A very interesting read - Gundiah - Mackay Abduction

Does anyone recall this story from that time? 2001 I think?
Phantoms and Monsters yet again provide a fascinating story.

An extraordinary and controversial milieu has developed around events that reportedly began late on the evening of Thursday, October 4th, 2001, at a Gundiah property near Tiaro, culminating in the early hours of Friday, October 5th, 2001, and then played out in the glare of rapidly escalating media coverage.
Three people were directly involved in these alleged events. Keith Rylance (40), his wife Amy (22), and their business partner, Petra Heller (39) were on their property, which was being developed as “Whispering Winds” winery. Other potential activities were also being developed at the location. The following account comes from interviews conducted by us with them, along with primary source material such as TV interviews.
Keith Rylance told us that he had gone to sleep in the caravan bedroom at about 9.30 pm. Petra retired to her bedroom in the caravan annex. Amy stayed on a couch watching TV in the caravan annex “lounge room”. Each of these locations were in close proximity, separated by a window and wall respectively from the lounge room. Petra’s room had a door leading to the lounge room, which was left ajar. The door to the bedroom, where Keith was, apparently was open to the lounge room. Amy apparently fell asleep on the couch. A storm was in the area.
Around 11.15 pm, Petra was reportedly woken up and when she entered the adjacent lounge was confronted by an extraordinary sight, that allegedly quickly overwhelmed her. A rectangular beam of light was being projected through the open window of the caravan lounge room. This light beam appeared to be truncated at the end. Inside the beam Petra claims to have seen Amy in a sleep prone position, being carried out head first through the window. Underneath her, also within the beam were the items that had been on the coffee table adjacent to the couch Amy had been on. Before apparently fainting in shock Petra saw that the beam was coming from a disc shaped UFO hovering just above the ground a short distance away, near a tree at the rear of the clear section, immediately behind the annex caravan house.

The story gets even more interesting....read more here

UFO chases car on Territory Highway

Katherine Times

A Territory man was involved in a wild UFO chase on the Stuart Highway in a desperate bid to avoid abduction.

The man, who only wants to be known as Aiden said he was about an hour south of Tennant Creek, when a bright light approached him from behind.


"I was traveling south of Tennant Creek on my way to Melbourne. I had left Tennant around 3.30am after spending the night there and about an hour after I had set off I looked in my side mirror and noticed a light behind me.
"I thought nothing of it as it was probably another car."

Aiden said he noticed the light getting brighter.

"I thought geez they must be driving fast as I was doing 120kph.
"When I looked again after a few minutes the light was really bright but it was in the bloody sky."


Aiden said when he noticed the light was not coming from another car or truck behind him he "started to get freaked out and put the foot down a bit more".

"Then I looked back again and this time the light was huge and the most brightest light I had ever seen but the strange thing is that the light had like an orange colour to it but was white at the same time.

"The light was about the size of a large car and stayed with me for around 20 to 30 mins.

"There was also like a faint drone as well but at the time I put it down to road noise but who knows."


Aiden said he was sure the mysterious light was not another car when he came to a windy stretch of road.
"I went around a bend on the road (and) it was still behind me in the same spot even when the road went left and right," he said.

"It was I suppose about 700 to 800 metres behind me in the sky.
"I said to myself: No, no, not me, go and take someone else, I am not interested."

Aiden said when he looked in the mirror again the light had suddenly disappeared.

"It was gone ... completely, so I stopped got out and there was no light to be seen anywhere at all," he said.
"That freaked me out heaps and in some strange way got me hooked as well due to witnessing something that was incredible to see and thinking this is not from here."


Territory top UFOlogist Alan Ferguson said the sighting was not a surprise.


"This has happened many times to people travelling down the track here in the Northern Territory," he said.
He said two of his friends have had a simular experience a couple years ago when they were heading to UFO hotspot Wycliffe Well, south of Tennant Creek.

"They were travelling late at night and the same thing happened that a light started to follow them.
"As it got close they would freak out then the light would go back for awhile then speed up.
"Then - just like Aiden'ss sighting - it just disappeared without a trace."


Mr Ferguson said sightings of lights in the sky at the Wycliffe Well area have been around for tens of thousands of years.
"The Aborigines called them 'min min' lights," he said.

Read more here

Bizarre In The News - UFO in Tassie?

Examiner

A LAUNCESTON man has described as "spooky" an unexplained flashing object he saw in the night sky above Mayfield last week.

