DIARY OF A GHOST HUNTER

 The Ghost Of Ghost Creek Story sourced from Forgotten Illawarra Blog The Ghost of Ghost Creek This tale is Wollongong’s claim to fame, in the same fasion of Fisher’s Ghost in Campbelltown. Ghost Creek is located on the Western end of Crown street near the Mount Keira junction, and used to be home to a beautiful wooden and stone bridge. Our story begins in 1836, when convicts were rife in Sydney. There was a regiment guarding the convicts who were working in a chain gang excavating Belmore Basin. The convicts were often intoxicated, due to be allowed a reasonable quantity of “Old Jamaican Rum” by the Lieutenants who supervised them, and oftentimes the Lieutenants were highly intoxicated too. One fateful night, the Lieutenant in charge of the Stockade at the Crossroads had far too much to drink. On a whim, he rushed the sentry and tried to diasrm him. The sentry, being a bigger, stronger and less intoxicated man, quickly overpowered him and threw him into the guard room. As the Lieuten

  Have you seen Fisher's Ghost? 180 years of the Fisher's Ghost Legend The following articles appeared in the Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser, Wednesday 21 June 2006. (p. 2, p. 135, p.136.) When things go bad, blame Fred. It's the anniversary of Frederick Fisher's murder and the start of Campbelltown's most enduring legend. And yes, 180 years on, 'Fred' is still as active as ever, long time ghost writer Jeff McGill reports. Does the ghost of Fred Fisher really walk among us today? Certainly. And I say that not only as a proud Campbelltonian, but someone who has seen and heard too many weird things. It started during my childhood when I recall sitting on the banks of Fishers Ghost Creek as dad and mum recited colourful tales of the wily spectre. They, like me, are true believers. And we're not alone. True believers cross all barriers and professions in Campbelltown. Most of our stories follow a similar theme: whenever our mysterious ectoplasm is happy e

 Well this weekend saw me get back in the saddle and run my first tour after my Covid episode and I'm really very surprised at how tired I am. Seems that the illness did sap my energy more than I had anticipated! Tonight it was raining and we had a full house at the Gaol. We had a great group of lovely people who had a wonderful time. There was a delightful gentleman who stayed behind to tell me that he had lived in a haunted house many years ago, somewhere in outback NSW. He told me where but I had never heard of that place so I cannot remember. He told me that once a year his house would become very overcome by high strangeness with lights turning on and off that would not work at any other time of the year. Cupboards would open and close and things would go flying and footsteps would be heard walking around. This was the day the old guy world return to the house where he had killed his wife. This day. very year, was not the day he committed the murder - it was the day the Police

The title of my post comes from the words whispered into the ear of one of our participants from last night's ghost tour at MAITLAND GAOL. We had a private tour last night at the Gaol and because everyone was part of a big group of family and friends they had a great blend of energy and were very open to each other. It was easy to put them into groups and easy to have the interaction BETWEEN THEM already vibing nice and high even before we started to take them into the Wings of the Gaol. It is ALL about the energy! This group was such fun last night. They were ready to get into it in a big way and they all took part in all of the experiments we set up with some awesome results. The shower block was a place were lots of shadow figures were seen. C Wing had a lot of connections in SATAN'S CELL and within the area that is known as MAXIMUM SECURITY. I was with Anne in A wing (which I so rarely get to do) and some of the brave souls were really getting into the Estes Method using th

Today we both got stuck into social media for most of the day in amongst the normal things of life that we had to do. We do have a volunteer PA named Emmie ( Hi Emmie) and she has put a fire up our backsides and boy oh boy I am feeling very overwhelmed at the moment. We are trying to systemise things and it is just a horror carnival ride from hell. But we are learning, and in the end, we will be more organised. I had some news from Maitland Gaol today about something that we have been trying to organise for the last month or two. The news came through that the 'thing' has been approved by Council.  So stage two is a huge amount of planning. This 'thing' is very exciting - just saying. ( more to come once we are allowed to tease you). Anne found out she has an issue with plumbing that is going to cost her a few thousand dollars to fix, that's after she had to spend a LOT of money to fix the side of her house that was exposed when the new neighbours decided to renovat

👿 Screw you Facebook. Was that my outside voice? I am at work today ( yes, I still have to go earn real money) while Anne is battling with the brain fart that is trying to allow people into our private page for our psychic development class we are running in August. Today is the last day of our early bird price so it's bloody important to get the page functioning and Lord knows why it is so hard to get people to find the darned thing and to be able to join. Why must it be so hard? Yesterday we did our normal Sunday night SPOOKY SUNDAYS radio show on Newcastle Live Radio, as usual it was a hoot and we DO LOVE IT SO DAMN MUCH. The great thing was asking people to message in with Birthday messages for Anne - and we got so many. Anne is my soul sister. She drives me, pushes me and I would not be here right now if it was not for joining that madness that is 'Anne and Renata". The show went well and we are looking forward to our First Birthday for the SPOOKY SUNDAYS next Sunday

