A supernatural experience "I would know, I'm a sceptic"

By KATHERINE SAMPSON

I would say I’m a bit of a sceptic when it comes to ghosts, spirits and the paranormal. I’ve never had an experience that couldn’t be explained; felt haunted or told by a voice other than mine or anyone else in the room to ‘GET OUT!’ That was until I went for a tour of the Haunted Mansion at Woodlands of Marburg.

The architecturally marvellous home was built in the late 1800’s. Woodlands has been a Grammar School, a seminary, and was initially a family home. Honestly, a hair raising mixture of ghostly people linked to a single place; especially when the idea is to go along and be spooked.

The tour is led by the incredibly talented Katie Harvey, a paranormal investigator and medium with more than 24 years of experience in the field, which is longer than I’ve been alive – so she knows more about the supernatural than I know about life in general.

Our tour started in the cemetery and grotto of the property, The small graveyard really sets you up and prepares you for the insane experience which follows. You meet the dead priests and brothers who now lie forever in the cemetery, and don’t be surprised if you start to feel unusually cold or see people that shouldn’t be there – now is the time we prepare for the paranormal.

At this point I was still fairly sceptical about the whole situation; we walked through a graveyard and over bodies, but at least Katie was able to share some incredible stories of the lives that once walked the grounds. We continued up into the mansion where Katie’s team of supernatural investigators had set up all their ghost equipment, from specially adjusted radios to infrared cameras and other communication devices.

We learned about who had lived here, and who the team had experienced on their own adventures in the mansion. A young boy named Billy, whose death is still of a somewhat mystery; Thomas Smith, the first owner and resident of Woodland’s; his wife Mary Stuart; as well as servants and nuns alike who ‘haunted the halls’. Photos of these people and their professions line the walls, which can come in handy when trying to identify the spirits you might encounter.

My first paranormal experience came with a heartbeat in the walls. A light thudding, even and monotone and not being made mechanically! I knew it wasn’t mine because it was too slow, like a sleeping heartbeat; at this point I allowed myself to actively try to connect with any beings in the building who no longer lived.

We walked upstairs and into the old bedroom of Thomas Smith, filled with a chair, duchess and poster bed; the room felt like it had not been used since his passing. We were shown how the special ghost equipment worked - in particular, spirit balls and trigger items.

Spirit balls are essentially light-up cat toys, but they can only be set off with touch. I wasn’t fortunate enough to see any set off as such, but rather not set off at all. One minute even the slightest knock would trigger the ball, the next something as hard as the table being banged by us would not make it light up. Something seemed to be blocking it.

Marbles were Katie’s choice of trigger item in the mansion, as a young boy named Billy, who lived at the property, drowned when he was seven and was said to love playing marbles. So, don’t be surprised if you literally ‘lose your marbles’ while on this experience.

We then ventured into Thomas Smith’s study, where a radio was set up on the desk and adjusted to flick through 100 channels every minute. With this, spirits can ultimately hijack the device and use our own words to communicate with us. But this wasn’t the strangest thing that happened in that room. One of the investigators sat down at the desk and opened a drawer. Instantly he was met with a growl of a male’s voice, “get out!” A sickening feeling came over the investigator. Needless to say, none of us sat down at the desk afterwards, although another woman on the tour also felt instantly sick to her stomach after we left the study, so heed my words when I say this really isn’t for the faint-hearted. I’d also be cautious if you have a pacemaker, because these spirits were turning off every piece of equipment they had; my phone’s battery was cut in half, and I had it on aeroplane mode!

The next room was Mary’s room. This was where we all heard the voices of the spirits. ‘Will’, ‘Tom’, and ‘Mary’, were all clearly heard multiple times through the equipment. We also heard the likes of a Bob or Robert who was quite present. Then it got personal as the names of others in our group were said. “Michael, move” the voices demanded, and listed the names of the investigators in the room too. I never heard my name, but I think I was okay with that.

What I did experience was a draft, a thin breeze that I can only describe as the same as if a door had been left slightly open. I kept needing to move around the room to move away from the breeze, which followed me and reached me everywhere I went. Another woman in the room had intense hot and cold flushes, but the temperature monitor in the room barely swayed from its moderate 17 degrees.

The final location we ventured into was the cellar; a tight staircase leading us to a room built of stone and concrete. It was at this point of the experience we could chill out, by choice – have a drink or two and discuss with others on the adventure what they had experienced, returning yourself to reality with discussion.

At the very least, if you are not lucky enough to feel that wisp of the paranormal, you achieve knowledge of an incredible homestead hidden in the beauty of Marburg. There is more to the property, as it’s used as a café and motel on weekends and even a wedding venue, but when the lights all turn on it goes from haunted to hunky (can we call a mansion hunky? I’m not sure, but personification, let’s go with it). With us all locked in Queensland - many thanks to COVID-19 - I would strongly urge you to try this experience and take a tour of the haunted mansion at Woodlands of Marburg. Bring a torch, a jacket and some of your best ghost stories for a truly haunted October you cannot forget.

TO BOOK IN YOUR HAUNTED MANSION TOUR TODAY:

www.woodlandsofmarburg.com

Phone (07) 5464 4777

174 Seminary Road, Marburg | enquiries@woodlandsofmarburg.com