Top 10 Haunted Sites in Australia

[catseyes]

I used to know a guy whos mother died that way.  they had an old laundry with the wooden copper.  The laundry went up trapping her.  He tried to help her but he was only 12.  His hands were scared from the burns he got trying.  He said he still had nightmares.

[lotsakids]

that would have been horrendous

[Roma]

Here's my vote for Maria Island near Port Arthur. I visited it with family as a child. Strange place. Despite there being only a handful of tourists on the island it felt crowded and downright creepy. I was about 7 so didn't know the history of the island - but it made an impression.

Thought it was interesting that someone mentioned Stradbroke Island. Didn't notice anything supernatural on my visit with friends but thought the island has a weird feel to it.

[Christine]

I have been there as well. Not sure if it's in the top 10 or not though... Port Arthur possibly would be though.

[Roma]

Would trust your judgement on that one Christine. I've not been to enough 'interesting' landmarks to make a proper comparison.

[Roma]

Question for Christine Please:

Hi again

Just curious - what level would you place Maria Island at in regards to below-average, average, above-average etc...in regards to the paranormal. Just trying to get establish a baseline.

Thanks

[Roma]

BTW are the Isle of the Dead and Maria Island the same?

[Christine]

No they aren't the same. Maria Island is over near Strahan. Isle of the Dead is near Port Arthur.

[Roma]

Thanks for that...as I was 7 my parents did not refer to it as 'The Isle of the Dead'. But I just googled some pics...and it was the Isle of the Dead. Very barren with all the headstones. I remember it felt opressive and crowded. Being a fan of the Addams Family as a child the headstones didn't bother me - but the mood of the place did. BTW is there something 'iffy' in the paranormal sense with the Chapel at Port Arthur. Its the only other strong memory I have from my visit - I remember I was seriously happy to leave both places.

Thanks again

[Salt Breeze]

Gosh, the Isle of the Dead (Port Arthur) was covered with lush vegetation when I was there, a few years back in Spring.  Lovely flowering vines, shrubs and so on.  Plenty of very old trees too, that had been there for decades.  In fact a lot of the trees and secluded areas were used as gravesites, rather like private little areas. 

The only cleared are on the island was the location at the top where the larger collection of graves are situated in an open area. 

There might be another place also referred to (but not technically named) the Isle of the Dead.  If you've just googled it and see it as barren, I'd say its a different place to the one at Port Arthur, because they've gone to great lengths to make the paths and gardens etc there, so I can't see them destroying all the foliage on the one at Port Arthur.  The tour guide actually mentioned how proud they were of the landscaping and gardens, when we were there.  This was probably about 2000 or 2001.  Not many years after the massacre, actually. 

(I have some photos somewhere, but not on my computer.  The trees, shrubs and flowers were one thing that impressed me about the place.)

I didn't find the Isle of the Dead, Port Arthur, particularly 'creepy'.  There's definitely an atmosphere there, but that could be the collective 'aura' - if you will, of all the people who visit there and who hear the horror stories about it.... such as the one time caretaker who claims he saw Satan one night, and built a signal fire for someone to come and collect him - and never went back. 

The Chapel is allegedly haunted by several spirits.   A couple of young convicts made a pact (some kind of competition between themselves) to get away from the hell of Port Arthur. The 'winner' was to be killed by the other friend.  The loser faced the justice system of Port Arthur and would be hanged.  I seem to recall something about the loser being hanged in or near the Chapel, or the loser had to kill his friend in the Chapel.  Something like that.  True or false, who knows, but it makes for a good story on the nightly ghost tour.   (If true, it must have been a horrible place, if the 'winner' won the privilege of being killed by his friend to put him out of his misery and the loser lived on, to face the justice system). 

I quite like Port Arthur.  I love historical old places, haunted or not. 

[Roma]

Hi Salt Breeze

I haven't been there as an adult so its been a looong time. I only have a couple of memories of it...but I do remember old trees. The feeling of it being a barren place is from my memory. I recognized the way the gravestones were laid out on the photos. The photos of Maria Island didn't match my memory at all. Sounds like the have done a lot of good work on the landscaping. 

