untoward like murder had occurred here. In all, she felt it was a very peaceful, calm house.

Sitting Room Avg EMF : 0 m/G Avg Temp @ 8pm : 13.5 deg C
One guest in this room became upset, so much so that she had to leave the room.
It was also noted that the mandolin played, with no-one near it.
One group reported a torch falling off a small table near the window. The guest deliberately placed it close to the centre to avoid falling. Tests to try and recreate this were not very successful though the table is slightly unstable.
Whilst in this room, Donna picked up on a strong energy, enough to make her dizzy. In all, she found it a peaceful room. The presence of an elderly lady told of her love of the room as you could see the garden through the window.
One guest, Linda, reported strange stomach sensations (hopefully not as a result of dinner!) and various guests reported experience fluctuating temperatures and the investigator felt a blast of air in her face.

Dining Room Avg EMF : 0.3 m/G Avg Temp @ 8pm : 14.6 deg C
The names James, John and Sarah were picked up in this room.
Details from Sarah came up such as the family having a little brown and white dog, she loved fashion and shoes in the 1850’s and going to the opera, the smell of jasmine or rose perfume, she had red/brown hair and fair skin. She had a white bonnet with pink flowers. She apparently loved the dining room best as it caught the sun during the day.
The names Peg or Meg/Margaret came up, as well as the names Eric, Tom and Louis.
A guest, Bernadette, picked up that there had been a fire. She felt her skin burning.
Cold spots were felt under the table and several people reported feeling sick and a tingling on their legs. A guest, Leah, picked up on the name John (middle name ?) and whilst using glass divination, the glass moved towards a guest, Janice.

Kitchen Avg EMF : 0.5 m/G Avg Temp @ 8pm : 13 deg C
Several names came up during the night – either through guests or via Donna Abrahams, our psychic medium.
It was reported that a female named Sarah – possibly a maid - was heard asking “What are you doing here?”.
It was felt that an aboriginal was hired to work on the property and the names Peter, Bill/Billy and Sam came through.
The name John was also brought forward, and it was picked up that he was a shearer and overseer of the property. His daughter Jane was also picked up. John was described as wearing overalls with a tight grey top, he had a potbelly, a beard, blue eyes and a ruddy complexion.
The names Daisy and Mary were also brought forward, Mary being 13 and having died of typhoid fever.
One guest, Bernadette, was drawn to a particular chair and to the fireplace. Whilst using the dowsing rods, Leah had them spin on request and felt pins and needles in her hands. There was also the feeling of a presence lingering behind her.

Bedroom 1 (master) Avg EMF : 0.2 m/G Avg Temp @ 8pm : 12 deg C
Donna felt a spirit, that of Sarah Langhorne, moving around in this room. She felt a lot of love but also became hot and dizzy. She also felt the presence of a small boy and girl.
One investigator felt a cold spot near the dressing table, temperature registered 13.7 deg C, 1 degree cooler than was measured earlier in the vigil.
One vigil claimed they felt the bed move, though it is noted that he bed does tremble with the slightest movement of anyone sitting there.

Bedroom 2 Avg EMF : 0 m/G Avg Temp @ 8pm : 13 deg C
Two guests in here reported a very peaceful feeling and quite comfortable

Bathroom Avg EMF : 0 m/G Avg Temp @ 8pm : 13.6 deg C


Remainder of House
Foyer Avg EMF : 0.3 m/G Avg Temp @ 8pm : 15.9 deg C
Whilst setting up, before the evening had even begun, one investigator reported that a book that had been standing up on a table had fallen off. No one was moving in the room at the time though the table wasn’t very steady. Several attempts to try to get the book to fall by walking past the table or slightly knocking it proved fruitless.