The lights flashed white and green for several minutes before turning out in the sky high above the tree line, he said.

Brendon Hill first saw the flashing lights on Thursday night from his backyard balcony at Riverside.

He then witnessed the same lights on Saturday night.

"On Thursday I dragged my three mates outside to show them and they were bewildered - none of them could describe what they saw or could come up with an explanation of what it was," Mr Hill said.

Mr Hill looked at the site of the flashing lights through his binoculars the next day and said he could not see anything that would generate the same pulsing light.

"There are no buildings or towers in that area that could generate that much light - it was very strange how I couldn't see anything during the day," he said.

On Saturday about 9pm Mr Hill saw the flashing lights again and this time caught them on his video camera.

"It made my hair stand up on my neck," he said.

Read the rest here

What are your thoughts on this? 

Motorist Catches Sight Of A Yowie

Photo taken by Paul Compton

www.paranormal.about.com and The Daily Examiner
WHAT'S more than two metres (six foot) tall, solidly built and covered in shaggy hair?

If your answer was “that guy down at the local,” you're probably right but it's also a common description of a mythical Australian creature known as a yowie, a specimen of which has been reportedly spotted near Centenary Dr, north of Grafton.

A Hunter Valley man named Dean, who did not wish to be identified further, thinks he may have caught a glimpse of one of the creatures, a kind of an Australian version of Bigfoot, as he was driving along the section of road in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Dean, whose work sees him driving more than 5000km a week around NSW, was travelling south along the Pacific Hwy, north of Grafton just before 2.30am when he took the Centenary Dr bypass. Shortly after turning into the road he saw something that shook him to the core.

“I reached the top of the hill and I was coming around the sweeping corner to the right when I noticed something a lot larger than a kangaroo in the middle of the road – my headlights weren't on it yet but it was a bright night and I saw what looked like a large person stooped over, with a big overcoat on,” Dean said.

“At the time I thought ‘you silly old thing, what are you doing in the middle of the road at this time of the morning', but next thing I knew my headlights started to light it up and it took one giant step off the road, it went from standing up like a person to going down on all fours and then it disappeared into the scrub in about three bounds.”

Dean, who is used to night-driving and fatigue management, slowed down and was looking into the scrub for the creature and said he saw it silhouetted against the sky.

“It had an almost sort of a square, shaggy block head sitting straight on its shoulders – I'm a pretty big guy but it made me absolutely awe-struck how huge its body was – it had its arm up against a tree and it had about a foot of hair hanging from under its biceps.”

He estimated the creature to be at least two metres tall and covered in what looked like jet-black hair.

Dean said he had no idea what to think until he described the incident to colleagues later who said it was similar to yowie-sighting stories they'd heard in their travels.

Since then Dean said he had been researching ... to rationally explain what he saw but has yet to find a satisfactory answer.

Read more here

The Panther In Appin

Macarthur Chronicle

THE mysterious Macarthur panther has been spotted again - but this time a glimpse of the animal has been captured on film.

Camden’s Paul Fuller and Jarred Seedsman, both 17, were trailbike riding in bushland at Appin on Tuesday when they filmed the panther-like creature. It is believed to be the first footage ever shot of the elusive beast, which has been seen repeatedly across the Macarthur and Sydney regions for more than a decade.

Jarred was filming their ride near the Appin motocross centre using a mobile phone attached to his bike’s handlebars. He captured Paul’s shock at seeing the cat as well as the creature crossing the track ahead of the riders.

Read more here

My opinion: The video itself is not compelling evidence. The "panther" looks too small and the video is such bad quality its hard to tell what the thing is anyway... 

If we ignore the video, the witness testimony does back up a lot of the claims of the area where panthers have been spotted previously all around the Sydney area.

Bizarre In The News - Can you see the ghost in this picture? No, neither can we.

daily telegraph

THEY are haunting images of bedlam - a Sydney lunatic asylum which opened more than 170 years ago.

An exhibition by photographer Yvette Worboys titled Ghosts has captured eerie images of the former Gladesville Mental Hospital, which opened in November 1838 and closed in 1997.

Worboys, who has lived in the area most of her life, said she was drawn to the partly derelict hospital by its residual energy.

"There is quite a presence, an energy, there," Worboys said.

More than 1200 patients are buried in unmarked graves on the property. Ms Worboys said psychics asked to analyse her photos believed there was a presence in them.

