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".

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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.

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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.

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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.