STUDLEY PARK HOUSE William Payne built Studley Park House, in 1889. It was often called "Payne’s Folly" as the cost sent him broke and he was forced to sell it to his builder Francis Buckle. The next owner was Dr Henry Oliver who ran the Camden Grammar School there from 1903 to 1933. Arthur Gregory purchased the site in 1933 as a private residence until he sold it to the government during WW2 for army purposes. The Camden Golf Club now owns it. For many years it has been inaccessible to the public though stories of it being haunted have been talked about for years. Several staff members have had eerie experiences when accessing the building. Used as a site for the TV series "Scream Test", convinced locals the building was indeed very haunted from the cellars to the tower. Two of the ghosts there are thought to be Ray Blackstone aged 14 who drowned in a dam in 1909 and Noel Gregory, 13 who died tragically of appendicitis in 1937. Their bodies lay in the house until burial. The day consisted of theory for the Paranormal Investigators Course run by Attila and Andrea Kaldy from Validate. We covered everything from UFOlogy, equipment, interviewing clients, case work to actual investigating. This house always looks spooky in the darkness of night and is a pleasure to spend time in. We entered through the side door where on the right was the door to the kitchen. Along this short hall was a large safe door where human remains were believed to have been found. There was a staircase on the left, which led down to the cellar and the servant’s stairs to the second floor. Off the ground floor main hall, there were rooms on the left and right and a grand staircase to the front of the house. Looking up towards the ceiling from the ground floor there was an oval banister section that led to a skylight to the roof of the house. The second floor consists of six rooms and two bathrooms. Above this was the tower. The tower is meant to be specific as there are three other manors in the area and in days gone by it is said that they would communicate to each other from the towers. A stunning feature of the house is the entrance as it is decorated with painted glass windows depicting birds, flowers and fruit entwined in intricate twists of coloured glass. This marvellous stained glass has been covered by wire mesh to protect it from vandals. The flooring is made up of complex patterned tiles and polished wooden floorboards. The walls are adorned with panels, inlays and cornices. The staircase is breathtaking with its dark wood balustrades and massive stained glass window. Each main room has its own distinctly unique fireplace decorated with polished marble and hand painted tiles. The vigils consisted of breaking into groups and spending time in certain areas of the manor. In the tower we had episodes of feeling light headed. We each felt as if there were two children poking their heads in to see what we were up to. We spent some time in one of the rooms on the second floor but the room felt flat and empty. In one of the bedrooms on the first floor we used the psychic board until things turned strange and we closed the circle. The cellar is a whole investigation on its own. There is a maze of crawl spaces, and if you are small enough you can get right up under the manor. We switched our torches off and one of the team was hit by what we think was a rock. I’d visited Studley previously with the late Liz Vincent. This property has now been closed to all by the current owners. Renovations are underway for a new business development.
NOWRA The whole estate dates back to the early 1800s, where in 1822 a grant was obtained for 10,000 acres and 100 convicts. The property of interest was divided and sold off and used as a private residence. There have been extensive renovations over the years to replicate as close to its original construction. There is still a concrete step in front of the circular driveway where the horse and carriage would pull up to allowing passengers easy access to enter or alight the carriage. We began our investigation by conducting a walk through with the owners; they shared history of the property as well as the paranormal activity their family had experienced. In the 1960s, the property was occupied by a woman with an undiagnosed mental illness. This woman had locked her daughter in the bathroom then proceeded to set the bathroom on fire. To date there are still burn marks on the bathroom door and surrounding timber flooring. We had a medium attend the property with us and we had kept all information from her so we could assess what she picked up on. She came to the bathroom and mentioned a feeling of depression and directed it to a young woman. In our walk though with the owners we were told that there was a strange feeling near a large tree in the back corner of the yard and they didn’t like being around there. When our lead investigator, Peta, walked over near the tree she felt a choking sensation and said that she felt like someone had been hung in the large tree. When our medium got to this exact spot she had to leave immediately as she felt the same sensation. We set our plan of vigils for the night and started with some time on the psychic board. We