To read the rest click here

Bizarre In The News - Aussie Senators Yowie Sighting

Cryptomundo



Politician’s yowie encounter

BILL O’Chee can remember it like it was yesterday. It was the day the former Queensland National Party senator came face to face with a creature straight out of a nightmare.

A young O’Chee was with a group of 20 fellow TSS students returning from a two-day camp near Springbrook when they saw what they described as a 3m tall hair-covered creature.

To this day, Mr O’Chee is certain what he saw was the mythical yowie.

He told The Gold Coast Bulletin on November 17, 1977 that the animal approached the boys’ camp on several occasions, at one stage coming within 10m of their cabins.

“About 20 of us saw it,” he said then.

“It was about 3m tall, covered in hair, had a flat face and walked to the side in a crab-like style.

“It smashed small saplings and trees like matchsticks as it careered through the bush, we spotted it several times and once watched it through binoculars. It definitely was there.

“We first saw it just before we returned back to Southport on the afternoon of October 23.”

Contacted this week, Mr O’Chee was happy to confirm the story and said his memory of what he saw was as clear to him today as it was 27 years ago.

Read more here

ABC News

Do you believe in ghosts or are you a sceptic?

In the Tasmanian town of New Norfolk stories about apparitions, strange sudden smells and unearthly happenings at the site of the former mental asylum have been circulating the local community and more recently the internet.

A former mental health hospital, Willow Court has unofficially become a drawcard for people who believe in the supernatural.

Now the Derwent Valley Council is determined to find out once and for all if there is any truth to the stories.

Councillors recently voted in favour of a paranormal investigation in at least two of the wards still standing.

A team of three from the Australian Paranormal Investigation Unit are now planning a two or three night stay in ward C and Alonnah that once housed the criminally insane.

Decommissioned by the Tasmanian Government in the 1990s, some of the wards have been knocked down to make way for development. Others are still empty - trashed by vandals.

Glenn Hevey, Nick Jarvis and Aiden Sullivan have long held an interest in Willow Court and the supernatural.

"I've loved it all my life," former New Norfolk boy Nick Jarvis said.

"What spurred my interest even more was the paranormal side of Willow Court and almost on a daily basis I've been getting reports of people seeing things and hearing things."

Three years ago, the three young men decided to get serious and set up the Australian Paranormal Investigations Unit.

They contacted the local Derwent Valley Council and the small team of ghost busters were given official council approval to investigate three wards that once housed the criminally insane.

"We went through the appropriate channels went through council, the committee endorsed it and it was voted on and approved. So it was a long process and we're pretty happy to be in that position," Mr Jarvis said.

The three men are certain there is a spiritual presence at the site, but believe it or not they have never had the camera when a spirit has appeared.

"When I was driving down the main avenue here at Willow Court, I was driving over some of the speed humps and the headlights shone on a white apparition figure," Mr Jarvis said.

This time they are determined to record a presence.

"We've got voice recorders to capture electronic voice phenomena, including static or stray noises. We've got electromagnetic field metres to hopefully capture any presences. We've got cameras, and we've got temp guns which we use with temperature readings to work out if there are any temperature spikes or drops," Mr Jarvis said.

Sceptic Leyon Parker wishes the team luck, but holds little hope for success.

"I think it's a waste of time," he said.

"I suppose people can choose to waste their time any way they like. If these people want to waste their time looking for ghosts that don't exist it's not my job to tell them they shouldn't do that."

To be convinced he says he would need "photographic evidence, there would have to be electronic recordings of some sort, the clearer the better, probably accompanying eyewitness accounts and it would certainly help if there was a sceptical mind there at the time this occurred".

Read more here

Bizarre In The News - There's a ghost in the gallery

daily examiner

ALONG with a beautiful, heritage-listed location and a renowned collection of artworks, it seems Grafton Regional Gallery can now boast another draw card – its very own resident ghost.

Members of the Queensland Paranormal Research and Analysis Group (QPRAG) recently conducted a night time paranormal investigation at the gallery's historic Prentice House in Fitzroy St based on reports from visitors and volunteers of ghostly occurrences there over the years.

After going over hours of data collected on the night from video cameras, digital voice recorders and electromagnetic field (EMF) meters, the results are in and the team believe they have found strong evidence of paranormal activity.

“Our conclusion is the gallery is rated a Category: 2 (Paranormal Activity captured but no visual evidence),” said Chris, one of the investigation team leaders.

