The life of PIE :)

We’ve been investigating Port Arthur regularly for 12 months now, so it’s about time we presented a little of our findings!

There have been many anomalous readings on our EMF meters throughout the various buildings we visit during the investigations.  In the Parsonage we’ve discovered that the security system produces incredibly high levels of EMF from the Post Office room, which then has a flow on effect through to surrounding areas of the building.  The levels in this house top out our KII meters, whilst the ELF meter reads levels usually associated with industrial sized EMF pumps.  Interestingly this is a room where sightings are commonly reported, particularly during ghost tours of an evening.

In the Commandants House, again the alarm systems wreak havoc with the EMF levels.  We’ve been setting up the ELF meter here on most investigations, and have a consistently  high reading of levels of EMF in the front section of the house.

The Separate prison has produced the occasional anomalous EMF reading, although we have been unable to locate any source.  The ELF meter will be established in this building for the next year.

The basement (which has no electrical wiring at all) has also surprisingly produced infrequent anomalous readings.

We’ve had a few interesting results from our Full Spectrum Cameras, although most of the these photos have had some kind of logical explanation now associated with them.

The CCTV system is in the process of being transferred to the Separate Prison, where we will have cameras aimed up A and C wings, in the Chapel, and covering the central room. In the Commandant’s House we found that we were capturing plenty of movement in the hallway on these cameras, although this has been attributed to dust particles in the air.

We’ve captured one decent EVP in the Separate Prison, however no one has been able to conclusively say what the words are.  We classify this as a B grade EVP.

There have been many anecdotal experiences on the investigations, from both visitors and guides, however these have not been captured on any of the equipment to date.  Some phenomena has been witnessed by multiple people at a time.

So what have we learned from all this?

We need to keep investigating, and make sure that everyone is carrying a device that can potentially document a personal experience.  We need to keep our slightly sceptical stance and (tempting as it is to jump to spooky conclusions!) rule out any logical explanations for events during the investigations.  We need to test theories, and try to replicate spooky events by any reasonable means.

So our goal for this year?

Keep investigating, keep looking for logic, and most importantly keep having an absolute blast whilst we’re doing it!

In other news our February investigation is headed out tonight.  Good luck to everyone going along!  Don’t forget the March investigation is only a few weeks away, why not come down and help us investigate before the weather turns cold again?

We’d love to hear some feedback on what we’ve found so far, so please feel free to leave us a comment.  And to keep updated, join our other followers by signing up for email notifications (on the home page).  For those of you who’ve been on an investigation with us, if you’ve found any good photos you may have taken on the night, please let us know as we’d love to share them here.

“Can you see us?”

We are now safely through our second round of investigations, and my how the month has flown by!  The March 31st investigation was fully booked, with 19 participants including 4 guides in training.  Again no personal sightings of spooks, although several groups heard strange footsteps in the Attic in the Commandant’s house.  Unfortunately this is anecdotal, as none of the groups present had taken any sound recording equipment into that section of the house. Other strange noises were present upstairs in the Parsonage, and hopefully when we analyse the sound equipment we will know more about what was going on.

Our new paranormal guides got in and had a go running their very first EVP sessions, and again we’re looking forward to listening to the audio files to see if they were lucky enough to get a response.  We thought there was something exciting on one of our lock-off cameras inside the Commandant’s house, however it unfortunately turned out to be a mouse scampering around under Nanny’s chair. I’m sure she’ll be happy about that, maybe it will spur her on to appear for our next investigation? Here’s hoping!

Coming up after Easter will be our Fright Night Investigation with 100.9 Sea FM’s breakfast show hosts Matt and LC, along with the lucky winners of their competition.  We’ll keep you posted on how the evening goes, and you can always listen into their breakfast show on Friday the 13th April for a run down on the previous night’s events. For details on how to enter the competition to come along for the evening go here: http://www.seafmhobart.com.au/Competition/matt–lcs-fright-night/signup

Our next tour will be on April 28th, starting at 10pm, so head over to our bookings page now to reserve your place.  https://mercury.intouch-usa.com/webpoint/wp.dll?Axis/PortArthur#Paranormal

To find out more about the Paranormal Investigation, head over to YouTube to watch our short video introducing the tour.  Link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTmj8aylBeE

And one final link, to hear paranormal guide Caitlin talking to ABC radio, go here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/tasmania/2012/02/is-it-ok-to-make-money-from-superstition-and-grief-or-is-it-valid-entertainment.html

“Is there anybody there?”

Welcome to our Paranormal Investigation Experience Blog.  Here we will post everything funny, scary, exciting and otherwise that happen on our investigations, because, let’s face it, things can get a little unusual in the dark!

First up – if you haven’t already checked out our website, go here :

http://www.portarthur.org.au/index.aspx?id=15480

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?  Why not book yourself in to come along for an evening of investigation whilst you’re browsing that link 🙂

Anyway, after months and months of hard work the Investigations are finally up and running, with the first intrepid group taking on the haunted buildings on February 25th.  The next evening will be March 31st, and is filling up quite quickly.  This next experience will be a little different to the last, with a side trip to Trentham Cottage planned due to special guests on the tour.

Coming up in April we’ll be introducing SEA FM’s breakfast show hosts Matt and LC to the joys of Paranormal Investigation, look out for their Fright Night promotion starting up soon for the chance to come along and see whether or not they can cope with the highs and lows of seeking ghosties.

Our gear is all prepped and ready to go, with the recent addition of a GAMMASCOUT Geiger Counter, and in the near future we should hopefully be sporting Ion Counters and even the infamous Frank’s box (it remains to be seen whether this will be a positive addition or not!).  We’re loving the experience of getting to use our Zoom H4n sound recorders, and so far these handy little devices have already ruled out possible electronic voice phenomena (EVPs) as general stomach rumblings, nervous whispers and the like.

So what did we find on our first Investigation? Well, not very much at all.  There were a few EMF hotspots in odd locations (an electricity-free, underground basement room should perhaps not be generating large fields!) and a small encounter with bats in the Parsonage, but no dramatic encounters with full bodied apparitions so far.