Norfolk Island (Ghost Poetry)

My ninth stay on the ghost poetry project is the picturesque Norfolk Island. With 1800 residents, a third of whom are direct descendants of Fletcher Christian from Pitcairn Island, it sits two and half hours from the Queensland Coast, a jewel in the Pacific, a living museum.

Yet Norfolk Island was once an isolated penal colony, perhaps the most brutal every established. Many place names on the island give a hint to its gruesome past: Bloody Bridge, Ghost Corner, Gallows Gate and Cemetery Bay. Some claim it has more ghosts per square kilometre than any other region of Australia.

It looks like I will be staying the night at the Kingston Pier Store. The pier and storehouse were built by convicts, and is said to be haunted by the ghost of one that drowned (presumable during its construction). Check out the links below for more info on the island. Aren’t I lucky to go to all of these cool places? The only downside is the terror!

http://www.forpeaceofmind.com.au/Vol3/historic.cfm

http://www.gonorfolkisland.com/norfolkhistory.html

Also
Judith Rodriguez will be launching a new book of poems, Mr Wittgenstein’s Lion, written by that other sensei of mine, Kevin Brophy. Sunday 29th July, 5 for 5.30pm, Glenfern (417 Inkerman St, East St Kilda, Melbourne). So pop that into your diary. We are all looking forward to it.

Voices of experience

Don’t know if you caught the A2 liftout of Melbourne’s Saturday Age but you would have seen Judith Rodriguez and myself splashed across the centre page. Larry Schwartz wrote an article on mentorships and tracked us down through the Australian Society of Authors. (which all writers should consider joining… I really must renew my membership!!) Jill Dymond you’re the best.

http://www.asauthors.org

So check out the article (you'll have to copy and paste the address below.) Larry talked to other mentor/mentees including Lex Lasry, Renee Geyer and Liesel Jones. He even gives a mention to my current 'ghost poetry' project.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/general/voices-of-experience/2007/07/12/1183833684235.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2

Q Station (survival)

Just home from my sleepover at the Quarantine Station, Sydney.

Situated on North Head, this stretch of land holds three unmarked graveyards and a host of ‘haunted’ buildings. Used for over a century to quarantine emigrants and convicts it has housed over 15,000 people and was used following World War I when servicemen returned home with Spanish influenza.

The history of this place is beyond belief. But let me tell you about my adventures the other night.
I rocked up at the Q Station and did an induction and day tour. Then I dumped my stuff in one of the vacant buildings on ‘healthy ground’, my accom for the night, and prepared for a cold and blustery ghost tour. It turns out that there were only two of us booked in, so we got to do things that others normally wouldn’t.

We sat in the dark in the third-class dining hall for approx 15 mins listening for footsteps on the verandah, anything out of place. We did the same at the Isolation building, the Hospital and the Shower Block. All of these buildings come with a long history of reported sightings, so it was nerve-wracking to say the least, especially with the wind battering upon the windows.

The most harrowing part of the night was when I led our small crew down one side of the shower block. (Check out the pic in the gallery, then imagine that in the dark). 60-70 cast iron cubicles, corners everywhere, and before we entered our guide said… “this is where I saw my first ghost”.
So after a cold and spooky night wandering around haunted buildings and unmarked graves, hearing about death, suicide and disease, I was sent off to my vacant house to go to sleep. The glorious views of Sydney and Manly were little comfort, but I survived and am back to post this blog for ya. (check out the other pic in the gallery, the hospital from the wharf).

I really must get busy writing about it now. Next month is Norfolk Island followed by the biggie, Port Arthur in August. Stay tune

The Quarantine Station

Following Elvira the Haunted Hearse last month comes a night for me at the Quarantine Station in Sydney. Operating as, you guessed it, a Quarantine Station for over a century, its buildings housed all the sickies of the colony… people with smallpox, cholera, bubonic plague etc. All those king-hitter diseases. So perhaps its not so strange to expect a few ghosts to be wandering around the grounds.

Ghost tours operate regularly but overnight stays have been unavailable for a few years now. Except for me that is!! I get to stay there next week all by myself.