went through the opening process and shortly after had someone by the name of ‘Dawson’ came through. This name was familiar to the owner’s daughter who was sitting in on the psychic board. The message she received is that he is happy with what has been done with the property. It turned out that ‘Dawson’ was a previous owner of the property who had passed. We conducted two vigils in the home and managed to capture a few photos with anomalies, streaks of light with no natural cause. One investigator managed to capture four distinct hard heeled footsteps on the timber floor. We ruled the footsteps as not being any of ours as we all had soft soled shoes on and there was no one else active in the house at that time. After our vigils in the home we headed to the old family cemetery, this is where we caught some great EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon). We entered the cemetery and Peta, felt very uneasy…after listening to our digital voice recordings it’s understandable. When we walked in the cemetery Peta walked on top of a grassed grave, the owner’s daughter told her not to stand there so Peta moved and felt terrible guilt. When we listened to this a distinct ‘Pee-taah’ can be heard three times on EVP. After the cemetery we headed back to a cabin on the estate that the owners allowed us to stay in for the night. We were winding down for the night (or early morning) when myself and another investigator could hear voices towards the back of the cabin. During our time in the cabin our EMF reader (electro magnetic field reader) was spiking and responding to questions we were asking. We also had our digital voice recorders on to see if we could capture more EVPs and we did. At sun up I crawled under the cabin to see if there was any reason for the EMF spikes and I did not capture one single reading. Overall the investigation revealed that this was an intelligent haunt. We captured intelligent responses to questions via EVP as well as comments along with what we were saying at various times. A fantastic location that we would love to re-visit one day.
MAITLAND GAOL We headed out for a lockdown at one of Australias most infamous prisons. The investigation was organised by Craig and the team at West Sydney Paranormal Research (WSPR). There is a long and harrowing history attached to Maitland Gaol. Construction began in 1844 with first occupation in 1848. The prison housed some of Australia's most hardened criminals. There were 16 executions of prisoners who committed rape and/or murder. The prison ceased functioning in 1998. We met up at 7pm and were officially locked in at 9pm. We were treated to a tour of the grounds by ex-inmate Pete, who told us of daily life for prisoners. We began our vigils in the outside exercise yard of C Wing. There was nothing captured on video, digital voice recording or electromagnetic field detectors. Next we headed to the shower block...now I have a rather huge dislike of shower blocks but just had to get in this one and lucky I did. We captured disembodied voices on our digital voice recorders and also recorded footsteps that were not audible by us at the time. We used a 'ghost box' and began asking questions and received response that Kevin was there and so were several others. On our way out of the shower block we still had the 'ghost box' on and connected with 'Jimmy' who seemed pleased that there were many ladies present on the investigation. As we headed to exercise yard of Cell Block A things started to get a little weird f or me. I'm not a smoker, actually I'm an avid non-smoker who is quite keen on telling others to quit any chance I get. Well, I had this sudden urge to smoke a cigarette, a desperate urge...little did I know at this time I was starting to take on the characteristics of a young aboriginal inmate. We entered the exercise yard and I felt a tug towards the guards tower and had a hate come over me, I was pacing the yard mumbling to myself. Peet called me over and told me to sit for a bit, then I started to gansta rap to her, which is highly out of character for me. We worked on some grounding techniques and I in no time was myself again. A little later in the night we headed inside Cell Block A, I was shocked to find out inside this cell block the walls were covered in aboriginal grafitti...which could explain my 'episode' in the exercise yard. We headed to C Wing and spent some time in the 'rapist' cell, whilst we had all our equipment working, Peets video camera switched itself off as we started our vigil. This cell had strong hate energy and we decided to voice anything that came to mind as well as ask questions to any spirit present. We managed to get the name 'Roy', which is what the psychic medium had said earlier in the night unbeknownst to us. It was great to get out of that cell as the feeling was heavy. As we were leaving C Wing there were strange unaccountable noises all around us but we didn't have our recorders on at the time. We were officially released at 8am the next morning. We had a fantastic time at Maitland Gaol. We are most appreciative that team WSPR invited
us to join them on this investigation. We look forward to heading out there in the not so distant future.