  Lochinvar House was built back in the late 1820's by Leslie Duguid who was granted a enormous amount of land in 1822. He was one of the first land owners in Newcastle too. Leslie was a Scotsman and only 20 years old. What bought him all the way out here to the other side of the world? As with many landowners at that time, Duguid was busy working in the big city and left the Estate to be handled by an overseer. This did not work well, especially with the prevalence of bushrangers in the area. The property was robbed many times and Duguid eventually sold it in 1840 and it was subdivided. James Forbes Beattie Esq, purchased the homestead and part of the property and it again changed hands in 1880 being sold to John Doyle who passed it on to his son James. I wonder if any of them became the ghosts of this place? Lochinvar House has hosted a number of sleepovers run by us over the last few years and, of course, whilst Covid had our lives on hold we had to wait for some time to get bac

 Fridays are a busy day as we are committed to presenting a one hour live sharing ghost stories with our audience on an American network platform called THE SPIRIT REALM NETWORK. This is our second American paranormal broadcasting network we have been associated with and really the purpose of it is to gain a great following abroad.  We broadcast from 10am AEST, normally enough time for me to get my act together and head on over to Anne's where all the gear is set up. This morning I slept in.  I set my alarm, woke up, turned over and went straight back to sleep. That feeling of dread washed over me when I woke later KNOWING I was supposed to be somewhere. I looked at my phone and it was 9.20am. OOPS.. I was not going to make it in time. I had promised Anne I would not do this to her again. So I flung myself out of bed and crashed and banged into furniture making my way done the stairs to the bath room. I was out the door with a cup of coffee my husband had made in under 10 minutes a

 What have we done to the Paranormal on social media? Has it just become this voyeuristic free for all without consequence? Ghost hunting groups trespassing for the sake of a live feed to attract views. Or calling 'demon' at anything that is, or is not there? Is it possible that the pendulum of truth has swung so far that now it is too late to draw it back? Over the past year or two I have seen an escalation of DRAMA in most shows  to do with ghosts. It seems that finding sweet old grandma Doris is not enough to attract the thirsty viewers who want the thrill of something truly horrifying. Grandma Doris might still be a ghost, and still be sitting in her favourite chair in her old home that is now occupied by someone else. She may occasionally move some furniture or you might hear her walking down the hallway but that really doesn't make a show does it?!!! Grandma is just too sweet and she never growls, bites, pulls the sheets off you or writes crude words on the wall wi

Before returning home, Anne and I spent a few days in London and even though we hired a car we avoided driving around the city because of the traffic and crazy road rules. It requires a steely nervous system to take on driving in inner London and, even though we used Google Maps, we were both glued to the road and checking and double checking the route and still made mistakes. So, the less nerve wracking alternative is the Underground - or 'THE TUBE'. The London underground was the world's first starting in 1863 between Paddington and Farrington. Horrifyingly, it used gas lit wooden carriages hauled by smelly steam locomotives when it first operated. It was such a novelty that people delighted in travelling the short rail line even though it would have been claustrophobic, smelly and very dangerous. The underground now has 11 lines that cover just over 400 km and stop at 270 stations. Anything up to 5 million passengers take the journey daily and at peak time there can be

 We took some time off recording to experience something that many of you just wont be interested in - Newgrange and Checking out Galway. It was another down time we allowed ourselves. Newgrange has been on my bucket list for years and the last time we were in Ireland we rocked up only to find out that bookings were necessary it it was not going to happen. This time the tickets had been booked for us and we could hardly contain ourselves. Newgrange is a 5,200 year old passage tomb. It is one tomb were you can go inside to see what it looks like although you are packed in with at least 30 other people and once inside you cannot move around. All cameras and recording equipment are left outside and the tour guide tells you why it is so special. It IS VERY SPECIAL.                                                    Museum.ie We were allowed about 15 to 20 minutes inside and then had to leave to make way for the next group to enter. I think this would have been the process all day long. To

 We arrived in Ireland the day before yesterday exhausted from travel, plane, airports and then getting to our first night's destination in Belfast. We had to transfer most of our luggage into one bag and leave the rest with our travel buddy, Gayle so we could guarantee being under the weight restrictions for Ryan Air or the charges are exorbitant. We made it and when we arrived at our B and B for the evening we knew we have made the right choice. GWEEBARRA Bed and Breakfast in Holywood is a pure joy for rest and respite. The owner, Tim, is a beautiful soul who has an amazing attention to detail and made sure we had everything we needed for assure comfort. We met his crazy two year old Labrador Dylan and found out he is also a Medium and so into all the things that we are! A match made in heaven. We slept from the moment out heads hit those beautiful comfortable pillows. In the morning our mission was to have breakfast and head to MUFF - our last stop on our Naughty Names Trail. I

