Australian Paranormal + Investigation Photos

Sorry for the lame title, i'm not good with sounding epic!

I just wanted to start a topic for Australians to post anything paranormal.

I've been interested in the paranormal for a fair while now, and myself and 2 others have started up an investigative group on Australia's east coast.

We will use this thread to post any videos, photos and hunt reports that we make.

Thankyou in advance for anyone that posts.



mod edit, title change

[edit on 22-1-2007 by DontTreadOnMe]

The first investigations we have planned follow:

Where: Local colonial-era graveyards in Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia

When: Within the next 2 weeks

History: There has been legends around the coast here of people seeing and hearing strange things at night in the old graveyards. Two of them are less than 10 minutes walk from my home. One is surrounded by swamp and bush trails, and the other is still used today as a graveyard. Our priority is to explore the overgrown graveyard at night, with 2 digital cameras (one with nightvision), voice recorders and written notes.


Where: Pacific Highway Crossing on the outskirts of Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia

When: Early February

History: I've mentioned this place before, and have unofficially done a few stake-outs at the location with friends through the years. It is documented in 1940s/50s newspaper articles as being haunted by 'The Ghost of the Quarry', a quarry that used to occupy the site in the early 1900s.

My Grandmother and Great Aunt both witnessed the ghost on an occasion, and they still have the news paper article relating to it. Both of them, their taxi driver and 2 other persons in another car witnessed a 'contained fog' move from the bush across the highway, stop in between the cars and 'look' into the window, forming a face. It then floated through the bonnet of the taxi and disappeared into the bush on the other side of the road.

According to local legend, she appeared last in 1957, before that in 1907, and is due again in 2007. This trip should be very interesting.


I'll post again with updates once the date of our first expedition is decided. Most likely it will be this Friday/Saturday night.

I look forward to reading and seeing some pic's of your investigation foffstar

sanc (fellow Aussie)

My mother lives across the road from Koolunbung Creek and the boardwalk that runs around the cemetery. I lived in Port 10 years ago (live near Tuggerah now) and often used to go to the cemetery to just look at the old headstones.

A truly beautiful and peaceful place but I had never heard any stories regarding paranormal occurrences.


Looking forward to your findings

Just a note on your gear - most people will not accept digital images as any kind of proof as they are so easy to manipulate.
When we went hunting, we would often scope an area out - do a number of trips and use the digicam to see if we could capture anything interesting and then try to duplicate the results with a regular camera using high speed film. This was mostly trying to reduce the costs involved whilst trying to ensure we got the best evidence possible.

If you have already explored the area or know where the sightings are supposed to occur, take a few standard shots the first time around.

Another thing to watch - especially with the nightvision camera is exposure to your own lights and car lights etc. Torch light in trees, blinding the lens - all that stuff.

Good luck and happy hunting.

P.S Isn't there an old jail near port macquarie that is supposed to be haunted?

resistancia

Well your mother lives about 2 blocks from me

There used to be stories of the sounds of chains etc and lights at the back of the cemetery boardering the mangroves. I can remember they used to scare me when i was younger.

ilandrah

Thanks for the tips.

I realize how questionable digital images are. I am not really out to get 'proof' of sorts, as in i don't really mind if people don't believe any oddities i capture on film are real. I would be checking these places out with or without cameras so i figured if i take one and do see something i can snap it and back up my story.

I know how grilled people get when they post a story of something paranormal and have no 'evidence' to back it up, so even if the evidence is questioned, at least i will have some.

As far as the jail goes, do you mean the one at South West Rocks? Trial Bay Gaol?

I've been there before and it is really spooky, but i think you need permits to get in there at night and i doubt i'd have them.


Another area where i would like to have a look again would be the Lake Innes Ruins. It is whats left of a Major's estate from the colonial era. It is under the protection of the National Parks and Wildlife, but i know some people with them that might let us in for a few hours in the future

Thanks again everyone for your interest.

Yeah trial bay was the place - I went there once as a youngster, I don't remember all the details, just that the place was ancient and creepy. Got a pic somewhere of my folks forcing me and my sister to pose in the cells and shackles. At the time I considered it one of the dullest places I had ever visited.

As to the digicam pics, it's good that you arent overly concerned for what others think, but keep in mind that anything that you do capture will be deemed fake by pretty much everyone you show it to.

On another note, how many members do you have and do you plan on this being a regular thing?
I was running a group here in Bathurst, but it eventually disolved not so much due to lack of numbers or interest as an abundance of people who thought it was just a caper.

We did capture some anomalies, but never anything conclusive enough to even post about.
I have often thought about getting back into it - your post might prove to be enough to get me moving again.

Thanks again for the response.