Check out this link for info on ghosts commonly reported by visitors. Ghosts such as The Chinaman, The Matron, and the little girl with plaits who is still looking for her mother.

http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/dec_media_041117_ghostsquarantine

If you would like to read some personal accounts from those who have done the Q Station ghost tour, click here…
http://www.paranormalaustralia.com/tours/revqstation.html
Now I have two more ghost-poetry stops to go. Stay tune for news on Norfolk Island and then the grand-finale/mother-of-them-all, a night in the Parsonage at Port Arthur.

that's right... your trusty ghost-poet going all the way, for you, for himself, for poetry or simply for death and glory. (god knows why i am doing this!!!)

Ghost Tape??

A postscript to my night in Elvira The Haunted Hearse.

Click on the link below. It will take you to the Destiny tours site where you can hear a strange sound I recorded. It is still freaking me out. It sounds like a forced, two-syllable whisper. It was such a quiet night and nothing happened for me at all. I was even reluctant to listen back to the tape, certain nothing would be on it. So when I heard this I nearly fell off my chair. (oh and please ignore the photos.)

Have a listen and let me know what you think… it is short and takes nothing to download.
http://www.destinytours.com.au/nathan.htm

BTW just heard that my poetry was recently commended in the Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize, and Cable Car of Death won the Crash Test Drama Final, which means you’ll see it at the Short and Sweet Play Festival this December. yay!!

To purchase my first book No Other Life But This ISBN 0734036337 you can order through Five Islands Press. Call Ron on 03 8344 8713 or try Readings or Collected Works.

My night in Elvira the Haunted Hearse

Hello ghost poetry fans…

Just home from my weekend in Sydney with Allan, the Hearse Whisperer. What a host this guy is!! I had a great time along with eight others cruising Kings Cross, watching every head turn as we drove past in Elvira, the haunted Cadillac. This tour is billed as a “Weird Sydney Ghost and History Tour”, and weird it is!! I’ve done a lot of ghost tours by now and I can safely say that I’ve never been on anything quite like this. Book yourself in by calling 02 9943 0167.

Now for the news you’ve been wanting to hear…. what happened!! Following the tour we took some photos of ourselves and Elvira. Note: the photo in the gallery. There is a shot of Allan and myself and a grey ball of light directly between our outstretched hands. Apparently two psychics have examined this photo and believe it to be the ghost of Tom Lance. But check it out. You judge for yourself.

Following this I bunked down in the back. I am only the second person to have braved the night in this vehicle, the first being a lady in 2005. I pressed record on my audio tape, revved up my handycam for a while and then waited. There really is very little to explore when you’re stuck in a hearse. You basically lie there and hang around, you might take a look over the front to the steering wheel then take a look out the the back, but that’s about it. After that you just lie back down and hang around again.

The night seemed to pass without much of a hitch. Allan had said that the energy might take a while to build up so at around 4am I did another spot of recording. It was very still/quiet outside, not even a breeze at that stage. And while nothing seemed to be happening, I gotta say, it really is a heavy trip being in the same place and lying in the same direction as thousands of dead bodies.
Now I am yet to listen to my audio or watch my video footage but will keep you posted as to what I find. I stumbled out onto the lawn in the morning hoping never to visit a hearse again… not for a while at least … and definitely not while I’m alive.

Check out a couple of pics of Elvira in the photo gallery. And thanks again Allan.

Elvira the Haunted Hearse

Seventh stop in my Ghost Poetry Project is a stay in Elvira, The Haunted Hearse.
Owned and operated by Allan, the hearse whisperer, this 1967 Cadillac was originally used by a funeral home in Pennsylvania and has transported thousands of people to their graves.

Now used as a tour vehicle in Sydney and Canberra it attracts all sorts of passengers from believers to skeptics, psychics and the odd adventurer who wants to sleep in it.

One of the resident ghosts that people are said to encounter is Tom Lance. He may or may not be the one responsible for locking the doors on occasion, for the hot & cold spots in the car, for the drafts of wind or the sudden nausea that sweeps over some passengers. Some people have also reported being poked, stroked and prodded.

So wish me luck as I bunk down in the back. Promises to be the ride of my life.
And check out the link if you’re interested in reading a report of the last person to sleep in it back in 2005

http://www.destinytours.com.au/judy.htm