THE OAKS Built early 1880s by William Golding for his bride Miss Rosa Emma Cable. They resided in a small ‘cottage’ (open air shed) behind the home until it was finished. It was said that Miss Cable would not consummate her marriage to Mr Golding until the home was complete. The late Victorian style country double storey building has an unusually raised clerestory at the ridge flanked by two large chimneys. Wide verandahs wrap around both floors. Inside there is black and white marble tiles leading to the oak staircase and a magnificent lead-light window imported from Ireland. The properties second residents, the Hanna family lived there from 1916 to 1996. The Oaks is currently the residence of the Solomon Islands Consul. Stories that we had heard prior to entry included ‘spooky activity in the nursery’ a reported ‘vortex’ and ‘drops in temperature’. Upon entering the property Peet heard a little girl talking on two separate occasions (there were no children present during the investigation). We spent some time in the sitting room, the only thing I felt in this room was the feeling that there was a room underneath us, but my understanding of the building is that the base is made of stone. We moved onto the ‘old kitchen’. This room is where the reported ‘vortex’ is said to be. We set ourselves up for an EVP session and were not disappointed. We managed to capture the disembodied voice of a man with what sounds to be using profanities. During this time Peet was having trouble seeing me in the darkness. There was minimal light coming in from the window, I had no problems seeing Peet so we switched places and she still could not see me but I could see her. We also captured an EVP of running footsteps on the floor above us, during this time there were people up stairs but they were all stationary watching the video feed. I spent some time in the nursery alone. I could feel a cool breeze within the closed room. I felt around the fireplace but there was a door on it that closed access up the chimney and no moving air could be felt. As I lay on the bed I could feel a coldness around my legs that I have no explanation for. Peet, myself and Andrea Kaldy (from Validate) ventured to an outbuilding known as the billiard room or games room. We begun the EVP session and had night vision camera running the majority of the time. In the video we found an orb like object leave Andrea’s head and move upwards (possibly a bug?) then straight after this there is a mist that rises from Peets leg then a dark figure pokes out from behind her. This room was fully closed so we have no explanation for the ‘mist’. In another EVP from this room we can make out that a disembodied voice called out to Peet. Whilst our time was limited at The Oaks we would love to head out there again one day.
EURAMA We were delighted at the opportunity to investigate the sandstone remains which are all thats left of what once was Eurama Cottage in Faulconbridge NSW. Consumed by bush fire in 1968 after a yearlong renovation, leaving the owner destitute and bankrupt. The land was originally purchased by Sir Henry Parkes in 1876 with ownership passed on to Sir James Martin, three times Premier of New South Wales; Sir Alfred Stephen, GCMG, Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales and Chief Justice of New South Wales for 27 years and; Charles Badham, Professor of Logic and Classics at Sydney University. Eurama was described as “a magnificent stone cottage” consisting of “at least three bedrooms, a dressing room with a tower above it, drawing room, dining room, two bathrooms, sewing room, storage rooms, kitchen, bakery, cellar, dairy and many wooden outbuildings”. There was “a beautiful bow window” at the end of the drawing room. The interior walls were timber veneered to a height of three metres. The ceilings of the living rooms were painted pale blue and decorated with flowers and other designs. The front hall had a dark coloured dado and tiled floor. The house was surrounded by verandahs with a large underground well sealed with a concrete top. To the west of Eurama is Lady Martin’s Bath - a natural spring, which was excavated to form a reservoir. The Bath was the site of a murder in 1896 when Frank Butler persuaded twenty-year-old minerology student, Arthur Preston, to go gold mining with him. Butler shot and buried Preston in a hole near the Bath. To the east of Eurama is a cave known as the Amphitheatre. In 1910 skeletal remains were found bound by leg irons, presumably convicts who had attempted escape from the road gangs of years gone by. In present times many whom have visited the ruins have reported strange activity, sightings of shadows and hearing voices. The current owner was only too happy to have this investigated. Our resident medium for the night was Andrea Kaldy Lightworker from Validate, during her walkthrough she picked up on male arguments – this could be from the previous owners having a disagreement about the amount of money being spent on the renovations and it becoming a poor investment. Andrea was taken on how many forest spirits were among us. Walking through the castle, Peet noticed a shadow on the sandstone wall, the team tried to replicate it then noticed that their actual shadows were facing the opposite direction. During the night we used the psychic board – a spirit named ‘Will’ visited and gave a warning to ‘go’ – at this time there was the sound of a car door and laughing, drunken teenagers had arrived to party in the castle. Peet made sure they moved on. Next there was a spirit who kept going to earth, fire, air, water... and kept going to the water signs of the zodiac, and we couldn't figure out what it was doing. It was incredibly strong, the strongest I have ever seen. It was almost like we didn't need to touch it. But we still couldn't understand. And then it started doing weird things like starting at the outer edge of the board, and going in a spiral to the centre. It did that a few times, and then would go back to the elemental signs. We were very confused, until Andrea suddenly said "OMG, I think we're talking to elementals! Peet's been talking about wanting to speak to them all day" and then it went straight to
YES. We didn't really get any messages from them, just a very strong presence who knew we were there and wanted to acknowledge that. We felt very protected when they were there…until the fire tipped over, almost for no reason. And as we were cleaning up the spilled fire, some of the ash from the fire started doing a mini tornado for about 15 seconds... so it was like the Fire elemental and the Air elemental wanted to validate their presence in another way, apart from the board. This will not be APPIs last visit to Eurama Castle as there is much more we would like to learn.