Ghost of the west

I’m about to join a ghost tour and a black cat has just crossed my path. Should I be worried?
“Now my loves,” says our guide Pauline in a broad Somerset accent, “up there is where a famous opera singer of the 1850s shot himself after losing his voice.”
Dressed in a long black shirt and shawl, lustrous dark hair in ringlets and carrying a wicker basket, Pauline is the epitome of 1800s barrow-girl chic and you can almost hear the clip-clop of horse’s hooves as she speaks.
All of a sudden though, she’s become the daughter of an Irish potato farmer with a perfect sing-song lilt as she uses her voice talents to explain the mix of races that made up the early years of the area.
Melissa and I have tagged along with a group of accountants on an end-of-financial-year piss up for a spooky Lantern Ghost Tour around Williamstown.
And even if you’re a sceptic like me you’ll find this whimsical walk fascinating… and not just for the secret alleys and hidden-away pubs that you’ll discover!
We start at the Steampacket Hotel and as we move on down the street Pauline paints a colourful image of Williamstown’s past, starting with the little backstreet that runs along a ley line. Best described as the lines between ancient sites where paranormal activity is often witnessed, the muddy alley seems an unlikely spot for ghosts to be hanging out, but Pauline assures us photographers usually pick up orbs — or balls of energy believed to be spirits — on their pictures.
Pretty soon though, after exploring the narrow back streets we find ourselves on the main restaurant strip of Williamstown blinking at the suddenly bright lights, looking at the turrets of a “love castle” above a Greek eatery.
“One man was so in love with his wife that he built her a castle; they had a death pact that they would die in each other’s arms,” says Pauline. “Tragically, she broke her neck when horse riding, but she’s often still seen framed in the upstairs window looking sadly out to the street.”
Eagerly, Melissa and I snap away as we pass more allegedly haunted properties, including one whose past occupants were involved in the occult, before trekking through a large boat shed to a real-life pirate’s lair.
This tucked-away pub on the Williamstown Pier is packed with yachty-type revellers enjoying a funky little two-man band — drinks are ordered and any chills up the spine are forgotten as we rest our legs.
But Pauline still has creepy up her sleeve; our next stop is ye olde Williamstown Morgue, a small but imposing bluestone structure where the ghosts of women and children in particular are said to dwell.
“Is anyone brave enough to knock on the door my loves?” Pauline shouts to the chattering group. “Remember that whoever is in there sometimes knocks back.”
I have to admit to a sense of foreboding as one of the brave accountants — egged on by his brave-sounding, but nervously giggling, colleagues — walks forward and boldly thumps
three times.
We wait with baited breath… but nothing happens. Still I’m keen to get out of there.
Our final stop is the lovely old Stags Head Hotel where the ghosts of a former publican, his wife and son are said to stomp across the floor above the dining room.
Having jumped to their deaths after financial ruin many years ago, the ethereal trio still like to play with the living enjoying a drink or two in the bar.
And while this sceptic didn’t have her mind changed about the presence of paranormal activity, I thoroughly enjoyed our very civilised and intriguing tour.
http://www.theauzone.com.au/personal/features/536-ghost-of-the-west.html

Paranormal Investigation Williamstown 1st August 2010

C Blunt Boatbuilder, Williamstown
Date: Sunday 1st August
Time: 7.45pm to 8.20pm
Weather: Rain, cold, dark
Sense approximately 8 spirits present:

1. ‘Arthur’
• White beard
• Walking up and down the shed
• A few of us felt as though he was walking through us

2. The man in the third photo in the office:
• He was wondering what we were doing there
• He doesn’t believe in ghosts

3. George
• In his early 50s
• Linked to a fire at Liston Tennis Courts- feel there used to be sheds there
that burnt down

4. Michael Raymond Starch
• 28 years old
• Came in through the back door from the pier

5. 14 year old called Ruben

6. Children
• Kim saw small people- children in the shed. Believe they came in with him.

7. Other workers- going about their normal business
• Men are all working, not minding us being there and not trying to interact
Layout
• Used to be a door on the left hand side wall
• Used to be a verandah extension on the right hand side wall with door
• Used to a large hand wench/crank on the verandah

Middle of the shed
• The strongest activity of the night occurred in the middle of the shed.
• Most of the group sensed a presence in the same spot- middle of the room
between the saw and boat
• Very cold spot to stand on despite the temperature gauge indicating that it
was warmer than the rest of the room
• Ama and Kim were drawn to the middle of the room where Kim became nauseous
and entered a trance like state.

Other
• Sense barrel making and barrels being rolled across the ground
• Someone hanged themselves at the front, felt the need to look up
• Each time we asked for a ‘sign’ the rain became louder (not it was a rainy,
blustery night)

Kuala Lumpur Coffin Exhibition

This is the first coffin exhibition I have attended and it was well worth the trip to Malaysia. Nestled in the National Museum the exhibition displayed over 39 'coffins' from Malaysia, Thailand, Borneo, India and the Philippines. There were also displays on burial traditions and rituals.

Any burial box can be referred to as a coffin, which means 'basket'. However many refer to a casket(coined from a the term used for a jewlery box) as having four sides and a coffin as having six sides.