Re "could be the collective 'aura": Thanks for that suggestion it's something I have never considered before. I've always been sensitive to other people's moods so that's certainly a possibility. I'll have to think about this some more I think!!

That's an interesting story about the Chapel. I found it was one place that really 'stuck' with me.

I generally like historical places too although I find the mood of some a bit much (although these are not always 'old' places). And funnily enough some that are said to be haunted I actually have a strong attraction to.

[deka]

The Chapel is allegedly haunted by several spirits.   A couple of young convicts made a pact (some kind of competition between themselves) to get away from the hell of Port Arthur. The 'winner' was to be killed by the other friend.  The loser faced the justice system of Port Arthur and would be hanged.  I seem to recall something about the loser being hanged in or near the Chapel, or the loser had to kill his friend in the Chapel.  Something like that.  True or false, who knows, but it makes for a good story on the nightly ghost tour.   (If true, it must have been a horrible place, if the 'winner' won the privilege of being killed by his friend to put him out of his misery and the loser lived on, to face the justice system). 

I quite like Port Arthur.  I love historical old places, haunted or not. 

That's the story as I remember it too SB. If the convicts committed suicide they had no chance of passing over and being forgiven for their sins, and therefore accepted into heaven - so they had to either die naturally or be killed.

Was a win/win situation (looking at it from the angle of a pact) as the 'winner' was killed at the hands of another, who then went on to trial and be put to death themselves, also at the hands of another. Thus as neither had taken their own lives, they could be accepted into heaven.

The only area that really disturbed me was the solitary confinement cell in the silent prison, I felt that someone was in there, just watching. I don't have any psychic talent (that I'm aware of anyway) so when I do get that weird creeped out feeling I do tend to sit up and take notice.  

With the Isle of the Dead, we were too late to be dropped off, so we just got to pick up the previous visitors and take them back to shore. I would have loved to have explored, I remember it as looking very lush too. Having said that, maybe the pics that Roma googled were old pics? I've got a book that was published in the 70's about the Isle of the Dead which has lots of old black and white photo's, some dating back to the 1890's and in some of the photo's the island looks quite bare.

[deka]

Sorry, just to clarify the photo's - the 1890's ones taken of the island show it literally covered in tree's. There's a later one taken in 1939 after the island had been cleared for a memorial garden - there's only around a dozen mature tree's remaining.

[Salt Breeze]

Ah, that's right - the story.  I forgot the bit about them not getting into Heaven if they committed suicide.  Thanks deka. 

My guess would be that at some stage they did actually clear the Isle of the Dead, in order to do the landscaping.  Makes sense.  Perhaps they published pictures of it in its cleared state, before they re-greened it. 

I recall one paranormal experience at Port Arthur during the night ghost tour.  This experience was shared with a number of other people, and relates to the old spiral stone staircase that climbs up in side the tower.  I don't recall what it was exactly, perhaps some kind of a gate with a lookout tower at the side.  It's located in the general area down in front of the old houses, not on the penitentiary site.  I remember we'd walked around through the chapel and around the old houses, and down a pathway towards the bay.   

I was standing at the back of the group - as I always do because I like to hang around and take photos after the crowd has moved on a bit.  I then heard clear footsteps on the old spiral stone staircase in the tower.  They seemed to echo a bit, as footfalls do on stone.  A hollow 'plop plop' sound. It was like someone running down, and they became louder as the person seemed to be approaching the bottom. 

I turned around, thinking someone had managed to sneak up inside the tower - even though we were told to stay out of it.  (Okay, you got me!  I confess the idea crossed my mind that I might sneak up there myself for some photos.)   Anyway, a couple of other people turned around too, when we all heard the footsteps, and we expected some sneaky tourist like ourselves to emerge from the stairs. 

But, no.  No one.  Not a living soul appeared and no one was in the tower or on the stairs because one of the guys went and looked, and also called out - just in case someone was wandering up there and was going to fall behind the rest of the tour group. 

I would guess those footsteps on the stone stairs were a residual haunting that is repeated over and over again, and we just happened to be there at the right time.         

[Roma]

"some kind of a gate with a lookout tower at the side" Gosh I actually remember seeing that. Amazing what gets stored in long term memory.

BTW we must have visited The Isle of the Dead just before the landscaping started perhaps?