Thursday, December 21, 2006

OAG


Just home from my overnight stay at Old Adelaide Gaol. Turns out I was the only one booked in to stay the night. So lucky me, I got to stay alone in a cold oven of a cell in the Remand Wing… just one other person acting as Caretaker… but he was on the other side of the gaol in the dorm building.

I booked in at 5pm and my ghost tour got underway at 7.30pm. Jeff and I had the whole place to ourselves, so as the place sank deeper into darkness he told me the many spooky stories of the place. Jeff is part of a team of paranormal investigators PFI (paranormal field investigators)… check out their site if you like… it’s not a bad one.


www.paranormalfieldinvestigators.org

The night wore on… Yard 1, 2, 3 ,4, the Hanging Tower, the graves of the executed, the tunnel, the New Building (built in 1879). By this stage it was 11.30pm and Jeff and I had been at it a while. We were standing on the staircase in the western wing of the New Building… completely in the dark. I wasn’t freaked out… nor was he. He’d been recounting stuff for a while and in quite a matter-of-fact way.

So fifteen minutes in, we hear a knocking. Like someone tapping the end of a wooden cane onto a ballroom floor.


It was to the left of the staircase on the second landing… locked off by an iron cage gate. We checked the wind level outside, but there was barely a gentle breeze. We revisited to the spot twice more and the sound came back, louder, within a minute of each arrival. And by then we could hear a softer noise in between the knocking.


Now… I don’t know what it was, neither does Jeff, but when you’re standing in (arguably) South Australia’s most haunted building at 11.30pm, and are interrupted by a strange noise… and when you read later that most ghost sightings have been said to occur on the landing to the left of the staircase… it kinda trips you out.


Jeff then took me back to the supper room and showed me footage he’s taken over the last few years. Much of it in the gaol. The best one was a cell door opening and closing by itself in the Remand Wing. MY wing for the evening!!!!!


After this we said goodnight and went our separate ways. I spent most of the night after that waiting for my cell door to open on me.


Okay… so there you go... Old Adelaide Gaol… pretty damn freaky.
My next stop in January is the most haunted town in Australia, Picton NSW. In the meantime I’ll be writing this up for my next book of poetry... Ghost Poetry... oh and check out the OAG phots in the gallery, they'll give you some small idea... the first shots there are of past plays of mine.


wishing you all a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Old Adelaide Gaol


Well... i've been working hard on my canberra poems and think i have a little collection close enough to complete. Now I have a stay in Old Adelaide Gaol coming up. There are many spooky stories associated with this place... but you can read all about it at the sites below...
ie. the story of Squizzy Taylor's necklace, Liz Woolcock, the only woman to be hanged at OAG or the terrible thing that occurred at Sundown Station.

www.adelaidegaol.org.au/

http://www.paranormalaustralia.com/tours/unicorn.html

Also check out Divan 6 if you are looking for some new poetry online. Some top Australian voices there. I have a poem titled... Young Ballerinas.

www.bhtafe.edu.au/divan