Woodford Academy Ghost: Woodford: NSW

[KANACKI]

Greetings on this bleak miserable wet day. Ah just the day for another ghost story. I know ya addicted to em. Like a heroin addict needing his fix. Old Kanacki has a ghost story fix for ya.

So gather around the warm campfire of lost souls. Another ghost yarn dating back to a place built in the 1830's in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Once again many thanks to Headless for reminding me of this story.

So sit back enjoy.

The following pictures are of Woodford Academy at Woodford in the Blue mountains. It is a National trust and is open to the public. For those guests that cannot see the pictures I suggest signing up to the forum to get a fantastic insight into haunted Australia and much more.

It also has a reputation of being haunted?

To be continued.....

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Nestled within the Blue Mountains is a town with a secret. Small, quaint and all-but hidden by a shroud of heavy eucalyptus trees, Woodford could easily go unnoticed… if it weren’t for its ghosts. Like the roaring Great Western Highway that cuts through Woodford’s centre, ghost stories divide this town.

Bill Evans is at the perimeter of the Woodford Academy. He stands with his wife, staring up at the old building. Over the screaming cicadas, we introduce each other with raised voices. “We wouldn’t go any further until you got here,” he says. That’s partly because he wanted to make sure we were allowed to be here. After all, the Academy is private property, with access only granted by the Blue Mountains Trust.

He seems uneasy as he slides the wooden gate open. A blue tongue lizard scuttles under the lavender bushes next to us and we all jump. “I know what goes on here. This place is odd. Things happen. And they happen completely out of the blue. You could be doing something normal like demolishing a toilet when all of a sudden an old lady is standing there, watching you through a window. I would never ever spend a night here on my own. And I don’t think many people in the district would either.”

To be continued......

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Built nearly 200 years ago, Woodford Academy has a rich and tragic history. Its sandstone blocks are infused with a myriad of ghost stories. Tales of troubled souls tapping against a window and looking onto the highway have become town folklore. In the light of day it is easy to think of these as simply stories told over a campfire. But the unease in Bill’s voice shows he begs to differ. A surveyor with an engineering background, Bill Evans has lived his life guided by numbers and evidence. He’s lived in Woodford for over 70 years and for most of that time the Academy and its stories were no more than childish fodder – nothing to believe in. This changed when he took on the role of Vice-President of the Blue Mountains branch of the National Trust, a role which saw him work closely with the Academy, and visiting the building regularly.

To be continued......

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

For Kate O’Neil, the Woodford Academy is an old friend. As chair of the Woodford Management Committee and the Academy’s collections manager, she has become well acquainted with the nearly 200-year-old building. She walks around, slipping skeleton keys into antiquated locks – the building’s history pouring out of her with ease. Originally constructed in 1830, the building is the oldest surviving complex colonial structure in the Blue Mountains. It has been used as a guest house, a gentleman’s residence, a boarding house and most famously, the exclusive school called the Woodford Academy.

Listening to Kate talk, it is easy to forget that the building has been touted “Australia’s most haunted”. She gestures to the myriad of portraits dotting the walls, faded reflections of the past, and introduces me to the characters that once roamed the floors of the building. Kate’s love of the Academy is clear – she appears to take personal offence at the suggestion that her beloved figures could still linger in the halls, terrorising guests. “It’s great. It’s a place that is 190-years-old, so of course it is going to have a lot of natural energies [and] life stories, and I am all for that.”

When I ask Kate about the ghost stories that linger, she is matter-of-fact: “Because of its age and long association with different types of people, it does have a few supernatural stories. Some of those are recent, and some go back to the 1800’s. Of course, they are only made worse by sensationalism.” Like many old buildings, the Academy has a colourful history; punctuated by moments of death and disease set against a backdrop of European colonialism and Indigenous dispossession. I follow Kate up a flight of stairs so steep they are almost vertical. She leads me to the room of the Academy’s most notorious haunting, “The Lady In White”.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Ducking under the low ceilings, Kate travels back to 1835. She tells the story of Mary James. It’s a tale that’s horrific because it is true. A mother of six, Mary struggled with mental illness and domestic violence – factors which led to her eventual suicide. Kate shows me a clipping from The Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser dated Tuesday 16th August 1836. It reads: “The husband who was then present (at Mary James’ suicide attempt), said she was ‘not game enough to do it’. She, upon being taunted, tied herself up again and kicked away the box.”

Mary James’ legacy has evolved into that of a troubled spirit who lurks the Academy’s halls, peering out windows and frightening visitors. When asked if she believes in ghosts, Kate laughs. “The only ghosts in Woodford Academy are the ones that people bring with them. There has been death at the Academy, sure, but there has also been life. I don’t mind people coming and experiencing whatever they want to experience but just don’t distort the historical reality, and if you do say there are ghosts, they might be your own.”

To be continued.....

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

For Pete Clifford, society’s ongoing fascination with ghost stories such as those that trail the Academy, has become a way of making a living. For the past 20 years he has worked as a professional ghostbuster, making a business out of exploring ghost stories and appealing to our often morbid curiosity. When we meet at Katoomba, the sun is setting and a thick mist is settling over the mountain top. Working at a limited capacity, his ghost tour bus is intimate, just six of us huddled together. Excitement and the occasional monotone sound of ghost-hunting equipment crackles in the air.

Over the course of five hours he takes us through the Blue Mountains – deep into the forest and into hidden cemeteries. Like many of the stories at the Academy, the origins of Pete’s fables are riddled with traces of domestic violence, dispossession, mental illness and abuse. He views ghost stories through a pragmatic lense. Rather than sensationalise them, he sees himself as a fact-checker, valuing authentic, evidence-based stories over all else.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

“Normally I will know the story from the local area, but before I take people on a tour, I will go back and search through newspaper articles [and] Trove, [and] I will talk to historians.” Throughout the night, Pete relays his own paranormal experiences, many of which happened at The Academy.

“I have seen people being scratched there. We have had an aport when something goes from one room to another.  Probably one of the scariest things was when I saw Mary James, The Lady in White, in the mirror. It actually felt like she tried to grab me. We have smelt cigarettes there, we have smelt alcohol. Disembodied voices at times. Often when we go there, people will feel overcome with a feeling of dread.”

While Pete certainly believes in ghosts, he does not try and convince others along the way. As he explains, he simply lets them see what they see.

“We get a lot of people who come who didn’t really believe, they just came along for the history side of it. A lot of people go away and they aren’t, you know, converted – but they have opened up their minds a lot more.”

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Ian McLean claimed the following on a ghost tour in 2015 Halloween Ghost Tour! I truly don't know who that extra face belonged to, behind the blonde woman... It wasn't even there till I cropped and enhanced the pic!

Was it was another person on tour photo bombing or some thing else?

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

I can imagine a few people over the years have had experiences there/ Can a place a great survivor of progress trap memories and in certain conditions reply those fleeting memories as a ghost experience? A bit like subliminal messaging placed in movies and at sporting advents. Can past events be trapped in a time and place result what we understand as a paranormal event?

Kanacki