DARLINGHURST Site History Built in circa 1877, the first recorded resident of this dwelling was a boot salesman. Darlinghurst was originally known as Eastern Hill and then Henrietta Town, after Governor Lachlan Macquarie's wife, whose second name was Henrietta. The loyalties changed with the change of governors and the suburb became Darlinghurst in honour of Elizabeth Darling, the popular wife of Governor Ralph Darling, during the early 19th century. The 'hurst' is an old English word for a wooded area. The owner is not aware of witnessing any paranormal activity as such, just general impressions of comfort and protection when entering the house. When purchased, the owner was advised that the wall heater in the bathroom was not working, and had not worked for some time. Within days of settlement, a guest of the owner entered the bathroom, to find the wall heater on. Houses surrounding this residence have been the victims of squatters whenever left vacant. Yet this house remained vacant for several years, which indicates a certain level of protection. Investigative Conditions Temperature: Lo 05.2° c Hi 22.2° c Sky Conditions: Clear We arrived at the location at 8:30pm with other members arriving shortly after. We began with a meditation to be welcomed into the home. Video footage has shown that at the conclusion of the meditation, Peta added that we had been invited by the owner, and that she has distinct feelings of love and protection when in the house. At this point, there are very obvious “banging” noises, which seem to come from above the heads of the investigators. By 9:30pm we had turned our instruments on, and left them on the kitchen bench while we prepared to begin our walk through. Suddenly we experienced a high volume of electromagnetic energy, which sent all of our instruments off. We found that this happened randomly throughout the night, and can find no reason to explain this phenomenon. We began our walk through with Andrea, the Medium. When Andrea arrived, she sensed very strongly that two “street urchin” type boys either lived in the property, or close by. She also strongly sensed the residual energy of grocer carts/meat carts and “dunny-men” going down the street. On the landing of the first floor, Andrea felt we had somebody with us. She stopped, to try and sort out what she was feeling. Peta tells her not to rush, that we have all night. A distinct voice then
repeats, in a whispered tone “we’ve got all night”. This voice was not heard at the time. The feeling that Andrea was picking up, being that “somebody” was with us at the time, is verified by the electronic voice phenomenon we captured. Andrea commented, when in the main bedroom, that she felt like she was a man, who was old and very lonely. She made the comment that he was married, but his wife was not there. She also stated that she felt like she has “had a fall” and that her “legs were tingling”. After mentioning all of these things, Peta advised Andrea that the previous owner was an old man and a widow. He had also had a fall, and had lost his leg, and that was the main reason for leaving the home. The top bedroom made all investigators, and Andrea, very uncomfortable. There was a feeling of dependency, addiction, depression and severe anxiety in that room. Andrea could envision somebody standing at the window all day, staring out of it, waiting for the anxiety to pass. She also had the feeling of self harm in this room. At one point, Nicole stated that “it makes me feel ill” (talking about being in the room). At which point, a voice is clearly heard, asking “what is?”. In conclusion, this is a beautiful residence, with wonderful Australian history. We believe a lot of the activity currently in the residence is not purely past occupants, but the collective energies of the entire neighbourhood.
