A summer of spooks

Well the November Investigation headed out into the dark a week or two ago, and whilst we had a lot of fun we didn’t have much in the way of activity at all.  Everyone was a little on the edgy side out there with a relatively small group, but a lot of laughs were had to take the edge off, with a few scaredy-cats jumping a mile every time a wallaby so much as twitched, and a few accidental scares when investigators stumbled upon each other in the dark.
We’re still picking up plenty of EMF action in the Commandant’s House, and have identified that the field around the security system reaches about 3 metres out from the alarm itself, which explains any readings in the front few rooms and even into the back hallway of the building.

As of last month we are changing our method of data sharing with participants.  Rather than burning a disc for you we now have some cute little Port Arthur USB sticks, so keep an eye out for those in the post if you came along for November.

We have a couple of new bits of gear in circulation for this month, with some new voice recorders and some fabulous EMF alarms ready to try out in December.
The December investigation is now fully booked, however we are pleased to offer an extra 3 investigations in 2014 to cater for the busy summer months.
Upcoming investigation dates for 2014 are:

January 11th
January 25th
February 8th
February 22nd
March 15th
March 29th
April 26th
May 31st
June 28th
July 26th
August 30th
September 27th
October 25th
November 29th
December 27th

In other news, this summer we welcome Andrew back to our team after a winter working out on the tracks for the Three Capes walk.  Andrew will be back out as a lead investigator in the coming months, and is very keen to get going again.

In the meantime, we of the Port Arthur Paranormal team wish everyone a very merry Christmas, and a safe and spooky New Year. 🙂

Til next time.

Someone in the Commandant’s House wants to play

The July Investigation has now been and gone, and an interesting investigation it was too.

We welcomed Meahd to her first investigation, and she pulled it off like a pro – from listening to her EVP sessions she sounds like she’s been investigating for years! Well done, Meahd.

We had 12 participants for the investigation who all seemed to have a great time getting into the buildings for some quality paranormal time.

The most bizarre thing to report has to have been the noise from the Commandant’s house.  At the time when the noise was first heard I was out on the Verandah at the front of the house, and everyone else was inside with gear.  Two of our group heard the noise while investigating, and came and got me.  We went back to the room where they’d been (just up on the first landing of the stairs, right across from the study – what is it with me and that area?) and tried to get it to happen again.  We were rewarded with more giggly/gurgly noises.  We’re still working on an explanation, but can happily rule out gurgling water as it wasn’t raining, and that area of the house does not have running water – so no pipes in the walls.  We looked for squeaky doors and floorboards too, but no luck there either.

Listen to the EVP here.

What I find entertaining is that there used to be a time when if something like that happened, I would’ve been the first one out the door!  These days my curiosity is getting the better of fear.  A good thing?  Here’s hoping.

In other news we have another special tour coming up with the crew from SEA FM (100.9FM) in the next few weeks.  They’ll be joining us for a ghost tour and a paranormal investigation in mid August, then broadcasting the Breakfast show from our Visitors Centre the following morning.  Listen out to SEA FM for more details coming soon.

The next public Paranormal Investigation Experience heads out the door at 9 pm on the 31st August. Plenty of space available, so head over to our bookings page to secure your spot.

Want to find a gift to give the person who has everything? Why not treat that someone special to a Paranormal Investigation Experience at Port Arthur.  Get in touch with our reservations staff (reservations@portarthur.org.au or freecall 1800 659 101 from within Australia) to talk about gift certificates – the perfect birthday/mothers day/fathers day/christmas present for any paranormal aficionado.

And finally, don’t forget to follow our blog by email on our home page to keep updated with all the spooky happenings at Port Arthur.

‘Til next time – The P.I.E. Team

The Christmas Spirit

It’s that time of year again where we all stuff ourselves silly on turkey and ham and drink far too much in the spirit of the holidays!  We of the Paranormal team are not winding down for the holidays, though.  On the contrary, we’re hyping up for a big summer of investigating, with a Paranormal Experience happening every Saturday in January, plus the regular December Investigation on Dec 29th.  There are still a few tickets left for the December Experience, so if you’d like to get involved, head over to our bookings page and reserve your spaces now!

This month, the guides will be Caitlin and I (Mel).  We’re both pretty excited to lead a public investigation together for the first time since the Paranormal Investigation Experience started earlier this year, and we cant wait to get out there and see what we can find!  Since work first started on the Paranormal Investigations around 2 years ago, Caitlin and I have been keen to put into practice some of the many investigating techniques we’ve picked up through our world travels at places like Bodmin Jail in Cornwall (www.bodminjail.org), as well as through our experience as part of R.I.P. Australia (www.ripaustralia.com).  It should be a fabulous night, we’re hoping that the site gets into a party mood and brings on the anomalous events for the final Investigation of the year!

A big thanks to everyone who has participated in and supported the Paranormal Investigation so far in its first year of existence!  Thanks to you, we’ve amassed a huge body of data from all over the site, far more than we ever could have collected ourselves.  We couldn’t have done it without you!

Finally, we’d like to thank all of the guides who’ve come on board with the Paranormal Investigation Experience for their hard work in learning a whole new set of skills this year.  We’d also like to thank Jodes, our Heritage Programs Manager (did I get that right for a change?) for her help in nutting out the Experience in a way that would make it Historic Site friendly, and of course our Guiding Manager and boss, Jake, for all of his help and continuing support.  Cheers everyone!

Merry Christmas all, and we hope you have a happy, safe and spooky New Year.

(And please forgive my horrible attempt at using ‘Paint’ to insert a very fake looking festive ghost into the photo of the Commandant’s House!)