Yeah, i realize anything we see / film will be dubbed as a fake. To answer another question, the we is 5 of us at the moment, with 2 others interested but not convinced.

I'm starting a diploma in Journalism, Communication and Media this year so i'm hoping i might be able to start up a website or newspaper to help others to see we are genuine.

About the motivation factor, it is people's experiences here on ATS that brought me back to the idea as well, so i'm glad you are considering the same thing.

Hey Fooffstarr,

This is a great idea, tis bout time we had a thread relating to Australian paranormal, I really look forward to your reports and experiences.

Steve (vic)

Thanks for the support Downunder666.

Just a quick update:

Tomorrow is the big day... ur... night.

I've got 2 others coming with me on this trip and i might head over this afternoon to get some daylight photos first and the check the lay of the land, make sure there is nothing we wouldn't see in the dark and end up falling over

Ok, here is the results from the convict-era graveyard investigation.

Due to the other guys having to work tonight, we decided to go a bit earlier (at sunset).

None of us experienced anything possibly related to paranormal activity at the site, although the feel of the place itself is extremely eerie.

At one stage myself and another believed we heard the sound of a chain being dragged, but someones keys in their pocket rustling is the most logical explanation.

I haven't picked up any anomalies in the photos but everyone please have a look for yourself and if you spot anything strange let me know.

So nothing strange, but here are some photos from the site regardless.

1
2
3
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5
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10
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12
13

Enjoy Sometime in the next 2 weeks we will probably check out the highway crossing i mentioned earlier. I'll keep you all posted.

Nice pics - what a beautiful cemetary.

I take it you skipped on trying to capture any audio (?) Because of the time of day. I have some recordings stashed somewhere of our local boneyard that have unexplainable noises in them - not enough to make out words, though one does sound very much like someone whispering my name. *Shivers*

It's a shame you couldn't go at night - it looks promising and a nice clean area to wander around in too. Less chance of a broken ankle being the cause of those eerie screams

Also, how far back does the cemetary date? We have some convict graves here in Bathurst, but very little in the way of public records on how people died.

Originally posted by ilandrah
Nice pics - what a beautiful cemetary.

I take it you skipped on trying to capture any audio (?) Because of the time of day. I have some recordings stashed somewhere of our local boneyard that have unexplainable noises in them - not enough to make out words, though one does sound very much like someone whispering my name. *Shivers*

It's a shame you couldn't go at night - it looks promising and a nice clean area to wander around in too. Less chance of a broken ankle being the cause of those eerie screams

Also, how far back does the cemetary date? We have some convict graves here in Bathurst, but very little in the way of public records on how people died.

It is indeed a beautiful cemetery. The bush tracks that surround it are nice spots as well... only trouble is snakes this time of year.

The earliest grave i found was from the 1830's... but alot of them are that worn away that they are un-readable.

I didn't try for any recordings for exactly that reason, the time of day. I didn't expect to see or hear much so we went with just the minimal gear to have a look.

It was a shame, it was against us because both of their employers called them in today! I have been waiting for a call from mine, but i was lucky

We will probably do another trip one night, maybe even tomorrow night depending of the weather and work again.

Late last night another interested party joined me and we went back to the cemetery to take some night photos.

We took over 50 according to the photo numbers we have, but i deleted a fair few simply because they were just blackness... That place gets so dark you can't see in front of your face.

We had 1 camera and 1 torch with us as we didn't expect to be there long. It was one of the eeriest places i've been, just the atmosphere gave you chills.

We both believed we saw movement at the far end of the cemetery where the sarcophagi are (check the daytime shots for photos of them), but we can't be sure. It could have been a dog or kangaroo or anything, but no noise was made.

We didn't take any voice recorders either. Talk about organized! It was a spur of the moment thing.

There are a few anomalies in the photos that we can't explain. I'll put at note (*) next to those specific shots so some of the photoshop guru's around here can filter them for us.


1
2*
3*
4*
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10*
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12*
13


2&3 - The 'orb' in the far right and the interference. I made a point of cleaning the lens before we took the photos, and another 2 or so times during the night. The 'orbs' in this photo are not repeated in any of the others.

4 - This photo was taken aiming into the cemetery, not out towards the town. There was NO light sources down there at all, just a wall of darkness.

10&12 - These spheres could also be put down to lights... if there were any there. These 2 photos were taken down the far end of the cemetery, which required the torch to be at our feet so we could see where we were going.





[edit on 20-1-2007 by fooffstarr]

Err..was 13 accidentally included?

Some nice pictures though. I tend not to take any notice of orbs anymore, but there are some nice examples here.

The speckled ones in the first few photos certainly look like dust to me - not necessarily on your camera lens, but in the air.