ST JOHNS FOUNDLING ORPHANAGE All packed and set to travel 3 hours out of Sydney, APPI - Australian Paranormal Phenomenon Investigators headed to Goulburn to investigate St Johns Foundling Orphanage. Arriving at the orphanage and laying eyes on it for the first time was amazing. The shear size of the place was daunting in itself. The fullness of the moon cast many creepy shadows. The winter chill didn't help with the clatter of teeth or the firming of nerves. We were warmly greeted by Goulburn Ghost Tours. Louise took us for a walk through telling us about St John's history. Built circa 1890, operated as an orphanage from 1905 to 1975. It was a foundling orphanage, which meant that children who were placed here had at least one surviving parent. During the depression, it was common for large families to keep older children and leave younger ones in the orphanage as there was no money to care for all their children. For a short period it was a home for girls and boys but it was predominantly used as a boys home. An account by a boy who stayed there described that when you entered the orphanage your clothes were taken and you were issued one set of clothes and underwear that were washed once a week. If during the week your clothes were soiled you were beaten as punishment. Beatings were sadly a common occurrence, not just for punishment but more for mental scarring. Many accounts from St Johns tell of repetitive rape and beatings not only by staff but also by older children and notably the caretaker. The orphanage was run by the Sisters of Mercy. Sr Genevieve Cummins was known to the children as 'Mother Gen'. She would provide the mothering that their circumstances denied. Mother Gen also provided education and encouragement for the children to engage in sport, song and dance. The boys experienced difficult times but looked up to Mother Gen and stayed in contact with her until her passing.
We gathered our gear and headed in for round one of the investigation. As we entered the first room we gathered in a circle to officially open the investigation. We said our prayer of opening, protection and introduction. We reached the Chapel and felt compelled to set up for a short vigil. After setting equipment we were greeted with what felt to be a Priest. We noticed fluctuations in temperature, spikes on the Ghost Meter Pro (GMP) and the Ghost Radar Classic (GRC) provided the words - 'smith', 'below', 'shell'. We left the Chapel and headed to the nursery to conduct an EVP session. Not that we needed the digital voice recorders as we could all clearly hear shuffling, voices and chimes coming from INside the building. The voices we heard were audible but we could not clearly make out the words. The music was a clear chime like sound and the shuffling came from the rooms on the balcony (where the children slept). These noises were noted as coming in as a train would pass in the distance. The train was acting as white noise. What we could hear was amazing. After a short break we headed back for round two in the nursery to try a psychic board session. Whilst setting up we could again hear voices and shuffling inside the building, it felt like 'they' were all gathering to see what we were up to. We sat at the board and...nothing...not one single movement of the planchette. After trying for a while we decided to head back to the Chapel. Not long after settling in, independent investigator, Daniel, became fiercely angry, his eyes dilated, his body pumped full of adrenaline and his breathing became heavy...we got him to speak what he felt - he was full of hatred towards the Priest and what he subjected the children to, he wanted to lash out and physically attack the non-physical Priest. All hands were required to help bring him back and ground him to his own energy. During our walk back to base we set up trigger items such a ball at the top of the stairs, lollies laid out on a bed of flour and toy cars strategically placed. Round three...our investigator, Trina, had a wonderful but sad interaction with 'Mikey' through her mediumship ability and the Ghost Meter Pro (GMP). Mikey was shy at first to come forward but he was fascinated with the toys we had laid on the table. Mikey wanted us to follow him to a location, so up we got and followed Trina and the GMP. Mikey took us outside to where the hospital is located, he was telling us that this is where he passed and as we looked inside one of the rooms we found a large 'shell' which took us back to our first visit to the Chapel where we got the words 'smith', 'shell', 'below'...we tried to find a way under the building but there were no visible entrance. After finding the shell, Mikey vanished. We then headed to the bathroom and no sooner settled when Andrea picked up two boys, brothers, in the care of Mother Gen. Mother Gen told how she knew what was happening in the orphanage but kept a professional blind eye. The boys were frightened and confused, they wanted to heal and go home. Andrea asked that we join our energy to help these boys heal and help them home. This was quite a moving and sad experience but exhilarating at the same time. It was nearly sun up and a thick fog was setting in. Peet, Andrea and myself took a slow walk around the perimeters...taking in every window of every room. From the outside it seems larger than life. St Johns daunting architecture is definitely something to be admired and feared at the same time. This is definitely a place that we would love to spend more time in and venture to areas that we missed this investigation.
Berrima 18th june Q station 27th august Glenalvon 24th September CPM 1ST oct APV 16th dec