Highlights of the coffin exhibition included a 14-karat gold plated Chinese coffin valued at $AUD 200,000 on loan from the Nirvana Memorial Park. The coffin was not dissimilar to the Carl Williams coffin posted over front pages of Australian newspapers in April.

Other highlights included a series of animal shaped coffins from Borneo. Shapes included full scale buffaloes and crocodiles. The buffalo head is symbolic of bearing burdens of the dead, assisting with the passage to the afterlife. Animal shaped coffins house the body of a man, if the cover has no particular shape, then the coffin houses the body of a woman.

Log coffins from Thailand and parts of Malaysia were also on display and typically stood in cliffs such as Coffin Cave.

Jar coffins and tree coffins were on display from indigenous tribes in Peninsular and East Malaysia.

The Rattan Chair coffin was also interesting, bodies would be seated on the chair and exposed to the elements until they rotted and then could easily be shoved into pottery urns.

Malaysia and surrounding regions are rich in archaelogical finds with the earliest evidence of human occupation in Sarawak an 38,000-year-old skull from the Niah Caves.

Friday 13th, the luckiest day of the year???

Do you suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia, or fear of Friday 13th? The Chinese believe it to be a lucky number, considered to bring good fortune but airlines such as Continental, Air France and KLM don’t share in this belief, often jumping rows from 12 to 14. Hotels and hospitals are superstitious, too. Around the world entire floors and wards skip 13 and many also don’t have a 4th floor. Some have removed room numbers like 666.

In numerology 12 is considered a complete number as reflected by 12 months of the year, Jesus’ 12 apostles, 12 hours of the clock, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 tribes of Israel but the number thirteen has always had superstitious connotations due to its irregularity.

13 has often had negative connotations. Judas was the 13th apostle and in ancient Rome, witches gathered in groups of 12. The 13th was believed to be the devil.

Why Friday?

Friday has been considered an unlucky day since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales, Jesus was crucified on a Friday and there was a mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France on Friday, October 13, 1307. Some believe Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit on Friday while others believe Abel was slain by Cain on Friday the 13th.

It’s not all negative press for the number 13 though

In Hinduism a feast is organised on the thirteenth day of death for the peace of the departed soul. In Judaism, 13 signifies the age at which a boy matures and there are 13 players in a rugby league team. But in Formula One, no driver has had the number 13 on his car since 1976.

Living in a Williamstown ghost town

BY GOYA BENNETT
21 Jul, 2010 12:00 AM
AFTER dark, a whole other world emerges in Williamstown. Fresh from visiting a coffin exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Jacqueline Travaglia of Lantern Ghost Tours is back at her favourite haunts.

Last week, the 'ghost host' gave the Williamstown Advertiser a personal tour of the town's most paranormal places. We met outside the Visitor Information Centre at Commonwealth Reserve.

Ms Travaglia said the lush parkland was a far cry from what it was in the 1850s. Back then, it was swampland filled with trash, mud, rotting meat and offcuts ... sometimes rumoured to be of the human variety.

Ms Travaglia reveals that keepers of the morgue, which still stands today, would also drain blood and empty bodies into the swamp.

We head to Blunt's Boat Builders in Nelson Place which has been in the Blunt family for 150 years. Immediately, strange phenomena start to occur. The Advertiser's photographic equipment is seemingly gripped by an unseen force and tossed into the sea. Could it be the blustery wind or the ghost of founder Arthur Blunt?

Next door, the Australian Navy cadets are convinced they had an encounter with Mr Blunt.

"The sea cadets contacted us to say they had a seance about a year ago," Ms Travaglia said.


"Apparently, they had the glass jar upside down. They were contacting the spirits and all of a sudden the jar went flying across the table.

"They saw a dark silhouette move across the wall and they all screamed and got on their i-Phones and Blackberries and Blueberries and all that and called their parents to pick them up."

She believes it was Mr Blunt telling them to go to bed and behave themselves.


Across the road lies a building that was once a notorious doctor's surgery. Dr Edward Garland Figg was the health officer and port doctor in Williamstown and employed an early form of anaesthetic known as chloroform.


Unfortunately, the good doctor didn't always get the dosage right. "One of his first patients to use it was a young woman. She went in and said, 'I need some stitches in my hand'," Ms Travaglia said. "Edward said, 'No problem, would you like some opium, alcohol or chloroform?' And she said, 'I'll have the chloroform, thank you very much'.