This means the data gathered by the group ticked many of the boxes indicating paranormal activity, except for the holy grail of ghost-hunting – capturing an apparition on video or camera.

However, what the team did get were several digital sound recordings containing what they believe is Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP), which is unexplained recorded sounds or voices.

The team sent these recordings to The Daily Examiner.

One of the recordings contains a male-sounding voice clearly and commandingly saying “go!”, while another contains what also sounds like a male voice saying something unintelligible.

These recordings turned-up on digital sound recorders placed near the gallery's staircase, which became a focal point of the overall investigation.

Read the rest here

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Bizarre In The News - More questions raised in Fisher's Ghost murder CSI

Macarthur Chronicle

A “CRIME scene investigation” of Fred Fisher’s murder probably produced more questions than answers, according to Campbelltown & Airds Historical Society president Jackie Green.

But, she said, that was to be expected as one bit of information or question triggered another one.

Ms Green said the new approach to the incident was very well received, with 22 adults and three children taking advantage of the History Week event recently.

The partipants took part in a round-table discussion, viewed primary source material and visited the scene of the crime and the properties of both the victim and the accused George Worrall.

Ms Green said several amateur historians attended, as did a teacher, a home school mother and several private researchers.

While the scrutiny did not unearth any new facts, she said, a conspiracy theory did emerge.

“The conspiracy suggested the police had made out Fisher was murdered so they could get hands on his land,” she said.

Read more here

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Fishers Ghost: 

From wikipedia

The legend of Fisher's ghost is a popular Australian story dating to the early 19th century. It arose from a series of historical events which occurred in Campbelltown, now a large urban population centre on the southwestern outskirts of Sydney, but at the time a remote rural outpost.

In 1826 a Campbelltown farmer named Fred Fisher suddenly disappeared. His friend and neighbour George Worrall claimed that Fisher had returned to England, and that before departing had given him power of attorney over his property and general affairs. Later, Worrall claimed that Fisher had written to him to advise that he was not intending to return to Australia, and giving his farm to Worrall.

Four months after Fisher's disappearance a respectable local man named John Farley, ran into the local hotel in a very agitated state. He told the astonished patrons that he had seen the ghost of Fred Fisher sitting on the rail of a nearby bridge. Farley related that the ghost had not spoken, but had merely pointed to a paddock beyond the creek, before disappearing.

Initially Farley's tale was dismissed, but the circumstances surrounding Fisher's disappearance eventually aroused sufficient suspicion that a police search of the paddock to which the ghost had pointed was undertaken - during which the remains of the murdered Fisher were discovered buried by the side of a creek. George Worrall was arrested for the crime, confessed, and subsequently hanged. Fred Fisher, whose lands he had coveted, was buried in the cemetery at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Campbelltown.

It is thought by some that the story of the ghost may have been invented by Farley as a way of concealing some other speculated source of his knowledge about the whereabouts of Fisher's body, but this cannot be confirmed. Contemporary police and court records do not mention the ghost story - but they are also silent on how the authorities knew where to look for Fisher's body.

The legend of Fisher's ghost has since entered popular folklore, and is celebrated during Campbelltown's annual Fisher's Ghost Festival which commences early November concluding mid month. The creek beside which the body was discovered is known as Fisher's Ghost Creek. It has now however been converted into mostly a storm water drain.

Bizarre In The News - Bid to raise a ghost tour

Camden Advertiser

WOLLONDILLY Council wants businessman John Vincent to bring Picton Ghost tours back from the dead and has offered to help him prepare a development application that could ensure its survival.

After months of wrangling with the council over operating conditions to be placed on his 13-year-old business, Mr Vincent "gave up the ghost" in December and stopped the tours.

Mr Vincent was initially critical of council's treatment of his business but was "feeling better" after a meeting with the council on Thursday and indicated the closure might not be permanent.

Wollondilly Council has asked the business to submit a development application seeking formal permission for tour groups to visit three sites owned by the council in Picton.

Read more here

Bizarre In The News - Funny smell just may be a ghost

Mackay News

DO you ever hear children playing when you’re all alone?

Do you detect sour smells you can’t explain or do your doors keep slamming?

If so, you might benefit from the free services of Kade Jones and Lara Jeffcoat, of Haunted Australia.

Mr Jones, who has researched ghosts in Tasmania, recently moved to Mackay and is looking for potentially haunted locations to explore.

