DIARY OF A GHOST HUNTER

It's almost midnight and I've just returned from picking up some medications for my husband from the local chemist not far from where I live. Heading back to my car I say 'hello' to the security guard who is coming on duty and he sees me heading to my car, which has NEWCASTLE GHOST TOURS emblazoned on each side of the car - this always tends to start a conversation. And so it is I get told a story tonight. He tells me how he worked up at the old Royal Newcastle Hospital site up on Pacific Street in Newcastle when they were demolishing it to make way for new apartments. "That place is bloody haunted alright!" he tells me. "Tell me more" I say. He remembers that they bought in a lot of Asian people to work on the site to remove asbestos and when he arrived one night to start work he found these Chinese dragons painted on every doorway and entrance. He said that they told him that it kept the bad spirits away while they worked.  He told me that when h...

  La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires is one of the world’s most famous cemeteries with its beautiful tombstones and statues.  Some say it’s more magical than macabre, but it is a graveyard after all and it does have its fair share of haunted legends.  One involves its former gravedigger and caretaker, David Alleno, who took his own life after 30 years of caring for the site.  From the other side, David’s presence is still felt and heard, it’s said – with the sound of his keys jangling often audible at dawn. Creepy! Located in posh Recoleta neighborhood this cemetery features thousands of statues, mausoleums that resemble Gothic chapels, crypts, fairytale grottoes, sarcophagi, coffins, and elegant little houses that hold the remains of some of Argentina’s most iconic and celebrated figures.  Over 6,400 statues decorate this city of the dead! Eva Perón is also buried here. Apparently the spiders make the most fascinating webs in this cemetery and make the place...

  We were given the opportunity of staying overnight at the Wallachia Hotel in Western Sydney. The hotelwas officially opened on December 3rd 1937. During the Second World War the hotel was used as the Army headquarters for radiopyhysics. I had never been to the Wallacia Hotel before, but, my ghost hunting gal pal Anne, had been there about 5 years ago with a group of Paranormal Investigators that she was working with at the time. We arrived and we were greeted by Craig, the night manager, who welcomed us with open arms.  Craig recognised Anne from the last time she had visited.  Anne asked whether any spooky things had been happening over the last few years. Craig said that he always thought that there was something a little bit weird going on late at night. Over the last few months everything had changed as the Hotel had been very much affected by the COVID lock downs This was a huge hotel with quite an interesting history even though in the whole scheme of things the h...

 I have just spent a weekend at the historic homestead - Lochinvar House, just outside of Lochinvar in the NSW Hunter Valley. This was, for me, a team bonding opportunity and a chance to get away from worries associated with Covid. It was also where members of my ghost hunting volunteers got to head onto this site before we invited in the public, to check out the stories of ghosts and alleged hauntings. Now, as usual, not all historic houses are haunted. And even more intriguing, it seems that not all historic houses are haunted for all the families that live therein. Many times I have heard this - one family may experience seeing and hearing strange things happening at all hours of the day and night. Yet, another family will move in and.....nothing! And so it is.. Why is it like this? I don't know. Do the ghosts pick us? 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 N...

A blacksmith from Northumberland, England, 37 year old Joseph Lowes travelled with his wife Francis, aged 37, and sons Samuel aged 17 and Isaac aged 6 and 2 year old twin daughters Sarah and Margaret out to Australia in one of the ships that were firstly directed to the Quarantine grounds at North Head Manly. Despite Joseph's efforts, and the attentions of Dr Gibson and Matron Elizabeth Bant, upon arrival in Sydney on the 19th of August 1878 the ship was quarantined for numerous diseases. Among its 453 passengers  some were stricken with measles, scarlet fever, typhoid fever and ophthalmia and eye inflammation. Nine deaths at sea were followed by another four after landing,  and all the victims were aged 7 years or younger. Dying on the 25th of August, Isaac Lowes was buried alongside fellow immigrant Thomas Convoy, aged four years old, with both of their families remaining and quarantine until late September. The lonely grave of Isaac Lowes was once far from solitary, as a on...

 Evening News (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1924 - 1941), Friday 4 August 1939                    Yarralumla - The Governor General's House Canberra Canberra "Ghost" Haunts Home Of Kents STORY OF DIAMOND THEFT TOLD IN OLD LETTER SYDNEY.  Yarralumla, House, which is to be the Canberra home of the Duke of Kent, has a ghost.  It has never been seen, but half a century ago there were tales of a shadowy spirit of a murdered aborigine—' which used to flit uneasily about the countryside on dark nights. In the dusty archives at Canberra an old letter purports to give the history of the ghost.  Unsigned and dated 1881, it was discovered when the Commonwealth Government took over the old house in 1920 for use as Government House.  It told an interesting but probably entirely romantic tale of the theft of a valuable diamond,  bushrangers, loyalty of a faithful blackfellow, and the burial of the gem beneath a giant deodar in the...

WHICH WAS IT? SUICIDE OR MURDER?? Here is what the newspapers said... DRIVEN TO SUICIDE BY ILL-HEALTH.   This is from the newspaper article taken from TROVE   A magisterial inquiry was held at the Quarantine Station yesterday respecting the death of an employee named William Hay, aged 56, who was found in a flat behind the stables on Wednesday, with a bullet wound in the head, and another in the abdomen.  He had a revolver clasped in his right hand. A fellow employee slated that the deceased had lately been suffering from bronchitis and asthma, neuralgia in the head, and internal pains.  When ill he had been heard to say that life was not worth living, and had often asked the effects of certain drugs.   He leaves a widow and two children.   The Coroner recorded a finding of suicide whilst suffering from ill-health.  And from: https://www.northheadsanctuaryfoundation.org.au/newsletters/  “SUICIDE AT NORTH HEAD" The City Coroner...