"So she sniffed the handkerchief, fell asleep and he repaired her hand. Problem was, she never woke up."

Part entertainment, part history lesson, the tours attract the sceptics, the curious, believers and even other professional ghost seekers with their electromagnetic field detectors.

One place where the EGMs went wild was The Steampacket Hotel in Cole Street. It's said to be haunted by opera singer John De Haga, who shot himself with a horse pistol after losing his voice.

Other tour sites include the Yacht Club Hotel, Old Royal Hotel, Oriental Hotel, former Prince of Wales hotel and laneways where cheaper 'ladies of the night' sold their trade.

Ms Travaglia believes the most haunted spot in Williamstown is Point Gellibrand where, offshore, prison hulks held more than 6000 convicts and where, on land, a cemetery stood.

http://www.themail.com.au/news/local/news/general/living-in-a-williamstown-ghost-town/1890945.aspx?storypage=2

MAY Haunted Weekend in Talbot

Summary of J Ward Activity: By Kathleen Higgins Australia Boyle heights paranormal project.

On arrival we were met with Ange and her boyfriend Trevor, who both agree to help me for the night, we didn't do the tour, they went to tea and we went to investigate, first place we did was west wing, using the franks box we got names quiet a few, and remembering what Ama said last time about them playing with us I asked do you want to play, and I got a clear ÿes" so I put the K2 meter down and a torch and said if they want they can play with these, and the next word we heard on the K2 meter was "trap", we reassured them it wasn't, but I don't think it worked as they didn't go near it. At one stage I thought I saw a face in one of the doors, but because I wasn't 100percent I brushed it aside.

We than went to the main ward and was told to go to Garry Web cell, in the cell next to this we got a name Tom Linsey oh and the K2 meter went off in his room too, we than went to Garys room, I couldnt get him to say his name so I asked did you commit the crimes they charged you with and got a clear yes with the franks box, we also got please dont, war, and police, now I didnt know this too later but apparently he wanted a war with the police or anyone of aurthory (sp).

We went up stairs where the hanging rope was and the other rooms and only got 1 name and that was Seth. Very quiet up there.

We than had a break and told Doug and jackie what we had found out, Doug was surprised to hear that Gary was in that room.

Now we went down to the cellar to the governors room, first words we got was Gday nice and clear, I asked if the spirit that was there last time was there and got yeah, and I got no 6 people, wow :O I was shocked so was Ange, later I told Doug and he said that corresponds with that white witch ages ago and we were told last time but I thought it was 5, we didn't get much more so we went into the kitchen down there.

In the kitchen we had some orb activity with the night vision and got a name, name was stuart and I asked his age he said either 19 or 10 we asked to say it again and we got 20 or 21, I asked are you the little boy spirit and got a yes, so what we think it was 10 and each patient there had a number and we think his was either 20 or 21 doug is going to check this out.

We went back to the west wing and thought we might sit there and be quiet and see what we got, again we got a whole heap of names and a temp drop, so we left and I set up the dvd recorder.

We went into the main hall and again asked question to see if anyone was there, Ange went to the door going to the west wing and looked in and she said she saw a shadow and than the door open by itself it all made us jump, also the perspex (sp) window behind me was rattled a lot like someone was banging on it, this happen a few times. Ange at one stage said to us did you hear that (she thought these words came over the franks box, we worked out later it was whispered into her ears) she hear, "you little slut", followed by, "I am going to f*** you". This frighten her so I went and got a few other people to come in, and said you cant harm us as we are many. We didn't hear back from this nasty spirit.

We went outside to the exercise yard, and we got a spirits name of Cletis, I ask how old are you he said either 12 or 21, I said is this right and he said Yes, I asked are you mentally retarded again got a yes, I asked are you still alive and got a yes again, I asked if my torch light was bothering him and he said Funny. and follow by Help me. We got 2 more names in the exercise yard, John roberts 32, and Hamish.
We joined the tour group at this stage and the spirits must of got bored as they went quiet, we did get one more name after this and that was Hamish.

I got a few photos out of the night too, nothing on dvd apart from what we got on franks box's.

Names we got were -: these first lot were in the west wing
Phillip
Cottees
Gilligan
Ben
Bill Morgan
Out in the main hall we got
Tom Lindsay
Adam
stewart
John
Stan
Gavin
John Roberts
Aiden
Hamish
other names were Stuart in the kitchen