“It’s an obsession, basically,” Mr Jones said. “We research potentially haunted locations. It’s not a fact of just saying ‘hey, there’s ghosts’. You’ve got to delve into the history and find out what has happened there.

“It is amazing what you find out.”

Mr Jones said people who believed they knew of haunted sites could contact him for assistance.

He also investigates places on his own, and claims he has photographed some orbs, which indicate ghost-like activity, in Mackay, including at the Sydney Street Markets, where the Mater Hospital used to stand.

Mr Jones said he was very cautious of orbs in photographs, as they could be caused by dust or water.

“What we look for in an orb is concentric circles inside one another.

“If it’s just a normal haze or a blob we discard it there and then.”

Read more here

Bizarre In The News - Vintage Spirit: Ghost watch at Magill

Eastern Courier

VIDEO surveillance equipment has been installed in a historic cottage at Penfold’s Magill Estate Winery in an attempt to explain strange happenings, which many believe are the work of a resident ghost.

The sensors and video equipment were installed in the 1840s Grange Cottage late last year after a series of alarms in the cottage were mysteriously triggered.

Cellar Door manager John Miller believes the cellar is haunted by Mary Penfold, whose husband Dr Christopher Penfold founded the winery 167 years ago.

He says staff recall many eerie events over the years, including a tea cup with Mary Penfold’s intials on it inexplicably moving around the cottage and a female voice being heard across the vineyards.

The strange activity ceased about 20 years ago, however the mystery was reignited last October when alarms started sounding without explanation.

Magill Estate site services co-ordinator Shane Carter says the alarms sound after dark and sometimes up to three times a night.

“Initially we put it down to the new (security) system and a few technical issues ... but that all got sorted out and we were still getting strange activity,” Mr Carter says.

“It’s different down there at night, it has a very strange feeling and it’s very isolated.”

Read more here

Picton ghost tours forced to shut down

HeraldSun

PICTON is world famous for being a hive of supernatural activity, but it is now in mortal danger of becoming a different type of ghost town.

Business leaders in the rural community, southwest of Sydney, are mourning the death of the town's ghost tours after the local shire council forced the closure of the popular attraction.

The business was forced to shut its doors after residents complained the tours attracted hooligans who trespassed, threw eggs at houses, screamed late at night and did burnouts in their cars.

Seven people lost their jobs and the Picton Chamber of Commerce fears more could be at risk with petrol stations, restaurants and motels directly affected.

"It's an absolute farce, I am bewildered that any minority group can force a business out," chamber president Karl Klein said.

"The [problems] have nothing to do with people who go on the tours, it's other galahs out there."

Read more here

Have you ever been on this tour? What are your thoughts on it getting shut down? Share your thoughts in the comments below...

Is the NT a UFO hotspot?

I've noticed a lot of news stories of UFO's coming from Darwin, NT.

Here is the latest:

NT News

A UFO said to look like a secret Area 51 government plane shown on YouTube was seen last week by a Darwin man.

The man, who wanted only to be known as Brian, said he was having a beer and a smoke outside his unit in Sunset Drv about 9.30pm on Thursday when he saw a large, black flying triangle with lights on the side.

"I thought it was a plane but all it made was humming sounds," he said.

"It was maybe at the third level of my unit block just hovering and gliding.

"I wish I had my phone, my iPhone to record it."

Read more here

So, what are your thoughts on why so many UFO's are spotted in the Northern Territory? 

Bizarre News - Paranormal Investigator wants to help

Cairns.com.au

SOMETHING strange?, here's who you got to call. A ghostbuster he is not, but if you've got a bad case of things going bump in the night then Kade Jones may be able to help.

A full-time researcher with Haunted Australia, Mr Jones is planning a trip to Cairns in search of haunted sites in the area and is asking locals to report any spooky events they have experienced.

Mr Jones said paranormal activity could happen at homes, tourism areas, old hospital grounds, historic cane cottages, or any other places where people have died.

Against popular belief, Mr Jones said it doesn’t have to be a violent death for a haunting to occur.

"It could be a location where someone has enjoyed living and they don’t want to leave because it was a happy place for them," he said.

People should look out for objects moving on their own, unusual presences, orbs and out-of-focus patches in photographs, unexplained sounds or even a strange sour or floral smell.

Mr Jones will visit the sites to take photographs, films, and readings which might indicate paranormal activity.

He said it was important to have an open mind, and would always look for the most logical explanation first.

To read more click on the link above.