 Today was really all about getting to Chillingham Castle ....and finding a spot for breakfast. After a few failed attempts we finally got to a place called SUTRA and I can safely say we were the youngest there BUT it was lovely and the food was delicious. So pumped with coffee and good food it was on to Chillingham and of course we arrived much sooner that admission time so we thought we would soak in as much of the Castle as possible we unfortunately tomorrow we must get up early to head to the airport and leave for Ireland. So we arrived and parked the car in the public car parking space and took the walk to the Castle through a small woodland walk. Upon arrival we were met with another gobsmakingly awesome edifice. The magnificent wonder of it all and that we were staying the night was a bit much and we learnt later on as we walked around that the LADY GREY APARTMENT is the most popular of all of the rooms (I now know why) and is now solidly booked out for two years!!! Or so the ma

 Where these tours good? Hell yes! The Greyfriar's Tour was booked with City of the Dead Tours who have been running the tours at Greyfriar's for years. We had a wonderful guide named Charlie and she was an anatomist plus guide plus worked for the NHS plus another two jobs and worked on these tours most nights. She was amazing and managed to tell us the truth behind many of the myths and legends about Greyfriar's Kirkyard and the legend of Bloody McKenzie and also served up a good dose of spookiness to make us feel uneasy at the same time. Why some people tell tales on these tours always amazes me because fact is always stranger than fiction! This time a treat for me as we actually went inside the Covenanter's Prison which houses the Black Mausoleum which is the haunting ground of the ghost of McKenzie where over 140 encounters have been recorded - from scratches to fainting to smells to burning sensations. I actually had smells.  Whilst in there I smelt a really weird

 Last night Anne and I headed out to the Abbey ruins to do some filming and a 'live' for our followers to see if we could catch any of the ghosts that are supposed to haunt the Abbey. We picked a walkway where we placed down some motion sensor balls, K2 Meters and Rem Pods and Anne started to play some Cistercian Monk Chants. This would act as a trigger to bring in the monks as we asked them to join us and walk down the walk way. We were hoping to see something during this short investigation and we were not disappointed. The motion sensor ball started to flash in answer to our questions. We do think it was one of the monks, maybe even the famous ghost of the Abbot. Especially when we asked him to walk up to us and stand near us and the motion sensor ball right near our feet started to light up! We were very happy with that - but this was all. No other instruments were activated and no other energies were felt. To bed it was as it was getting quite cold outside. Another wonderf

 We arrived at Whalley Abbey last night and we had really no idea what it was going to look like other than what appeared on the booking.com page. What we arrive to was not what we saw! The Abbey accommodation was stunning. But was is going to interest you is the Abbey ruins and the ghost stories. The site was consecrated in 1306 with the Church completed in 1380 and rest rest of the Abbey took another 60 years! In 1537 King Henry V111 cams and seized the land and destroyed the Abbey. Anyone who did not recognise King Henry as the head of the Church was punished by hanging. The Abbott John Paslow was taken to Lancaster Castle and later hanged drawn and quartered. Some people ay that he was killed at the gates of the Monastery and his remains are at the Church yard. Other say his remains were scattered and not buried in consecrated ground. Whatever is the correct story he is said to be one of the ghosts that haunts the Abbey site, his singing can be heard and apparition of hooded monks

This morning we woke up and got ready very quickly to head into the local BBC Radio station in Sheffield for an interview on breakfast radio with Toby Foster. Toby had interviewed us once before when we answered a Facebook callout asking who would sleep in a cemetery? Of course - WE WOULD. We told him that we would be in contact when we were in Sheffield and he kept his promise. Toby was lovely and really sincerely loved chatting with us. To our surprise we were then asked to come back for a night time radio session - which we are still to do as I am writing this post around 4pm. They want us to talk about what we have encountered at the Cemetery. Now this could be very dicey and we do not want to offend the Cemetery Trust and put a bad view on the B and B as it is such a beautiful space. We would hate it to be overrun by ghost hunters nd people seeking some sort of creepy experience and disrespecting the opportunity. So we are going to have to be pretty careful with what we say. But t

I love all of these really wonderful places that we are so privileged to visit on this trip but not everywhere has internet or WIFI - not often can we get good reception or when on the road we often dip in an out of connectivity. How did we ever live without these devices! Since I last wrote we have stayed at the Skirrid Inn in Wales - the most haunted site in the country and the oldest public Inn in Wales. Now we are in Sheffield and that is a whole other blog post - you will have to wait for that one tomorrow.  But now I will get onto the last 36 hours. Somewhere between Chestnut Cottage and the Skirrid Inn some sort of rodent got into my suitcase and found a box of alcoholic chocolates that I had bought as a gift to take home and ate through the protective plastic box and into the chocolates and then proceeded to nibble into my brand new hoodie that we had made for the Ireland leg of our trip! I did not find this out until I reached Sheffield (did it happen last night?) and opened i