I'm not so sure about the coloured ones that look like lights though - nothing else in the picture to suggest that they were caused by any air borne pollutants and insects don't usually show up in colours like that that I know of.

Sounds to me like at least one more trip is warranted. Some audio recordings would be nice as well as some zero-lux or nightvision/infra-red.

I take it you dont have anything to detect electro-magnetic fields?

Originally posted by ilandrah
Err..was 13 accidentally included?

Some nice pictures though. I tend not to take any notice of orbs anymore, but there are some nice examples here.

The speckled ones in the first few photos certainly look like dust to me - not necessarily on your camera lens, but in the air.

I'm not so sure about the coloured ones that look like lights though - nothing else in the picture to suggest that they were caused by any air borne pollutants and insects don't usually show up in colours like that that I know of.

Sounds to me like at least one more trip is warranted. Some audio recordings would be nice as well as some zero-lux or nightvision/infra-red.

I take it you dont have anything to detect electro-magnetic fields?

13 is meant to be there See how many people screamed 'Z0mG 6h05T' at a thumbprint. (Not really, it was an accident... but i might as well leave it now).

Dust is a possibility for the first couple sure. It was my first thought. I just wondered about the couple of big circular things that showed up more than the dust-looking stuff though.

Another trip is pretty much guaranteed, because the team that was going to go didn't get to thanks to work, so they are still keen to go. Even more so after missing out on last night.

We will hopefully have the night-vision with us next time, because one of the guys that didn't come is the owner of that bit of tech. Some voice recorders are kicking around here too so when i find them again they will come in handy.

Nothing to detect electro-magnetics though.

Thanks for the interest

Why is it that people believe a persons spirit will follow the dead carcass to the place its buried?

The person may have died at home,work,car,hospital,ambulance etc and then be taken to the morgue where it can stay for quit a time,before being taken to the grave site.

If for instance a person dies in a car accident,wouldn`t you have a better chance (if any) of investigating the spot where someone died and the spirit left the body.

I agree gps777, I always thought that a wrecking yard would be a good place to stake out, especially if the deceased was one of those people who adores their car.
Ghosts supposedly haunt homes and people because they loved them and can't move on, why not cars and places like that?
Also, what is the deal with ghosts always having period dress but no one ever seems to see a 1980s punk with a blue mohawk?

Anyways, not trying to derail the thread, perhaps those questions should be addressed elsewhere.

Fooffstarr - have you or any of you members had ghostly experiences before and do any of them have any kind of psychic ability or sensitivity to ghosts? A lot of teams use 'sensitives' to detect likely areas.
We always had to rely more on urban legend and witness accounts.

If you do find some further evidence of a haunting, do you intend to try to contact the spirit itself and find out why it is haunting?
I guess I am talking seance in the graveyard sort of stuff, but some people think that they can help these spirits move on - is that your view and/or intention?

Originally posted by ilandrah
Fooffstarr - have you or any of you members had ghostly experiences before and do any of them have any kind of psychic ability or sensitivity to ghosts? A lot of teams use 'sensitives' to detect likely areas.
We always had to rely more on urban legend and witness accounts.

If you do find some further evidence of a haunting, do you intend to try to contact the spirit itself and find out why it is haunting?
I guess I am talking seance in the graveyard sort of stuff, but some people think that they can help these spirits move on - is that your view and/or intention?

Myself and the guy that came with me on the night shoot have had a somewhat ghostly experience before. Without going into that much detail, we saw what seemed like a man standing in the middle of a road... a car then preceded to drive straight through him and kept going as if nothing happened. We both were freaked out by that experience, that was a few years ago.

I dunno about the psychics thing, i mean, the interested parties all believe to some degree in ghosts, but i dunno about psychic abilities. I don't want to scare anyone off by sounding loony as of yet. Just get things moving a bit first, but it is a possibility in the future. I guess that answers the next question about the seances as well.

I know what you mean fooffstarr - particuarly here in Australia, people tend to consider any kind of paranormal event with suspicion, but especially any psychic event.
I don't get into seances and "kooks" should definately be kept off your team if you want to appear competant and professional. Having said that though - don't dismiss feelings or sensations whilst you are on a hunt.
The human body is apparently easily affectted by EMF fields in a variety of ways. EMF fields are also associated with hauntings. Some scientists believe that the reason the two are associated is because of the fields affects on the mind. But regardless, these areas are detectable and will often yield results.
Without a device to measure the fields you will have to rely solely on your bodies responses to detect these types of fields.
You said that the area was quite creepy - it could mean that there is a strong EMF there.

I would also like to hear more about your previous experiences, they would certainly class as part of this thread I think. A case study of the experience and perhaps some photos of the area and some research into possible deaths there would be interesting.