Ghost hunting in the land down under

Ask any Aussie traveller if they have a ghost story and chances are there will be a sudden glint in their eye, and they�ll say something like �Well I�m not the type to usually believe in that sort of thing, but there was this one time�� It will either be a story of personal experience with ghosts, weird lights, noises, cold rooms or any number of other spooky happenings, or (and this is far more likely) it will be the story about their great aunt�s best friend�s sister who was psychic and she swears that there was a murder in her very own house years ago and the murder victim never left.

The typical image of Australia might be of beach culture, lots of sunshine and gregarious locals, but there�s also something undeniably eerie in the country�s character. Think Picnic at Hanging Rock, the legendary Bunyip or the brutal convict heritage and you�ll get the picture. Chances are, wherever you are in Australia there�s a local ghost story just waiting to be told or a haunted house not far away. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, listening to a spooky story is still one of the most captivating conversations you can have when all the pubs are closed and the lights are out. This is probably enough for most, but for some only the real thing will suffice.

It�s not hard to find a building or a graveyard or some place that has one or two ghost stories in its history. Then there are places that really have a name for it. Ghost hunting is perhaps one of the more unusual things you could do on a holiday, but that�s what makes it so appealing. For believers and sceptics alike, Australia�s most haunted sites await. Sometimes in places you might not expect.

First on the list is Monte Cristo. The New South Wales homestead is the stereotypical haunted house, still complete with its original 1800�s d�cor and apparently its original 1800�s residents. It�s said to be the most haunted house in the country and is a ghost hunter�s perfect holiday destination. The Crawley family lived and died in the house, setting the scene perfectly for the stories of apparitions, strange lights and phantom footsteps that have abounded in the house ever since. There are also more frightening tales of mutilated kittens, possessions and the gruesome history of the house. While there are a lot of ghost tours you could go on, it seems that most good ghost stories happen when no one else is around. Not so at Monte Cristo. If you take a tour here, you might want to be prepared to get what you came for, since there have been several spooky happenings during tours of the homestead! This ranges from uncontrollable tears in the drawing room to ghost children that play in the garden to floating lights on the balcony.

Next is a haunted site that may come as a surprise to the eight and a half million people that shopped at Melbourne�s Queen Victoria Markets in 2003. It�s likely that most didn�t know that under their feet lay the remains of around nine thousand people! Perhaps when the markets were built in the 1870�s, they hadn�t figured out the rule about not building over the top of burial grounds. When the lights go down and the hustle and bustle of day time trade is long gone, the markets take on a very different feel. Outside the normal parameters of the graveyard lay the bones of criminals, non-Christians, paupers and aboriginals, and these seem to be where the stories around here come from. The ghosts of three bushrangers hanged there are said to haunt the markets, but perhaps more eerie are reports of the distant sounds of a corroboree echoing through the empty stalls. It�s thought that these are the hauntings of two young aboriginal boys from Tasmania, who were convicted of murder and buried on the outskirts of the cemetery. In aboriginal tradition, people are buried in the same place they are born, explaining why the boys would be restless.

Said to be the most haunted place in the southern hemisphere, the Fremantle Arts Centre and History Museum is a must for ghost hunters. At least ten ghosts supposedly haunt the building, which was originally Western Australia�s first lunatic asylum. So the spirits you get here aren�t just restless, they�re also insane! One ghost is said to be a woman who went mad trying to find her abducted daughter, and still wanders the halls looking for her. Tour operators at the centre report to have found visitors stuck to the spot petrified, sweating and shaken by whatever they have seen. Many of them won�t say. This is another place where tourists are the ones who report the ghostly happenings more than anyone else, so be warned!

Old gaols are the perfect place for hauntings, and Queensland�s Boggo Road is no different. Many inmates were executed here, and later criminal residents claim to have been tortured by their ghosts. One Ernest Austin was hanged for murder in 1913 and is said to have been sent back to collect the souls of future inmates because of a pact he made with the devil. Next to the prison is Dutton Park Cemetery, where a woman in a black Victorian dress roams through the gravestones of executed inmates. Ellen Thompson was the only woman ever executed in Queensland and, it seems, is none too pleased with the honour!

Lastly, the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur is known for its gruesome convict history, which apparently still lingers in the ruins of the old buildings. Inmates in the gaol that operated in the 1800�s gave it the title of �Hell on Earth�. They often died from cruel punishments and poor conditions, or sometimes went mad and murdered fellow prisoners. Tourists and tour guides alike report strange occurrences in and around the gaol, from apparitions to noises, feelings of being strangled by invisible hands and even a conversation with a disappearing convict. If you do see or experience something unusual while on tour here, be sure to fill out an �unusual occurrence form� on your way out!

Next time you�re sitting around the campfire wishing you were the one telling the story about how you woke up to hear a spooky voice calling your name, or swearing there was someone tapping you on the shoulder and when you turned around there was no one there, or trying to convince your mates that you really did see that head floating around outside your third floor hotel room window, you might want to think about getting a ghost story of your own! Spirits, spectres, ghosts and ghouls may or may not really occupy the old houses and historic sites of Australia, but you�ll never know if you don�t venture out after dark and find out for yourself. And anyway, if you don�t see anything you can always go back to telling the one about the time your second cousin was started speaking what sounded like fluent Hebrew after visiting the local haunted brewery. If you�re sure they don�t exist, you can stay in the Port Augusta hotel room where Bishop Johannes Henry Norton died in 1923. Visitors are often found in the morning trying to climb down a tree outside their bedroom window. Sweet dreams!