Every since I first laid eyes on Jenolan Caves guest house as a much younger person I have always wanted to stay overnight.
I have imagined the grandeur of the wealthy coming down the winding road to this hide away - safe from the rest of the world and being treated to a 'European style' getaway right here in Australia taking in the fresh mountain air and meandering quietly through the caves.
I have imagined the grandeur of the wealthy coming down the winding road to this hide away - safe from the rest of the world and being treated to a 'European style' getaway right here in Australia taking in the fresh mountain air and meandering quietly through the caves.
In 1896, the grand hotel, Jenolan Caves House, was built, as a wilderness retreat for the wealthy1. It was designed in the Colonial Architect’s office, under the supervision of Colonel Walter Liberty Vernon (1846 – 1914).
It is characterized by craggy façade, picturesque gables, knobbly tile roof and deep recessed openings with multi-paned windows, giving the new building an instant air of old-age, charm and respectability
Caves House sits alongside Jenolan Caves, Australia’s most well-known limestone cave system and longest continually operating tourist attraction.
Caves House, along with all the buildings in the Jenolan Caves Karst Conservation Reserve, was added to the NSW State Heritage Register in 2004.
Considerable changes have been made to the buildings over the years, but today Caves House is rightly regarded as one of the finest large guest houses still functioning as tourist accommodation. ( from https://www.jenolancaves.org.au/about/caves-house-history/)
Our first event there saw 23 of us stay overnight in the Guesthouse overnight.
We arrived from our various locations on the day some people choosing to arrive early on the day and do a cave tour and others arriving later to grab a few hours to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and chill out wandering around.
We met for a amazing dinner in the dining room area and enjoyed very fine food.
Directly afterwards we were met in the foyer by David, our tour guide.
David was extremely knowledgeable about all thing Jenolan and what we thought was going to be a bog standard history talk about the Guest House turned into a deliciously spooky hour of story telling, ghostly sightings in and around the guesthouse and caves and David scaring the pants of people as he hid around corners and really got into his characters and talked their grisly deaths.
David was extremely knowledgeable about all thing Jenolan and what we thought was going to be a bog standard history talk about the Guest House turned into a deliciously spooky hour of story telling, ghostly sightings in and around the guesthouse and caves and David scaring the pants of people as he hid around corners and really got into his characters and talked their grisly deaths.
He was so happy to be telling the spooky side of the site and we all lapped it up - especially the VERNON WING and ROOM 132!!!!
You could tell the passion he has for Jenolan Caves and the spirits that are the custodians of this unique site.
Then we took time out to prepare and we met back in the foyer to start our investigation and ghost hunt.
We took advantage of special areas open to us such as the area which was the old TB Hospital.
The SB11 was employed and just let me say that there is very little or no radio communication at the Guest House - there are even no televisions in the rooms because the signal is so bad so to hear anything through the spirit boxes would be very, very intriguing.
So, when people started to hear strange whistling coming through the headphones it was certainly something to consider 'very interesting'.
More than one person heard the whistling and later we were to find out that there was the history of ghostly whistling in one of the caves.
Therefore we decided to head to the Cave entrance (which everyone will know as it is the entrance that everyone drives though to get to the guesthouse) to see if we could get more communication happening.
But no.
All was very quiet.
Therefore we headed back to the dining room where we have two ladies in spirit.
Here the investigators split up to do some old fashioned glass downing and table tipping or their own investigations.
There were a few interesting conversations happening with a bit of a battle for control over the dining room area between an original owner of the Guesthouse and a long standing female employee both now in spirit and both still very much looking after the dining room area.
Both ladies were and are quite intent on making sure that everything is in place and right before guests are seated.
Many time staff will enter the dining room to find cutlery out of place or chairs pulled away fro the tables.
Some of the staff have felt the touch of the spirit ladies and can feel the heat of their scorn if they do not do the right thing by the paying customers.
By 12.30am we were all too tired to focus any longer - that fresh mountain air can really have the effect of soothing the nerves and calming the body and also making you want to crawl into bed and have a good sleep.
So that is exactly what we did.
Did a few people have some company during the night?
I am not sure - everyone seemed to say that they had slept soundly.
I do think some people may have been being watched over buy some of the many ghosts of Jenolan Caves guest house - even maybe being tucked in tight for a good and sound sleep.
We will be heading back to the guest house in 2019 for another weekend experience.
Contact us on info@newcastleghosttours.com.au for costs, details and dates
We took advantage of special areas open to us such as the area which was the old TB Hospital.
The SB11 was employed and just let me say that there is very little or no radio communication at the Guest House - there are even no televisions in the rooms because the signal is so bad so to hear anything through the spirit boxes would be very, very intriguing.
So, when people started to hear strange whistling coming through the headphones it was certainly something to consider 'very interesting'.
More than one person heard the whistling and later we were to find out that there was the history of ghostly whistling in one of the caves.
Therefore we decided to head to the Cave entrance (which everyone will know as it is the entrance that everyone drives though to get to the guesthouse) to see if we could get more communication happening.
But no.
All was very quiet.
Therefore we headed back to the dining room where we have two ladies in spirit.
Here the investigators split up to do some old fashioned glass downing and table tipping or their own investigations.
There were a few interesting conversations happening with a bit of a battle for control over the dining room area between an original owner of the Guesthouse and a long standing female employee both now in spirit and both still very much looking after the dining room area.
Both ladies were and are quite intent on making sure that everything is in place and right before guests are seated.
Many time staff will enter the dining room to find cutlery out of place or chairs pulled away fro the tables.
Some of the staff have felt the touch of the spirit ladies and can feel the heat of their scorn if they do not do the right thing by the paying customers.
By 12.30am we were all too tired to focus any longer - that fresh mountain air can really have the effect of soothing the nerves and calming the body and also making you want to crawl into bed and have a good sleep.
So that is exactly what we did.
Did a few people have some company during the night?
I am not sure - everyone seemed to say that they had slept soundly.
I do think some people may have been being watched over buy some of the many ghosts of Jenolan Caves guest house - even maybe being tucked in tight for a good and sound sleep.
We will be heading back to the guest house in 2019 for another weekend experience.
Contact us on info@newcastleghosttours.com.au for costs, details and dates
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